Alouettes' Pier-Olivier Lestage regrets late-game conduct against B.C.

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There’s a fine line most professional football players walk — Alouettes guard Pier-Olivier Lestage included. It’s what makes the 6-foot-3, 305-pound veteran effective.

But the 27-year-old, now in his fourth season with the Als, crossed that line July 5 against the B.C. Lions. And he knows it might have cost his team the game.

A Jose Maltos field goal with 28.1 seconds left gave Montreal a 20-18 lead. But Lestage took a 15-yard misconduct penalty after the kick when he became physically engaged with Lions rush-end Mathieu Betts. The infraction resulted in the Als kicking off from their 15 instead of the 30.

The visitors scrimmaged from their 43 with 22.1 seconds remaining and completed three passes over the next four plays, allowing Sean Whyte to kick the winning 43-yard field goal on the final play.

Lestage refused to speak to The Gazette after the game, but had no problems discussing the incident Monday following practice at Stade Hébert. And the St-Eustache native admitted he had much to atone for.

“We talked about it as a team and, of course, we need to move on from it,” Lestage said. “I’m a player who plays on the line. I’ve been like this my whole career. I’ve just got to remember it’s hard not to pass that line. But I’ve got to remember to stay on the other side of it and just keeping playing how I play.

“The consequences from it. We lost a pretty big game. Of course I wasn’t feeling very well after that game. Just remembering what happened. You don’t want to be that hot. That’s going to help me not do it in the future for sure.”

If Betts said something to provoke Lestage, he pleaded ignorance. But Lestage intimated he retaliated after something transpired.

“Nothing happened; that’s the thing,” said Lestage, selected in the second-round (10th overall) by the Als in 2021. “I’m really not sure what happened. I snapped in the inch of a second. I just have to move on from it and keep getting better. It’s always the second guy (who gets penalized). I’ve got to keep my temper and we’ll be all right.”

Lestage also received a fine from the CFL for making inappropriate contact with a sideline TV camera operator.

General manager Danny Maciocia, who recruited Lestage out of the Université de Montréal, stated the obvious when he said the player must become more disciplined — and not only late in games.

“He’s someone I obviously know,” said Maciocia, who came to the Als after he was the Carabins’ head coach. “Obviously he’s a good offensive lineman, but he likes to play on the edge. When you play on the edge you’re a little bit of a target. People are going to look at you a bit different. Having said that, you’ve got to be smart. I don’t need to tell him that. I’m not telling him anything he doesn’t know. Hopefully he realizes how important every single play, every single gesture, the impact it can have on a game.”

Meanwhile, like many others at Molson Stadium that night, defensive co-ordinator Noel Thorpe believed the game had ended after a 13-yard pass-and-run play to Jevon Cottoy on third down moved the ball to the Montreal 36. Instead, the stadium clock read 0.2 seconds. Following consultation with league game officials in Toronto, the time was rounded to 1.0. A CFL spokesman subsequently confirmed the time was correct.

Unofficially, 3.7 seconds remained before the completion to Cottoy. And he ran for an additional five yards after the catch. That was remarkable clock management by the Lions, considering Cottoy continued running. Thorpe said the Als were sufficiently aggressive on the drive. Indeed on second down, lineman Lwal Uguak knocked down an attempted pass.

“We were defending a field goal,” Thorpe said. “All the calls were geared to defend a potentially long field goal. You always look back at how a game finished and say ‘how can I coach it better?’ I’ve been in this game a long time and we were defending the last play. When they threw the ball to Cottoy and he ran forward I thought the game was over, to be honest. I’m not going to sugar-coat it.

“I think we were in a good situation in how we played defence and defended it. I take responsibility in how we end the game. Would I take back calls? Absolutely not. We’ve been in those situations and closed out games with exactly the same calls. I believed there was one play left.”