The Montreal Alouettes will look to extend their winning streak to five games when they take on the Ottawa Redblacks at TD Place on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET. The Als beat the Redblacks, 30-10, last Monday in Montreal.

10/10/10

There are a few interesting stats that came out of last Monday’s win. You’ll notice that the number 10 will pop up quite a bit in these impressive statistics.

Davis Alexander is now 10-0 as a starting quarterback in the CFL. He set the record for most consecutive wins to start a career in league history after his ninth in a row and now he’s set on trying to make it impossible to reach.

Even though he came up on the winning end of Monday’s game, Alexander admitted that he didn’t love the way he played.

“I think I just had a couple of inaccurate throws. It happens,” the Portland State alum said. “There were a couple of times where I skipped past a progression and got back to our underneath stuff too fast. That happens too. I just have to stay true to myself and true to the reads. It’s all minor stuff, but I can improve,”

Alexander was left bloodied after a quarterback sneak last week. He said he got three stitches because of the hit.

The Alouettes have won their last 10 games against the Ottawa Redblacks. Their last loss to Ottawa came more than three years ago, when they dropped a 24-18 decision to them at Percival Molson Stadium on Oct. 10, 2022. Current general manager Danny Maciocia was interim head coach at the time, which means that Jason Maas has never lost to the Redblacks (9-0-0).

Maas’ squad has also rattled off 10 consecutive victories at TD Place. The last time the Alouettes suffered a defeat in Ottawa was before the pandemic. The team lost, 24-17, on Aug. 11, 2018.

First place still on the line

The Alouettes are still in the hunt for first place in the East Division. They need to take care of their own business, but they’ll also need a little help, too.

The Als must defeat Ottawa this week and Winnipeg next week, and they’ll need the Redblacks to defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on the road next week. If those three things happen, the Als will finish first in the East.

“The expectation is that we’ll go in there and win. That’s what we want to do,” Maas said on Thursday. “For whatever reason that is, that’s just the way we’re built and wired here. We know what lies ahead if we do that. The great thing about this time of year is that the focus is just on ourselves getting better and winning games. I don’t think anybody is shy about saying that we want to win every single one of them from here on out. We know what we have to do.”

Improve the run defence

If there is one area where the team could improve, it’s their defence against the run, according to safety Marc-Antoine Dequoy. The Redblacks ran for 121 yards on 21 rushing attempts (5.8 yards per carry) on Monday afternoon.

“We have to be able to stop the run better than we did. Allowing them to go over 100 yards is way too much,” Dequoy admitted after Thursday’s practice. “We left a lot of yards out on the field. We have to get better at that.”

The Als are fifth in the CFL against the run, as they allow just over 101 yards on the ground per game. Toronto, B.C., Calgary and Hamilton all surrender more yards on the ground than the Alouettes.

The Redblacks are second in the league in that category. They give up just over 90 yards rushing per game.

One change to the roster

The Alouettes will make one change to their roster for this game. They’ll sit linebacker Caleb Johnson, who made his CFL debut last week. Johnson made a block on Redblacks punter Richie Leone after Dequoy blocked a punt in the first quarter.

He’ll be replaced by fellow American linebacker Bubba Bolden.

Returner James Letcher Jr. will miss a third consecutive game due to injury.