Playoff football is finally here, and the 2025 post-season kicks off with the Eastern Semi-Final on Saturday afternoon.
The Montreal Alouettes host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium, in what will be their third meeting of the year. It’s also a rematch of the 110th Grey Cup, another layer of intrigue for Saturday’s matchup.
Montreal and Winnipeg met just one week ago in the final week of the regular season, but both teams were resting key starters, including their franchise pivots (more on them later). Their first bout was in Week 12, when Winnipeg won 26-13. It’s worth noting that Davis Alexander did not start for the Als in that one.
From pivots that are on opposite ends of their careers, to a team looking to make history, to a pair of dominant defences fit for a championship, the Eastern Semi-Final has everything a CFL fan could want.
With no shortage of storylines in the Eastern Semi-Final, here are three to watch this Saturday in Montreal.
2025 GREY CUP PLAYOFFS
» Buy Eastern Semi-Final Tickets: Winnipeg at Montreal
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THE KID VS. THE VET
If there’s only one matchup you keep an eye on in the Eastern Semi-Final on Saturday afternoon, it should be Davis Alexander vs. Zach Collaros.
Well, sure, they’re not technically going head-to-head, but it’s close enough as both are looking to lead their teams to the Eastern Final on November 8.
Alexander has never started a playoff game, but he knows how to win in this league. The 27-year-old has won all 11 starts he’s made. That’s right. He’s never lost a start in the CFL.
Collaros, on the other hand, has a plethora of playoff and Grey Cup experience. The 37-year-old is making his ninth playoff start, and has gone 7-1 in his first eight. He’s also taken his Bombers to the Grey Cup in the last five seasons, and while the last three didn’t end up in wins, the savvy vet knows what it takes to make it to the final game of the year.
Neither quarterback played a full season in 2025, each dealing with injuries at different points of the year. Collaros led the Bombers in 13 games, throwing for 3,048 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions, and had a 72.6 completion percentage. Alexander played in just eight games, connecting on 72.5 per cent of his passes for 2,024 yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions. Alexander also wasn’t afraid to throw it deep, averaging 9.3 yards per pass, and finished the regular season with a 110.7 passer rating, tied with Trevor Harris for second-best among starting QBs.
Will the two-time MOP and three-time Grey Cup Champion come out on top of this battle? Or will the new guy with the swagger and who doesn’t know what it’s like to lose in the Canadian Football League lead his team to victory?
CROSSOVER TEAM
For the first time since the 2019 season, there will be a crossover in the CFL. That season, the Edmonton Elks crossed over into the East and eventually lost to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Eastern Final.
No crossover team has ever made it to the Grey Cup. Will Winnipeg be the first to do it? They sure hope so.
The Bombers haven’t played on the road in the playoffs since 2019, when they ran the table in the West. They won in the Western Semi-Final and Western Final before finishing the season hoisting the Grey Cup.
Winnipeg is no stranger to winning November football, having made the big show each of the last five seasons. We’ve grown to learn that when the weather cools down, the Blue and Gold heat up. Despite it being an unfamiliar path to the Grey Cup, if any team is capable of making history and becoming the first, it’s Winnipeg.
While Collaros and co. will be hoping to win two games on the road before turning home to Winnipeg to play in the 112th Grey Cup, their first task is this Saturday against Montreal.
DEFENCE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS
You’ve heard the old adage of defence wins championships and both teams in this year’s Eastern Semi-Final have defences that can get the job done.
The Als’ stingy defence can make plays on every single level. Darnell Sankey and Geoffrey Cantin-Arku make plays in the middle, while Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund and Shawn Oakman provide pressure on the quarterback. And don’t forget about the defensive backfield, where Marc-Antoine Dequoy and Wesley Sutton patrol. Tyrice Beverette may be the biggest playmaker of them all, filling up his stat sheet as the jack-of-all-trades for the Als.
Montreal finished the regular season with the most forced fumbles (17) and tied for most fumble recoveries (12), finishing the year +8. The turnover differential could be the difference against a Winnipeg team that finished the year -11.
Don’t count out the Winnipeg defence, however. They have plenty of playmakers as well, including linebacker Tony Jones, who finished the year second in the league in defensive tackles (102). Willie Jefferson can take over a big game all on his own with his veteran leadership, just look back at his performance in the 111th Grey Cup, and his long arms (CFL leading 16 knockdowns in the regular season).
The Eastern Semi-Final may come down to which defence can make a key stop in crunch time or force the most turnovers to punch their ticket to the Eastern Final.