Motivated Als host last-place Bombers
Last Updated: Thursday, August 19, 2010 | 10:34 AM ET
By Tony Care, CBC Sports
Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo leads the CFL with 2,308 passing yards. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)Coming off their worst loss of the season, the Montreal Alouettes suddenly have some issues to deal with as the CFL season creeps closer to the halfway mark.
For starters, the Alouettes — who welcome the last-place Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Molson Stadium Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET) — need to quickly recover from the special teams meltdown they suffered during a 37-22 loss in Toronto last Saturday.
The loss wasn't pretty.
Montreal saw the Argonauts, normally a doormat when the two teams square off, ring up 257 return yards, including a club-record 110-yard kickoff dash for a touchdown by Ryan Christian.
To make matters worse, Chad Owens, who the Als traded to Toronto for a fourth-round pick, burned his old team by piling up 291 combined yards and a pair of touchdowns.
"They found some things they took advantage of, especially the two long kicks," assistant coach Andy Bischoff told the Montreal Gazette. "It was just a matter of a lack of focus, detail in working and working within the entire scheme instead of just yourself.
"We've made corrections. The guys and coaches are motivated to do what we did over the first six games."
Whatever the plan is against the Blue Bombers, Montreal will have to move ahead without the services of running back Avon Cobourne.
A major offensive weapon, Cobourne is suffering from an ankle "tweak," forcing the Als to go with little-used Brandon Whittaker.
Cobourne stabilizes the running game, ranking seventh in the CFL with 403 yards and three touchdowns.
The loss of Couborne is compounded by the fact that Winnipeg has held opponents to less than 100 yards (99.6) in average rushing yards per game, behind only Montreal and Calgary.
"Avon ran [Tuesday] and he felt he could play, but not 60 minutes," said Als coach Marc Trestman. "As much as Avon wants the ball, he's also just as unselfish and he just felt he couldn't do it."
Still a force
Of course, Montreal isn't exactly bare when it comes to offensive power.
The ageless Anthony Calvillo, who turns 38 on Monday, continues to pile up the numbers that will land him into the CFL's Hall of Fame one day. He leads the CFL with 2,308 yards and has thrown 15 touchdowns against only three interceptions. Calvillo also doesn't expect the dislocated index finger on his throwing hand to affect his performance Thursday night.
Montreal (5-2) remains tied with Toronto for first place in the East Division and faces a Blue Bombers team that has dropped its last three games.
Sitting in the basement in the East, Winnipeg (2-5) is suffering through a misery season to this point. The football club has yet to taste victory on the road this season and last earned a victory away from Canad Stadium on Oct. 12, 2009, in Hamilton.
While the Bombers are 5-5 against the Alouettes in their last 10 games, they've only beaten Montreal four times in 16 tries at Molson Stadium, making Thursday night's matchup the toughest of all the team's road games.
"You have to play aggressive, assignment-perfect football and eliminate the mistakes," cornerback LaVar Glover told the Winnipeg Free Press. "The Argos were really aggressive [in last week's win] and they were flying around to the ball.
"It's the same thing we've got to do as a defence. Calvillo has been a great QB in this league. It's hard to stop a guy like that but if we can contain him and hit him a couple of times and fly around as a defence I think we'll be all right."
Quarterback Steven Jyles will get the start against the Alouettes, his fourth of the season.
With files from The Canadian Press
