Alouettes look for offence against Redblacks, with or without receiver Carter

MONTREAL — The Montreal Alouettes are already the CFL’s lowest-scoring team and face visiting the first-place Ottawa Redblacks without star receiver Duron Carter.

Carter is to attend a hearing with an arbitrator Wednesday morning in Montreal in his appeal of a one-game suspension. Carter received the ban following his ejection from the Alouettes’ 28-13 home loss to Ottawa on June 30 when he bowled over Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell while celebrating a third-quarter touchdown.

Carter risks sitting out when Montreal (2-5) visits Ottawa (4-2-1) on Friday night.

Asked if he thought the suspension will be upheld, Carter said: “I couldn’t tell. The way the CFL comes after me, I don’t know.”

Carter, who is to miss a practice to attend the hearing, was fined by both the Alouettes and CFL. Now he’s in danger of taking another hit to the wallet.

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“It’s just a whole bunch of people outside of football who have never been in football making decisions for football players,” he said.

It was a curious sight, indeed. Carter made a spectacular grab in the end zone while being nailed with a hit to the head by a defensive back. He was walking back to Montreal’s bench close to the Ottawa sidelines when he bumped into Campbell — who went down soccer-style — then walked through the Redblacks players, receiving shoves and at least one punch along the way.

Ottawa’s Jerrell Gavins was also ejected.

After the game, Carter said he patched things up with Campbell.

“If I could go back, I wish I was in the game to help us win,” said Carter. “That’s probably the only thing I would change.”

Carter’s touchdown plus Boris Bede’s single on the ensuing kickoff cut Ottawa’s lead to 14-13. But the Redblacks pulled away in the final quarter.

Montreal coach/GM Jim Popp said he hopes even if Carter is suspended it will take effect for the Alouettes’ following game at home Aug. 26 against Winnipeg.

“I would hope that because it’s so late in the week that they would bump it to the following week,” said Popp. “That’s not fair to us, when we’re preparing for a game, but it’s not our call.

“We’re proceeding as if he’s playing. We’ll just have to accept whatever it is.”

The Alouettes lost another top receiver, S.J. Green, to a season-ending knee injury in the same game. With receiver Kenny Stafford and running back Tyrell Sutton also out, the offence has stagnated.

For the second time this season, Montreal failed to score a touchdown in its 23-12 road loss to Edmonton on Thursday.

The Alouettes are last overall in scoring with 130 points in seven games. They’re also last in touchdowns (seven), net offence (329.6 yards per game) and yards per play (5.9). They’re also tied with Ottawa in TDs scored by the defence with none.

“We all feel we have great talent there, we just have to put a consistent four quarters together,” said Popp. “It’s a work in progress.

“We’ve got some key players out but the players replacing them are good. It’s a question of a new offence, a new (offensive) co-ordinator, some new players. We’ve moved the ball at times, but haven’t scored touchdowns. We’ve got to punch it in, that’s all there is to it.”

Montreal fixed one area. Bede, who suddenly couldn’t get the ball through the uprights, was placed on the injured list last week after missing nine of his 16 field-goal tires, and newcomer Anthony Fera made four of the five he tried versus Edmonton.

“We’ve got to stay positive,” said receiver Nik Lewis. “We did some good things.

“We’ve just got to find a way to get it done in the fourth quarter.”

Bill Beacon, The Canadian Press