ARGONAUTS.CA STAFF
TORONTO – The Montreal Alouettes are starting to look all too familiar to their other seven CFL counterparts. Despite continuing to win games, the usual swagger, confidence and dominant play seemed absent from the Alouettes’ play in the first four weeks of the season. The last two weeks however, have been different – or the same, depending on how you want to look at it.
A convincing win over second place Toronto, and a gutsy total team effort over West Division powerhouse Saskatchewan Roughriders has put the Alouettes back on top of the CFL landscape with an impressive, but not shocking, 5-1 record.
Even with their record, they still sit just one game up on the Argonauts (4-2) for first in the East Division. Their chances of maintaining possession of such a spot is going to depend largely on the health of future hall of fame quarterback Anthony Calvillo.
Early reports indicated that Calvillo had dislocated his right index finger (throwing hand) midway through the fourth quarter of last week’s win over the ‘Riders. Calvillo was treated on the field and then in the Als’ locker room before returning to the sideline to prepare for a last minute drive that would never come.
Calvillo sits third in the league in passing with 1,858 yards and 12 touchdowns and his status for Saturday’s contest with the Argos at Rogers Centre remains uncertain. Should he dress, his effectiveness while nursing the injury may also come into play. Argos fans should think before they get too hopeful that the veteran will miss the crucial East Division matchup. The veteran QB has played in all but 11 games in the last decade, seven of which were missed in 2007 because he had taken a leave of absence from the team to be with his wife Alexia and their family.
The reality is that Calvillo is a warrior and very little, if anything, is going to keep him out of a contest – especially one against an divisional opponent. If he does indeed play, there will be little question regarding his effectiveness.
Since 2004, Calvillo has thrown 10 more touchdowns than he has interceptions and given the way his receivers are playing right now, it is going to be difficult to curb that trend. The Als lead the league in most points scored with 208 and five of their receivers (Kerry Watkins, Jamel Richardson, S.J. Green, Avon Cobourne and Ben Cahoon) currently rank in the top 25 in the CFL.
Defensively, they sit in the top two in seven of the league’s 25 main statistical categories. Perhaps the two most important categories that they currently lead revolve around stopping opposing rushers as they are allowing only 80.7 yards on the ground per game. With Argos RB Cory Boyd coming off his most impressive outing of the year, the Als will look to repeat the performance they had against the former Gamecock in Week 5 when they held him to just 53 yards on the ground – his lowest single-game yards total of the season.
» QB Anthony Calvillo
» RB Avon Cobourne
» WR Kerry Watkins
» SB Ben Cahoon
» SB Jamel Richardson
» WR S.J. Green
» DB Chip Cox
» DB Jerald Brown
» DE John Bowman
» P/K Damon Duval
» How will Anthony Calvillo’s injured right index finger effect his game it at all?
» Can the Als shut down RB Cory Boyd for the second time in three weeks?
» Will the Montreal defensive line continue to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks?