Mitchell Blair
The Montreal Alouettes may not be the team they have been for the past number of years, but the Saskatchewan Roughriders are fully aware that they can be the team they have been for the past number of years if they aren’t ready for them. The two teams will collide in what is expected to be a toasty Mosaic Stadium Saturday afternoon in a game that should see temperatures at or above 30 degrees Celsius at kickoff.
The Alouettes have struggled in the post Marc Trestman era as they have started 2-4 and have replaced Dan Hawkins at head coach with general manager Jim Popp taking over the reins. While some of the parts have changed, many of the other parts that were there during the glory years are still around and that says quarterback Darian Durant makes them a dangerous football team.
“This Montreal team can explode at any moment,” Durant cautioned. “You look at their roster and you see a lot of the guys that were on those teams that went to the Grey Cup. We know that Anthony Calvillo can go out and throw four or five touchdowns so we are definitely not taking this team lightly even though they have had a tough time of it.”
Defensive back Craig Butler is also fully aware that the Alouettes can get it together very quickly with Calvillo calling the shots and that its their job to prevent him from getting back on track.
“When you have arguably the best quarterback in Canadian football league history tossing the ball around, they are dangerous.” Butler said. “They’ve got weapons out there and you don’t want to be the team that gets them started up. We know they will be focussed for us because we’re 5-1 and they can catapult their season somewhat with a win over us. We didn’t play the type of football we like to play last weekend, but we’re ready to get back out there and be ready to go.”
Head coach Corey Chamblin says he noticed a little extra spring in the step of his guys as they practiced this week for the first time after a loss. He doesn’t believe the effort that cost them their game in Calgary last weekend will re-surface on the Mosaic turf because there’s a determination not there not to have a repeat performance from last week.
“As long as we have a winning attitude we will be fine and we have that winning attitude, “Chamblin told reporters on Friday afternoon. “One of our guys stood up in the room today and said we lost the game lost week and we know what we have to do to get better so lets get out there and do that tomorrow and I am confident they will.”
Chamblin also realizes that the Alouettes are still perhaps trying to get their feet underneath them so he isn’t one hundred percent positive as to what they might throw at them, but he says at the end of the day, the goal is this week what it is every week and that is to win a football game.
“The bottom line is always the same,” Chamblin said. “If defence is out there, we need to stop them and if offence is out there, we need to score. Last week we didn’t do what he had to do. We made more mistakes than our opposition and they came out with the victory. We do a good job of trying to limit those mistakes and we have done that this year. If we do that, I feel good about our chances.”
Game time will be 2 o’clock with TV coverage on TSN with Rod Black and Duane Forde. 620 CKRM will begin the longest game-day coverage in the CFL with “Roughrider Gameday” at 11:30. You can watch that live on your computer by visiting www.riderville.com. That will be followed by “The Rider Nation Pre-game Show” at 1:00 with Rod Pedersen and Carm Carteri then delivering the play-by-play.
GAME NOTES:
- The way he has played this year, it is not inconceivable that Kory Sheets could break the 1000 yard mark today. He goes into the game needing 155 yards
- With Darian Durant at quarterback, the Riders have converted almost 60 percent of their 2nd down plays this season.
- No team has scored a 3rd quarter point against the Riders since Week 1 when they gave up 5 to Edmonton. In all, the Riders have outscored their opposition 54-5 in the 3rd quarter
- Weston Dressler is one catch away from 400 career—all of those catches coming in a Riders uniform
