MONTREAL \u2013 A showdown of top teams closes out a Saturday doubleheader and Week 9 when the Saskatchewan Roughriders visit the Montreal Alouettes at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n
The West Division-leading Roughriders defeated the Edmonton Elks in Week 8.<\/p>\n
Montreal took down the Calgary Stampeders.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s three keys to victory for both teams ahead of Saturday\u2019s 7:00 p.m. ET kickoff, which can be watched on TSN and RDS in Canada, on CBSSN in the U.S., and CFL+ internationally.<\/p>\n
RELATED SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS<\/p>\n 1. PUTTING ON PRESSURE<\/p>\n The Roughriders had eight sacks against Edmonton, and finding their way to McLeod Bethel-Thompson<\/a> will be a focus. Defensive lineman Malik Carney<\/a> had two of those sacks and knows the former Argos pivot well from his time with the Ticats.<\/p>\n 2. COVERAGE DOWNFIELD<\/p>\n Montreal has been getting big performances from several receivers, whether it was Tyler Snead<\/a>\u2019s 103 yards last week or 129 from Cole Spieker<\/a> in Week 7. Regardless of who Bethel-Thompson turns to, Rolan Milligan Jr., DaMarcus Fields and Marcus Sayles<\/a> need to step up for a secondary that sits last in passing yards allowed per game with 331.6.<\/p>\n 3. CONTINUE TO MANAGE THE CLOCK<\/p>\n Saskatchewan leads the league in time of possession, averaging 31:26 with the ball. Featuring a passer as efficient as quarterback Trevor Harris<\/a> and a rusher as strong as AJ Ouellette, they need to continue to find a way to stay on the field for extended drives, and in turn, keep Montreal\u2019s offence on the sidelines.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n MONTREAL ALOUETTES<\/p>\n 1. PASS GAME SUPPORTING CAST<\/p>\n Head coach Jason Maas\u2019 team has to navigate another week without receiver Tyson Philpot<\/a> and now Austin Mack, who\u2019s out with an ankle injury. If there\u2019s good news, it\u2019s that Snead and Spieker have stepped up when the ball has been thrown their way. Maas will also look for more from Charleston Rambo and Regis Cibasu to round out the air attack.<\/p>\n 2. LIMIT TIME AND SPACE<\/p>\n The Alouettes\u2019 26 pass knockdowns rank second in the CFL, and maintaining tight coverage will be important against the accuracy of Harris. Defensive back Kabion Ento<\/a> has three of the team\u2019s eight interceptions but is a game-time decision as he deals with a calf issue, while Lorenzo Burns has 25 defensive tackles.<\/p>\n 3. HOUNDING TREVOR HARRIS<\/p>\n The other way the Als can keep Harris from executing at a high level is to force him into rushed decisions. As a team, Montreal has 16 sacks, good for second best, while the Riders have allowed nine. Defensive linemen Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund<\/a> and Shawn Oakman, and linebacker Tyrice Beverette<\/a>, have accounted for half of those. With the Riders boasting a league-best 73.8 completion percentage, keeping points off the board starts with making Harris work for everything he gets.<\/p>\n NEED TO KNOW:<\/p>\n This is the first meeting between the Als and Riders this season.
\u00bb Depth Charts: SSK<\/a>\u00a0| MTL<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Game Notes: Roughriders at Alouettes<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Tickets: Saskatchewan at Montreal<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Injury Reports: Stay up to date<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Who\u2019s gonna win? Play CFL Pick \u2018Em presented by Old Dutch now!<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMontreal won both matchups in 2024 by a combined seven points.
\nKickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET and can be watched on TSN and RDS in Canada, on CBSSN in the U.S., and CFL+ internationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 A showdown of top teams closes out a Saturday doubleheader and Week 9 when the Saskatchewan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-46120","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\/46120","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=46120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}