VANCOUVER – There are players you’d rather have on your team than on the opponent. That’s likely the case with BC Lions defensive lineman Mathieu Betts.
“I cannot comment on a player who is under contract with another team. I could be accused of a robbery,” Alouettes general manager Danny Maciocia replied wisely when asked about the possibility of one day seeing Betts wear the Montreal club’s colors. Still, I can’t believe there’s a single team in the Canadian Football League right now that wouldn’t want him.
Even before Sunday night’s scheduled game between the Alouettes and the Lions at BC Place, the former Laval University Rouge et Or already had seven sacks from the quarterback in four games.
“I’m not surprised, he was always better than everyone else,” said Alouettes kicker David Côté of his former Rouge et Or teammate. He dominates the Canadian Football League.”
“We won the Vanier Cup together in 2018 and having Mathieu Betts on our team helped us a lot to win this championship,” added Côté. I remember playing the Carabins in the Dunsmore Cup before the grand final [de l’Université de Montréal], by the end of the game he had managed two sacks of the quarter in the same offensive sequence as his opponent. It was wonderful!”
Photo credit: Didier Debusschere / Le Journal de Montréal
Bad memories for Maciocia
Danny Maciocia, the Carabins coach at the time, remembers it well.
“Those aren’t nice memories,” Maciocia agreed, laughing. I remember it very well. We had points to pick and Betts had bumped into our quarterback twice behind the line of scrimmage late in the game.
“Betts is the most dominant player I’ve seen in my college career,” said the Alouettes general manager. You couldn’t isolate a blocker on him and play one-on-one. We had to overtake him and use other players to slow him down.
The Alouettes schedule
Obviously, the CFL are showing a much higher level of play, but given Betts’ behavior since the start of the season, it goes without saying that the Alouettes had to factor that into their schedule for Sunday’s game.
“The key is showing different protections, doubling it down or using another player as the ball carrier to partially block it,” Maciocia noted when using the term crisps, in football jargon. Betts is particularly effective starting as a quarterback and you have to try and slow him down a bit.
“We’re seeing him becoming more comfortable with the Lions system where John Bowman, a CFL legend, is his coach,” Côté concluded. Mathieu takes his place and has been playing very well since the start of the season.
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