Making Matthews right!

Probably what hurts even worse than the one sided nature of the Renegades 46-22 thrashing at the hands of the Montreal Alouettes, is the idea that Don Matthews called the scenario before it happened. When issued a challenge by the leagues most dis-liked head coach the Renegades could not rise to it and make the Don eat his words.

Prior to Friday nights contest at Molson Stadium, Matthews had dismissed the offensive skills of Rens QB Kerry Joseph, while he agreed that Joseph could throw a nice ball and run a mile for himself when needed, Matthews claimed that Joseph’s lacked experience at reading defences, a fault which the Don believes leaves Joseph below the line with other CFL QB’s of the moment.

And for one night perhaps the Don was right, Matthews defensive schemes seemed to cause confusion for the Renegades as Joseph was sacked seven times. Fumbles played a key at times as well as the Renegades found themselves swarmed by Montreal defenders on far too many occasions. The running game was non existent; receivers dropped too many passes and the Als D, rushed chances that fell short. For the Renegades, execution just wasn’t happening in this affair.

On the Montreal side of the ball, Anthony Calvillo rewarded Matthews for his endorsement of skills by putting on a bit of a clinic for the assembled crowd. Including an amazing 81 yard pass and run play to Thyron Anderson who set the Als up for a major with his landing on the five yard line.

As the Renegades put it after the game, to a man they were outplayed by the Als on this night. The key for the club that started the season 3 and 0 will be to see how they rebound from the setback, which will be the test as to how far they have come in their growth period. They can climb back up on the horse this weekend when the Bombers arrive in Ottawa; Winnipeg is finally in the win column and feeling pretty good about themselves. They should provide a pretty good test for the Rens bounce back ability.

Once the Renegades get the immediate business taken care of then they can mark Friday, September 3rd on a calendar, that’s the next tie they’ll see the Don. As his Alouettes travel up the 417 to Frank Clair stadium, as they say revenge is best served cold. Six weeks should be just enough time to serve up nice deep dish serving of Humble pie to Mr. Matthews.