Stampeders dominate Alouettes in Chad Johnson's regular season debut; Jon Cornish hurt
Chad Johnson made his regular season debut for the Montreal Alouttes on Saturday, but it didn't exactly go the way the man formerly known as Ochocinco would have liked. The Calgary Stampeders dominated the Alouttes, en route to a 29-8 victory in Week 1 of the CFL season.
Johnson caught a pair of passes for 20 yards in the first half, but that would be all his production on offense. Alouttes quarterback Troy Smith targeted Johnson frequently, but had problems with his accuracy all day and finished the game 17-of-40 for 127 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.
Oddly enough, Johnson did put his name on the stat sheet another way, by recording his first career CFL tackle. Johnson brought down Stampeders cornerback Fred Bennett after Bennett picked off Smith in the second quarter.
Bo Levi Mitchell led the way for Calgary, going 16-of-25 for 313 yards with two touchdowns, including a 102-yard TD pass to Maurice Price at the end of the first quarter. Jon Cornish, last season's Most Outstanding Player, chipped in 67 rushing yards, 41 receiving yards, and reached paydirt with an 18-yard scoring run in the fourth.
It wasn't all good news for Calgary though, as Cornish was forced to leave the game early after being on the receiving end of a hit from Kyries Hebert late in the game. Hebert was ejected from the game for the hit.
Jon Cornish: "I was knocked out. I'm going to have to go through concussion protocol 100 per cent."
— Vicki Hall (@vickihallch) June 28, 2014
Johnson's CFL debut was actually similar to his first career NFL game back in September 2001. In that game, Johnson, then a Cincinnati Bengal, also caught two passes - for 28 yards and a touchdown - in a 28-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers.