September 1, 2010
Montreal Maintains CFL Dominance With Win Over Winnipeg
The Montreal Alouettes demonstrated the form that has made them the CFLs top team in a Saturday visit to Winnipeg. Anthony Calvillo threw four touchdown passes and the tenacious Montreal defense all but shut down the Winnipeg offense as the Alouettes prevailed easily over the Blue Bombers by a 39-12 score. The Alouettes improved to 6-1 in CFL play, while the Bombers dropped to 2-5.
CFL bettors who backed Montreal cashed their tickets as the Als easily covered as -8 road favorites. Montreal improved to 5-2 against the number while the Blue Bombers slipped to 4-3 against the spread. Interestingly, this was the first time all season that Winnipeg failed to cover as an underdog, having earned the money in four such roles this season before tonights setback. The combined 51 points scored exceeded the posted total of 47, leaving each team with a 4-3 edge to the OVER this season.
Calvillo not only through four TD passes, he through three consecutive passes for touchdowns which is a feat that he cant recall accomplishing before:
“Somebody mentioned that to me out there. I didn’t realize that and they asked me if it’s ever been done or if I’d done it before and I can’t recall.”
Montreals defense held Winnipeg to four FGs and recovered four Blue Bomber turnovers that led to Alouette scores. After the game, Calvillo gave all of the credit for the victory to the defense:
“Our defence put us on the short field throughout the night and we capitalized on the turnovers. We have a lot of work to do. We had a few dropped passes, a few misreads by myself and two turnovers. We’re always looking to improve and we definitely have to improve on offence.”
Kerry Watkins caught one of Calvillos touchdowns and spoke his pleasure in playing with the CFL legend in his postgame interview:
“It’s a great accomplishment, but something we don’t keep track of. It’s an honour. That’s a living legend. I’ve been so fortunate to play my whole (six-year) career with him.”
Bombers head coach Mike Kelly, who also serves as the teams offensive coordinator, insisted there was nothing wrong with the offensive scheme:
“There’s nothing wrong with this scheme. I’ve seen this scheme work 1,000 times .If you want to get right down to it, we have to block when we need to block and catch when we need to catch and throw to the right people. And right now we’re not doing those things so we’ll continue to look at it.”
Winnipeg defensive tackle Doug Brown concurred with his coachs assessment:
“Let’s put it this way, we were in a good enough dogfight without as many critical errors as we made ourselves. You play a team of this calibre, the last thing you need to do is dig yourself your own hole with penalties and turnovers and missed tackles and not executing our assignments and so on and so forth.”
Montreal will host Saskatchewan next Friday night, while Winnipeg travels to Vancouver for a game against the British Columbia Lions.
Ross Everett is a freelance writer and respected authority on football betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.
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The Montreal Alouettes withstood a tough challenge from the Saskatchewan Roughriders to win their 7th game of the season by a 34-25 margin. Als rookie QB Chris Leak scored the winning points, flawlessly converting on a third down goal line situation that also happened to be the first play of his CFL career.
After the game, Leak focused on earning the trust of his teammates:
“It’s a about trust – that’s the number one thing. I’m just happy for the opportunity to earn the trust of the coaches and my teammates.”
The Alouettes swept the season series from Saskatchewan, having won 43-10 in Regina in early July. Saskatchewan has only won twice in their past eleven trips to Montreal.
The Roughriders held the edge in most of the statistical categories, but were undone by turnovers and a failure to cash in on drives deep into Als territory. Saskatchewan starting QB Darian Durant willingly accepted the blame for the loss, but Riders coach Ken Miller said in his postgame comments that there was plenty of responsibility to go around:
“It’s a team game and the fault doesn’t lie with any individual. Darian played probably his best. He turned the ball over three times, but he made plays with his feet and was a leader for us. I’m really proud of the way the men battled, but our team still needs to be tuned up some.”
On the positive side, the Roughriders sacked Alouettes QB Anthony Calvillo four times and moved the ball well on offense. Durants favorite target on the day was Weston Dressler, who caught eight passes for 179 yards and after the game gave a glass half full assessment of his teams performance:
“We were in it until the end. I think we showed we can complete with the best team in the league and I think we just have to keep working at it. We’re really close to being a great football team.”
Montreal returns to action on Friday, September 4th as they travel to Vancouver to play the BC Lions. The two teams will rematch at Montreals Molson Stadium the following week. Saskatchewan will return to action on Sunday, September 6th as they host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on baseball betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.
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