A.J. Ouellette appreciates the importance of the rushing game and the hushing game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always good when you can quiet a crowd, no matter where you\u2019re going,\u201d the Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 featured running back said heading into Saturday\u2019s CFL game against the host Montreal Alouettes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can go into hostile history and listen to the crickets chirp and watch the seats clear out early, it\u2019s nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the positive side of being a Rider is you get to see green everywhere you go, no matter if you\u2019re east, west \u2026 anywhere.\u201d
Montreal\u2019s Percival Molson Memorial Stadium is one of the noisier CFL venues \u2014\u00a0even without Alouettes fans blasting airhorns, which were outlawed at the venue earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Hence the need for a ground attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe run game is always important,\u201d said Ouellette, who is third in the league in rushing yards (490). \u201cYou want to shut up the crowd and quiet it down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easier to run the ball just on simple cadences. When you\u2019re in the pass game, you might want to go on \u20182\u2019 to slow down the pass rush. If you can establish the run game early, it can quiet the crowd down and open up the cadence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ouellette doesn\u2019t necessarily plan to be quiet around Alouettes quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, a former teammate in Toronto. They won a Grey Cup together with the Argonauts in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, there\u2019s a bond, and I feel a little at ease when I talk trash to him,\u201d Ouellette said with a smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I wasn\u2019t a teammate with him, he might just think I\u2019m a loser. Now I can talk trash and walk away with a smile.\u201d<\/p>\n
SENIOR STADIUM<\/p>\n
The Roughriders are preparing to visit a stadium that opened in 1915 \u2014\u00a0only five years after the Regina Rugby Club\u2019s inception.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, Saskatchewan quarterback (and ex-Alouette) Trevor Harris was asked if he can hear the ghosts when he enters Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever I go to a stadium, it\u2019s just 110 yards with 20 yards of end zone,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Montreal, there\u2019s a cut-off end zone. You\u2019ve just got to play with the real estate you\u2019re given and do the best you can each play and see where it comes up at the end of 60 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The end zones in Montreal are rounded off because a running track encircles the field of play.<\/p>\n
Do the different dimensions warrant some extra strategizing?<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course,\u201d said Harris, a former Alouette. \u201cWhen I was there in \u201922, we threw a pass to Geno (Lewis) and he was out of bounds by a mere couple of inches (because of the end zone\u2019s dimensions).<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, we started practising at Percival Molson on Day 3, during red-zone day, because of that. At the practice field at the Big O, we were full end zones. You\u2019ve got that extra space and it ended up costing us one time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to make sure that on Day 3 you understand that the cut-off end zones are going to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
MONTREAL MEMORIES<\/p>\n
The Roughriders\u2019 statistical standards for games in Montreal are as follows \u2026<\/p>\n
Touchdowns: 3 \u2014\u00a0Tom Campana (three receptions), Sept. 16, 1973.<\/p>\n
Field goals: 5 \u2014\u00a0Paul McCallum (5-5), Oct. 3, 1997.<\/p>\n
Longest field goal: 53 \u2014\u00a0Paul Watson, Aug. 2, 1981.<\/p>\n
Passing yards: 445 \u2014 Darian Durant, Aug. 6, 2010.<\/p>\n
Completions: 35 \u2014\u00a0Darian Durant (35-62), Aug. 6, 2010.<\/p>\n
Longest pass: 85 \u2014\u00a0Ron Lancaster to Rhett Dawson, July 29, 1975 (TD).<\/p>\n
Touchdown passes: 5 \u2014\u00a0Joe Barnes, Aug. 2, 1981.<\/p>\n
Receptions: 13 \u2014\u00a0Craig Ellis (99 yards), Oct. 6, 1984; Weston Dressler (169), Aug. 6, 2010.<\/p>\n
Receiving yards: 179 \u2014 Weston Dressler (8), Aug. 21, 2009.<\/p>\n
Rushing yards: 141 \u2014 George Reed (20 carries), Sept. 12, 1965.<\/p>\n
Longest run: 60 \u2014 Bill Gray, Sept. 8, 1961.<\/p>\n
Interceptions by: 2 \u2014\u00a0Neil Habig, Oct. 24, 1963; James Marshall, July 29, 1975; Marshall Hamilton, July 7, 1983; Trent Bryant, Oct. 17, 1986.<\/p>\n
Longest interception return: 72 \u2014 Ted Dushinski, Oct. 4, 1967 (TD).<\/p>\n
Fumble returns: 2 \u2014 Don Bahnuik, Sept. 16, 1973; Steve Conley, Oct. 11, 1999.<\/p>\n
Longest fumble return: 55 \u2014 Earl Okine, Aug. 9, 2019 (TD).<\/p>\n
Defensive tackles: 12 \u2014\u00a0Eddie Lowe, Oct. 6, 1984; Billy Jackson, Oct. 17, 1986.<\/p>\n
Sacks: 2 \u2014\u00a0Vince Goldsmith, July 7, 1983; Reggie Hunt, Nov. 13, 2005 (playoffs); Marcus Adams, June 29, 2007; Luc Mullinder, June 29, 2007; Stevie Baggs, Aug. 21, 2009; Pete Robertson, Oct. 30, 2021; Jonathan Woodard, Oct. 30, 2021; Pete Robertson, June 23, 2022; Bryan Cox Jr., July 25, 2024.<\/p>\n
Longest punt return: 68 \u2014\u00a0Terryl Ulmer, Oct. 3, 1997 (TD).<\/p>\n
Longest kickoff return: 53 \u2014\u00a0Hugh Charles, July 24, 2011.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A.J. Ouellette appreciates the importance of the rushing game and the hushing game. \u201cIt\u2019s always good when you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-39729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39729","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=39729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}