With top spot in the East Division already secured, the Montreal Alouettes plan to keep the intensity level high as they tune up for the playoffs on Monday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n
Montreal (12-3) can improve to a perfect 9-0 at home with a victory over Saskatchewan (8-7), a feat accomplished just twice before in franchise history (1954 and 2009) and eight times in the history of the CFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely an honour and a privilege,\u201d said Alouettes quarterback Davis Alexander. \u201cThe important part is just finding a way to get a win, having our fans enjoy the game and getting ready for the playoffs.”<\/p>\n
Alouettes head coach Jason Maas attributes the team\u2019s success at Percival Molson Stadium to Montreal\u2019s passionate fanbase. The Thanksgiving Day game is expected to be a sellout.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big shout-out to our fans because I think they make it extremely hard and difficult for opposing teams to come in here and play,\u201d said Maas. \u201cI think it\u2019s a huge home-field advantage for us. We\u2019ve taken advantage, obviously, this year. Our guys love playing in our stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Alouettes will host the Eastern Final on Nov. 7. They secured the division’s first seed last week with a 37-10 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
Montreal has been in this situation before in recent years. The Alouettes clinched top spot with three games left to play in 2024, but dropped three of their next four games, including an East final loss to the visiting Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite a few of us were part of that 2024 team so obviously finishing strong down the stretch is important,\u201d said Maas. \u201cStaying healthy is important as well. Ultimately, it\u2019s about competing every single day, staying focused on the day-to-day tasks and not thinking too far ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Roughriders, meanwhile, are looking to end a three-game losing streak and stay afloat in a competitive West Division race.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan is tied with the Blue Bombers and Calgary Stampeders with 16 points, but the Roughriders have a game in hand on Winnipeg and two on Calgary.<\/p>\n
Both Winnipeg and Calgary, however, hold the tiebreaker over the Roughriders by virtue of their respective season series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know perhaps the implications may not be ‘win and you\u2019re in’ this week, but we control the narrative,\u201d Roughriders head coach Corey Mace told reporters this week in Saskatchewan. “You\u2019ve got three games left in the season. If you win each one, you\u2019re putting yourself in good (position).<\/p>\n
“Right now, we\u2019re focused obviously on the task at hand out there on Thanksgiving Day against a good opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan will have to contain the explosive duo of Alexander and star receiver Tyson Philpot if they hope to win their first road game since Aug. 1.<\/p>\n
Alexander is just 146 yards shy of 5,000 passing yards on the season, while Philpot leads the CFL with 1,735 receiving yards and 119 receptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhilpot is a great deep threat,\u201d said Saskatchewan cornerback Tevaughn Campbell, who is returning to the lineup after missing eight games with a forearm injury. \u201cHe has great ball judgment. He goes up and gets it. You’ve just got to limit that.”<\/p>\n
While Campbell will be making his return, the Roughriders will be without top receiver KeeSean Johnson due to an ankle injury. He’s fourth in the CFL in receiving yards (1,243) and second in receptions (101).<\/p>\n
The game also marks the first meeting between the two teams since Saskatchewan defeated Montreal 25-17 in last November’s Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
Maas acknowledged the lingering disappointment of that loss but said his team is focused on the present rather than revenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about faceless opponents so we could care less who we\u2019re playing, but any athlete will tell you they look for added motivation,\u201d said Maas. \u201cI know last November it sure didn\u2019t feel great leaving that stadium at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s just unfortunate it took 11 months to get an opportunity to play them again, but we\u2019re looking forward to playing them on Thanksgiving in front of our home crowd and playing Alouette football.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two clubs will meet again on Saturday in Regina to complete the home-and-home series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With top spot in the East Division already secured, the Montreal Alouettes plan to keep the intensity level…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-929262","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\/929262","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=929262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}