By Richard Obrand,
MontrealAlouettes.com
Montreal – As important as Monday afternoon’s win over the Calgary Stampeders may have been for the Alouettes’ mental psyche, Winnipeg’s win a few hours later over the BC Lions is right up there with it.
Trailing 32-11 in the fourth quarter, the Bombers, led by quarterback Steven Jyles, orchestrated an historic Thanksgiving comeback that will forever be remembered by the Winnipeg faithful.
Though the big win gave them a small total of four on the season, Monday’s performance will go a long way for head coach Paul LaPolice’s playoff hopes. The Bombers now sit just two points back of the Lions for a crossover birth into the playoffs.
With that in mind, don’t expect the same Blue Bombers squad that has been outscored 89-57 in two games against the Als this season to show up Sunday at McGill.
How they fared
Last week saw both teams make a little history in their respective wins.
In the Als’ 46-19 win over the Stamps, slotback Ben Cahoon became the CFL’s all-time receptions leader, passing Terry Vaughn with 1,007 career catches. Cahoon entered the afternoon matchup just four catches back of Vaughn and finished the outing with the same amount of catches for 49 yards.
The Als saw the bulk of their offence derive from the arm of Anthony Calvillo who put together a very solid outing following a disappointing performance two weeks ago in Calgary.
Calvillo completed 28-of-38 passes for 395 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to wide receiver Brian Bratton. Bratton has been playing his best football of the season with Kerry Watkins watching on the sidelines due to injury. Bratton has hauled in 13 receptions for 175 yards and four touchdowns in three games in Watkins’ absence.
For Winnipeg, a ‘gut-move’ at quarterback by LaPolice almost cost his Bombers a post-season spot. LaPolice opted to go with rookie quarterback Alex Brink to start for the Blue Bombers in this past weekend’s Thanksgiving matchup but saw the move backfire and was eventually forced to put in Steven Jyles.
Jyles, however, strived under centre, completing 11-of-19 passes for 211 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to Greg Carr and Terrence Edwards.
The last time the Als and Bombers met, Carr torched the Als for 185 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The story, however, was the gutsy call made by Calvillo to throw deep to Brian Bratton on second-and-long for the game’s winning touchdown.
Sunday afternoon`s matchup will mark the the season-series finale between the Als and Bombers.
The Alouettes will face the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Percival Molson Stadium this Sunday, Oct. 17 at 1 p.m. (RDSHD, TSNHD, NRJ, CJAD 800).
