Dave Campbell
ESKS.com
Montreal.
A beautiful city filled with beautiful people speaking the beautiful language of French (and English – thank goodness for my sake).
Montreal is filled with tremendous history and culture. The food is to die for. I mean you can have a steak dinner at 2am in Montreal. Their passion for sports is very evident starting with the historic Canadiens, mixed martial arts fighter Georges St. Pierre, and of course, the Alouettes.
The last four regular season games the Eskimos have played in “The City of Saints” have been nothing but a Montreal Massacre. The last win for the Eskimos at Percival Molson Stadium was in 2007, a 16-10 victory. Since then, the Eskimos have lost by scores of 40-4, 50-16, 31-14, and 27-4. Add the total up and the Eskimos have been out-scored 148-38.
The Alouettes almost never lose at home. Eskimo strong-side linebacker T.J. Hill knows about that fact. He played in Montreal in 2007 and 2008. He says it’s not so much the stadium that gives them trouble, it’s that the team that plays in the stadium is pretty good.
“It’s a winning franchise, they don’t lose too many games at home,” Hill explained. “They take pride in taking care of home (field), just like any other team. Them being one of the elite teams in the CFL, they just take pride in winning; that’s why it’s difficult.”
Hill says Alouette fans are no different than any other fan base in the country.
“As far as the fan and everything, this whole league has good fan support,” Hill said. “You go to Saskatchewan; they rank right up there with the best in the league, both here and the NFL.”
The pattern in the four losses has almost followed the same script. The Edmonton offense fails to sustain drives. The Montreal offense marches down the field and, even though they usually don’t score touchdowns early, they seem to ease themselves into a comfort zone and then it rains touchdowns.
For quarterback Kerry Joseph, he doesn’t care about what happened in the past.
“Trying to reflect back on anything about that, you’re letting a level of doubt and negativity creep into your mind,” Joseph said. “You have to think positive. It doesn’t matter what happened last year, what happened five years ago, it’s what happens now and on Sunday. “
Then there’s an element of Montreal which has caused the downfall of many CFL road teams. Its name is St. Catherine’s Street; one of the most famous streets in Canada and the world. Filled with night life galore, it’s more fun and trouble than you can shake a stick at. In fact, former Saskatchewan Roughrider head coach Ken Miller once proclaimed many a CFL team has lost to St. Catherine’s Street.
Head coach Kavis Reed says he’ll be doing his part to make sure he gets the message across that this trip is about gaining a critical two points and not about extra-circular activities.
“The guys will all tell you that I’m very warden like when it comes to away trips,” Reed explained. “We will definitely make certain that our guys understand that this is a business trip. We haven’t had any situations where we’ve been not proud in terms of our guys doing things wrong. We don’t expect that’s going to change. Our leadership (group) has already addressed that. They understand we must go there and have the utmost focus. We’ll take some extra precautions to make sure no one tries to break those rules.”
The Eskimos should be focused on the task at hand; there are no excuses now. A win and the Eskimos clinch a playoff spot and that’s the focus for Coach Reed. He does have two games left and two shots to make the playoffs, but he’s focused only on Sunday.
This matchup could be a preview of a possible East Final clash if the Esks manage to crossover in the East Division.
Bottom-line, the Alouettes don’t need to win this game, but the Eskimos do. How much will the Alouettes hold back as far as personnel and game plan? They have first place in the East locked up.
The Eskimos, however, need to be at full throttle. The time is now.
NOTES: Fullback Mathieu Bertrand is due to return to the lineup on Sunday after missing 12 games with a groin injury. Fellow fullback Calvin McCarty is doubtful to play so expect him to sit out for a second straight game with a high ankle sprain. Running back Hugh Charles will miss today’s game with a knee injury suffered last week vs. the Lions. Jerome Messam will be the starting running back while Cory Boyd will back up. Defensive end Marcus Howard took part in a full week of practice for the first time in about a month and will play today. Howard has missed 11 of the last 12 games with a nagging hamstring injury. Howard originally hurt his hamstring on July 20th in Vancouver and then re-aggravated the injury on September 22nd at home against the BC Lions.
