'I was good enough to play for sure,' Alouettes' Davis Alexander says

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He’s not sure how it happened, but Davis Alexander chipped one of his front teeth during last Thursday’s victory against Toronto.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only injury to the Alouettes’ starting quarterback.

Alexander was placed on the six-game injured list after he reinjured his left hamstring while scoring the winning touchdown on a 10-yard bootleg with 1:46 left in regulation time. It was his first game back after suffering the original injury during the third quarter in Edmonton on June 19, forcing him to miss two full games — the Als also had a bye week in the schedule — over a month.

While Alexander can be removed from the six-game list early, he’s likely to miss considerable time and won’t return until he’s fully recovered. The injury isn’t season-ending and doesn’t need surgery, he said.

The fact Alexander was unable to complete an entire game has led to speculation he shouldn’t have been playing. However, the injury occurred late in the game and Alexander remained on the field for the subsequent failed two-point convert try. And during the second quarter, after being intercepted, he covered a considerable distance to run down Argonauts cornerback Tarvarus McFadden.

“Hindsight being 20/20 and with the injury, it probably looks like (I returned too soon),” Alexander told The Gazette this week. “The reality is we did all the testing … and it showed that my left side was stronger and had more endurance than my right side. We checked all the boxes where we felt I was good enough and ready to play. The fact that it happened basically on the last (offensive) play of the game … I was good enough to play for sure.

“The injury makes it look like (it was) not, and I get that aspect. That’s just a decision we’re going to have to live with.”

Head coach Jason Maas also emphatically defended the decision — taken by the team’s medical staff and athletic therapists — to play Alexander. But he also said the team will err on the side of caution in the future with its franchise player.

“He played all the way to the very end,” Maas said. “Had he just (handed the ball off) he would have lasted through the game. He ended up pulling the ball and taking off. He did that repeatedly throughout that game. If it was going to go, it was going to go. We did a lot of great things with him over the last three weeks to get him ready. It’s just unfortunate that it happened. Obviously, we’re going to learn from that … knowing what he can and can’t do from watching him in practice. What he’s telling us in feedback. But I thought they did a great job of assessing him. He obviously went out and was able to play until the very, very, very last play.

“When he threw the (interception), he’s the one that chased the guy down, and it looked like he went a lot harder on that play. It has nothing to do with our medical staff. I have full confidence in those guys.”

Alexander wasn’t scheduled to accompany the team to Calgary for Thursday night’s game against the Stampeders at McMahon Stadium (9 p.m., TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5, RDS, TSN Radio-690, 98.5 FM). Veteran McLeod Bethel-Thompson was expected to make his third start for Montreal.

Alexander must now deal with the physical and emotional sides of a potentially long-term injury — one that has nagged him since the early stages of training camp in May, leading to the possibility he might have prepared too diligently for his first season as the starter.

When former Als starting quarterback Cody Fajardo suffered a similar injury on July 11, 2024, he missed four full games and a bye week before returning on Aug. 25. The Als were 5-0 when Fajardo was injured and, although they lost that game, they continued winning with Alexander.

“It’s tough,” Alexander said. “It’s not something you’re expecting. I would have been devastated had we lost and I got injured like that. You have to do what you can to be there for the team and keep your own morale up. I’ll be OK. I have good teammates and friends. I’ll try to stay as involved in the game plan as I can, without doing too much. You don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble.”

Alexander and the Als started slowly against Toronto, but overcame an 18-point third-quarter deficit to win 26-25. After passing for only 107 yards in the first half, Alexander recovered nicely, completing 26 of 39 passes for 303 yards and a touchdown late in the third quarter to Cole Spieker.

While the Als are 4-2 heading into Calgary, they’ve only won when Alexander played.

“When I came in for Cody last season, at that point it felt like the sky was falling,” Alexander said. “I’m sure in the back of people’s minds there’s a little (concern). Everybody knows how good McLeod is and how good McLeod can be. He’s only going to get better. McLeod is a seasoned vet. He knows how to win games.

“We’re a confident group, especially with how our defence plays.”