Als Eye Argos, Not Awards

THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL — How the Montreal Alouettes stars have fallen in only one year.

In 2009, the Alouettes took 10 of the 27 spots on the CFL all-star team, but when this year’s squad was announced on Wednesday, only three made the list.

Such is how the defending Grey Cup champions have dropped in the eyes of all-star voters after following up on their 15-3 campaign with an up-and-down 12-6 season in which they lost two of their last three regular-season games.

But guard Scott Flory, linebacker Chip Cox and defensive end John Bowman all said that the individual honour takes a back seat to where they are now  – getting ready to play host to the East Division final against the 9-9 Toronto Argonauts, who got four players onto the all-star team.

“If we don’t win the championship, the individual things are tiny to me,” said Bowman.

Montreal will try to earn a third consecutive trip to the Grey Cup game when they face Toronto before an anticipated crowd of 50,000-plus at Olympic Stadium on Sunday (TSN, 1 p.m. ET).

Three of last year’s all-stars _ quarterback Anthony Calvillo, receiver Kerry Watkins and Damon Duval, who was both punter and place kicker _ likely fell out of the running because they missed time with injuries. Kick returner Larry Taylor missed almost the entire season while trying to make it in the NFL. Running back Avon Cobourne and rush end Anwar Stewart fell short in the voting.

Coach Marc Trestman didn’t feel miffed that only three of his players were picked despite posting the league’s second-best record behind Calgary.

“The league has levelled off to the point where everyone is deserving of having players on that team, so our having less players is probably sending a message that the league has become stronger from top to bottom, or side to side, or however you want to put it,” he said. “I love the players we have here and I’m glad we have them, but the guys who are on from other places are well deserving and it’s good for their teams as well.”

This year’s Alouettes have looked to be their old, dominant selves in some games, but in others, their offence was stopped cold and their defensive backfield was shredded by the long ball.

Their last convincing win was a 46-19 rout of the Stampeders on Oct. 1 that came one week after they were pounded 46-21 in Calgary.

After that, the Alouettes pulled out a 22-19 comeback win over Winnipeg, were smoked 40-3 in Hamilton, edged the Argonauts 37-30 in Toronto on a last play touchdown on a fumble recovery and lost 30-4 at home to the Argos in a game in which both teams rested most of their top players.

Now they will try to find their A-game in the playoffs, as they did last year in beating the B.C. Lions 56-18 in the East final.

“Last year everyone knew we were the best team in the league and this year people are questioning us,” said Cox. “We had the best defence in years in the CFL.

“This year, everyone’s gunning for us and playing us different, so it’s a different team. Criticize all you want, but we have the second-best record in the league and we didn’t play a lot of guys in the last game. So if we’re getting criticized, I don’t know what it’s from. We’ve taken care of business 12 times. What other teams did that? Only one team did better, Calgary.”

That the Alouettes went 2-2 in the regular season against the Argonauts gives more ammunition to those who feel the defending champs are vulnerable to an upset.

It will also be the fifth time the teams meet this season, but the task remains the same for Montreal _ stop the Argos’ all-star running back Cory Boyd and all-star kick returner Chad Owens.

“If you ask me, Cory Boyd is the best running back in the league, hands down,” said Cox. “There’s not even a question.

“He runs hard. He can catch out of the backfield. He’s good.
They’ve got special teams, they’ve got the best running back in the league and they’ve got a good defence, so what do you do? You’ve just got to game-plan and play hard.”

The Alouettes were on the field at Olympic Stadium when the all-star teams were announced and only learned of the selections when practice ended. Cox shrugged it off.

“It doesn’t matter how my season went if we don’t win this next game,” said the speedy linebacker who was a dynamo on defence, making 80 tackles, three sacks, two interceptions and four forced fumbles. “It doesn’t matter if I’m sitting at home next week instead of going to Edmonton (for the Grey Cup game).”

Bowman had 32 tackles and 11 sacks.

Flory, last year’s CFL outstanding lineman, was named an all-star for the eighth time since 2002 and for a sixth year in a row.

This season was extra challenging as the line adjusted to the retirement of centre Bryan Chiu, an injury to Chiu’s replacement Paul Lambert that put Luc Brodeur-Jourdain at centre, and the debut of Andrew Woodruff as the starting left guard.

“Credit the coaches for that,” said Flory. “It’s nice to be selected to these things, but it’s always a reflection of the team and the guys, especially the guys in our group.

“But the important thing is to win championships. I’m sure (Hamilton’ all-star centre) Marwan (Hage) would give it up to be in this game. I know that.”