DAVID ALTER
Argonauts.ca
David Alter is a reporter and sportscaster for Toronto’s Sports Radio THE FAN 590. David covers the Argos and has covered football at every level dating back to 2003.
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While the Riders say they are trying to forget about the past when it comes to references of last year’s Grey Cup faux pas. There is no better way to put recent history behind them other than to dominate the Alouettes. Doing so will be easier said than done.
The Alouettes have been dominant when it comes to regular season play as well as the Eastern playoffs. But there has been something about the Grey Cup that seems to change everything once game day arrives.
In the last decade (2000-2009) the Alouettes have been to the Grey Cup seven times, (2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009) but have only won twice (2002 and 2009). Montreal head coach Marc Trestman shook off any notion of the past including the good things that came with it, like trying to repeat as Grey Cup champions.
“We took a moment this morning (the day after winning the CFL Eastern Final) to congratulate ourselves one more time before we move on,” Trestman said. “Now we begin to plan for a new week.”
Ok, I get that. That’s the mark of a good coach not wanting his team to get too caught up in the previous accomplishments. What gets me is when Trestman says the following when asked about the prospect of trying to repeat.
“We can’t repeat because we aren’t the same team of players and coaches we were a year ago,” says Trestman. “They aren’t either.
Granted, the roster on both teams aren’t the same, but to deny yourself the title of the defending champions by putting that out there is hard to accept. Especially when it comes to the Alouettes. Many of the core veterans were in fact on that previous team, so when it comes to that claim I ain’t buyin’ it.
On the Alouettes current 46-man roster, only eight players were not on the team at any point last year. Yeah they may be different because they have an extra year of experience, and this is a new year etc. But there is no putting it past the opposition.
Ken Miller and the Roughriders are trying to put the whole ‘13th man’ incident from last year’s Grey Cup behind them. You may remember when the whole situation happened, Miller took the highly respectable road of not addressing who the extra man on the field was and it really didn’t serve a purpose at that point with the season being over.
Showing that they didn’t care about it or perhaps just trying to mess with the media – First, Omarr Morgan said he was the extra player on the field, then Lance Frazier was saying that Morgan was just trying to cover his mistake.
The reason for all of this is to just shake off the past and focus on the upcoming game. One thing you can count on is this – Should the Riders pull off the Grey Cup win, you will definitely hear comments from at least one Rider about how good the win feels given what happened last year.
They will play the adversity card no doubt. They had to use that card once when they had that miserable slump to end the regular season only to come back with two big playoff wins to get them to where they are right now.
Should be another high scoring affair this weekend unless the cold Edmonton wind forces more of a ground game, which one has to think, would favour the Alouettes given what Avon Cobourne accomplished last week.
In the air, both teams have stellar aerial attacks. For the Alouettes, it’s about starting the new decade right where the last one left off. For the Riders, it’s about redemption for a region of our country that wants it badly.