{"id":244933,"date":"2025-10-28T05:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T05:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/244933\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T05:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T05:08:11","slug":"tale-of-the-tape-eastern-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/244933\/","title":{"rendered":"Tale of the Tape: Eastern Semi-Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an old axiom in boxing which \u2018styles make fights\u2019 and take a deep dive into the Canadian Football League\u2019s Eastern Semi-Final between the Montreal Alouettes and Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the more compelling the match-up becomes.<\/p>\n

First, the basics: the showdown features the five-time West Division finalists in the Blue Bombers now venturing east as the crossover team for the first time in franchise history against an Alouette squad which at times this season has been pegged by many as the league\u2019s most-complete outfit.<\/p>\n

Both had the same record this season, both had struggles when their starting QBs were shelved, and both had moments this year where they teased with their potential some weeks and disappointed with their efforts in others.<\/p>\n

There is a veteran quarterback in Zach Collaros going against a young phenom in Davis Alexander, who has yet to take the first snap in a playoff game in this league but is a gaudy 11-0 as a starter.<\/p>\n

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There are two outstanding defensive coordinators in Winnipeg\u2019s Jordan Younger and Noel Thorpe of the Alouettes \u2014 two men who should be head coaching candidates somewhere soon \u2014 two offensive coordinators with wildly different resumes in Winnipeg\u2019s first-year \u2018O\u2019 boss Jason Hogan and Montreal\u2019s Anthony Calvillo, the all-time leading passer in this league, and two sensational special teams coordinators in Mike Miller of the Blue Bombers and Byron Archambault of the Als.<\/p>\n

And given the star power on both sides with grizzled vets and young guns alike, it all makes for a stylistically intriguing fight.<\/p>\n

Here is an Eastern Semi-Final Tale of the Tape to open the work week, with these topics to be dissected further in the days ahead leading up to Saturday\u2019s battle at Molson Stadium on the McGill University campus\u2026<\/p>\n

Blue Bombers (10-8) at Alouettes (10-8)<\/p>\n

All-time playoff series:<\/p>\n

Last playoff meeting: 2023 Grey Cup at Hamilton: Montreal 28 Winnipeg 24
\nThe Alouettes hold a 2-1 advantage in all-time playoff meetings, having also won the 2000 East Final 35-24 in Montreal and with the Blue Bombers winning the 2007 East Semi-Final in Winnipeg 24-22.<\/p>\n

2025 Season Matchups<\/p>\n

Head-to-head: The Blue Bombers won the season series 2-0.<\/p>\n

Game 1: August 21 \u2013 Winnipeg 26 Montreal 13<\/p>\n

Location: Molson Stadium, Montreal.<\/p>\n

Full game story: read it here.<\/a><\/p>\n

A brief recap: The Blue Bombers improved to 6-4 and overcame some injury adversity to get it done, with both Nic Demski and Jerreth Sterns leaving the game due to injury. Collaros was superb in completing 27-of-32 passes for 263 yards and a TD to Demski before he left the game and no interceptions. The club also rode the back of star running back Brady Oliveira, who had 210 yards from scrimmage with 16 carries for 137 yards and an additional 73 yards on nine receptions.<\/p>\n

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Winnipeg finished +3 in the turnover differential as the Alouettes were forced to start their fourth-string quarterback in James Morgan with Alexander along with McLeod Bethel-Thompson and Caleb Evans all injured.<\/p>\n

Quotable: \u201cI thought we were resilient and did a great job with the adversity we faced. The offence\u2026 losing a guy like Nic Demski, he does a lot for us. I mean, he\u2019s invaluable with what he brings to the table, obviously as a guy with the ball in his hands and then directing traffic out there and his understanding the game. So, losing him was big early. Joey Corcoran did a good job of stepping in.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then losing a guy like Sternsy\u2026 another super-smart guy, super-tough guy. Then throwing in Chris Streveler (at receiver) and being able to piece it together in the second half, I\u2019m just very proud of the group for being able to do that.\u201d \u2014 Collaros.<\/p>\n

Game 2: Winnipeg 19 Montreal 10<\/p>\n

Location: Princess Auto Stadium, Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

Full game story: read it here.<\/a><\/p>\n

A brief recap:\u00a0The Blue Bombers and Alouettes met in the regular-season finale for both clubs just last weekend. Winnipeg made nine changes to the roster, choosing to rest Collaros, Oliveira, Stanley Bryant, Pokey Wilson, Willie Jefferson, James Vaughters, Redha Kramdi and Trey Vaval while the Als gave the day off to Alexander and Tyler Snead, their leading receiver.<\/p>\n

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Winnipeg got the game\u2019s only TD on a QB sneak by Terry Wilson, who stepped in for an injured Chris Streveler and the defence limited Montreal to 236 yards net offence, including just 182 yards through the air.<\/p>\n

Quotable: \u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling for the guys in the locker room. It\u2019s flown by. This season is in the rear-view mirror already.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, now we\u2019ve moved on. We\u2019re not going to spend a lot of time looking in the rear-view mirror. That part is gone. Let\u2019s go forward from here with everything we\u2019ve got into this now. Let\u2019s earn some more time together.\u201d \u2014 Blue Bombers head coach Mike O\u2019Shea.<\/p>\n

5 Notable numbers from Blue Bombers vs. Alouettes<\/p>\n

100.38:\u00a0 Zach Collaros has a 100.38 QB efficiency rating in his last six games against the Alouettes, including the 2023 Grey Cup. The Blue Bombers are 4-2 in those games with the veteran pivot having completed 72.9 percent of his passes for eight TDs against six interceptions.<\/p>\n

93: Brady Oliveira has averaged 93 yards rushing in his last seven starts vs. Montreal, including 137 yards earlier this year. In those seven meetings he has four 100-yard rushing efforts.<\/p>\n

+5: Winnipeg\u2019s turnover differential in the two wins over Montreal this year. That number over the other 16 contests? An ugly -13.<\/p>\n

13: Targets for Montreal receiver Tyson Philpot, the hero of the \u201923 Grey Cup, in Saturday\u2019s loss to Winnipeg. He finished the game with six receptions for 66 yards and was not in the lineup for the meeting with Winnipeg in August.<\/p>\n

380: The two Montreal QBs facing Winnipeg this year \u2014 McLeod Bethel-Thompson and James Morgan \u2014 combined to throw for 380 yards in the two contests with one TD and three interceptions. Meanwhile, Davis Alexander was 11-0 as a starter, threw for 2,024 yards and had 10 touchdowns to just three interceptions. His 110.7 QB-efficiency rating was tied with Saskatchewan\u2019s Trevor Harris for second-best in the CFL to Nathan Rourke of B.C.\u2019s 112.2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s an old axiom in boxing which \u2018styles make fights\u2019 and take a deep dive into the Canadian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-244933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}