Sep 20 Alouettes Dirty The Clean Slate of the Eskimos With A 31-14 Win

While there may have been a couple of surprises during yesterday's game when the Montreal Alouettes dismantled the Edmonton Eskimo's by a score of 31-14, the victory was never in doubt. The Alouettes jumped to a 19-0 lead by the end of the 1st quarter, and never once looked back. Perhaps Als' fans may be slightly concerned about Calvillo's league best passer rating taking a bit of a decline after his 24-42 and 1 interception, albeit for 327 yards performance, but this team has never been about individual performances since coach Trestman took the helm. Their linebacker Diamond Ferri did his part in returning a kick 85 yards for a touchdown to help the Alouettes take a 12-0 lead, following by a rushing touchdown from Avon Cobourne. Damon Duval did the rest by adding 3 more of his 4 field goals, along with a single, in an anti-climactic dominating Alouettes win in front of their 101st sell out crowd at the newly renovated Percival Molson Stadium.

Newly hired GM Eric Tillman of the Edmonton Eskimos summed up the game in what has to be considered the quote of the week, "It's kind of like waking up from an 18-month coma only to find out that you're having a triple root canal the first weekend. It was a tough day at the office,". Tillman had said that he was giving everyone a clean slate for this 2nd half of the season, but this is obviously the same old Eskmos team. This was Montreal's 2nd and final meeting against the Eskmos for the regular season, after having beaten them 33-23 in Edmonton on Week 2. Montreal improves their record to 8-3 and maintain their 2 game lead over Hamilton and Toronto in the East Division. Edmonton has the worst record in the CFL at 2-9.

Montreal must now contend with a short week and travel as they face the Blue Bombers in Winnipeg on Friday, September 24th. Winnepeg had perhaps thought that they had turned a corner when they snapped a 5 game losing streak with a stunning 31-2 victory over the Saskatechwan RoughRiders last week, only to have their backs broken with a come from behind victory by the Toronto Arogonauts on Sunday. The Blue Bombers are still in a playoff position despite being last in the East Division, thanks to the famous "crossover" rule in the CFL, which allows the last place team in one division to take the spot of the 3rd place team in the other division, should they have a better record than the 3rd place team. Both the Blue Bombers, and the 3rd place West Division BC Lions have a 3-8 record.

THE SCRUM:

Herb Z of the Gazette and AlsInside reports on the game.

Here is a more generic approach by the Canadian Press on TSN

Mario Annicchiarico of the Edmonton Journal is looking at GM Eric Tillman's body language.

Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun thinks is been "that kind of season" for the "Same Old Esks".

(photo credit: Shaun Best, Reuters)

Tags: calvillo \ cfl \ Edmonton Eskimos \ Ferri \ football \ Montreal Alouettes \ Trestman