MONTREAL - The Montreal Alouettes' late-season slide looks to be over.
Anthony Calvillo returned from a calf injury to throw two touchdown
passes and Damon Duval kicked six field goals as the Alouettes pounded
the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 48-13 on Sunday afternoon for a team
record-tying 14th win of the season.
The victory came a week after a 41-24 loss in Winnipeg with back-up
Adrian McPherson at quarterback, and gave the Alouettes a perfect 9-0
record at home this season.
Calvillo said the calf was completely healed and he'll be ready to
play when the Alouettes (14-3) go after a 15th win as they close the
regular season Saturday against the 3-14 Argonauts in Toronto.
"Every
team's goal is to be undefeated at home and have a winning record at
home and that would get you to about 14-4, so we're right on target,"
the veteran pivot said. "We're excited about it because it's something
we haven't done since I've been here.
"And we didn't want to make them think they could beat us at home.
Last week, they played well and give them credit for that, but we
wanted to play the way we wanted, putting offence, defence and special
teams together, and we did that and you saw the result."
Marc Trestman's Alouettes equaled their win total of 2004 under
former coach Don Matthews. That year, Calvillo was injured in
the East final and they were beaten by the Argonauts.
Brian Bratton and Andrew Hawkins caught TD passes, Larry Taylor
scored on a 115-yard missed field goal return and Avon Cobourne ran in
his 15th TD of the season for Montreal.
Titus Ryan had a TD catch and Alexis Serna booted two field goals
for the Blue Bombers (7-10), who can still finish second in the East Division
with a win over Hamilton (8-9) next weekend.
The Bombers and Ticats split two games this season, both in
Hamilton. If the Ticats win, they take second place outright and
Winnipeg will be bumped from the playoffs by a crossover team from the
West Division. If Winnipeg wins, they will tie Hamilton but they'll take second
place by winning the season series.
That may be why the Bombers, who beat Montreal 41-24 in Winnipeg last weekend, were never in the return match.
Coach Mike Kelly was irate when it was suggested his team didn't
show up. His offence was held to 197 net yards and only
seven first downs, compared to 392 yards for Montreal.
"We played hard," he said. "I never questioned the effort our players put in and if anyone questions it they're dead wrong.
"We just couldn't seem to sustain anything today. We had too many
drops. It was just one of those days where we didn't get any kind of
rhythm."
He said his team will have to forget the loss and concentrate on the Tiger-Cats, who downed Saskatchewan 24-6 on Saturday.
"We have to," Kelly added. "They put us over their knee and gave us
a little spanking and said 'We're the big dogs,' and we understand that
and congratulations to them.
"They're a good football team. It's hard to go 9-0 at home and they
were able to do it. Ok, it's over, now all our thoughts are positive
and getting ready for Hamilton."
Kelly liked that his defence forced Montreal to kick field goals
instead of scoring six touchdowns, a problem
that has dogged Montreal all season.
"We got more field goals than we wanted, but we scored when we needed to," replied Calvillo.
The Bombers got a break when Taylor fumbled the opening kickoff and
Derrick Doggett recovered at the Montreal 18-yard line - but they had to
settle for a field goal.
The Alouettes bounced back with a Duval field goal followed by a 24-yard TD pass to Bratton. Montreal got five more
points off a safety and a 27-yard Duval field goal in the first quarter.
Hawkins caught a 19-yard scoring pass 11:01 into the second.
Serna answered with a 40-yard field goal for a 25-6 Montreal halftime
lead.
It was a statement game for the struggling Montreal defence, which allowed 79 points in its previous two games. Star tailback Fred
Reid was held to one yard on six carries in the first half and ended up
with 37 on 11 attempts, while Michael Bishop completed only 8-of-21
throws for 145 yards.
Much of that yardage came 21 seconds into the second half when he found Ryan behind the Montreal defence for a 65-yard TD pass.
"We knew we were a better defence than that," said rush end Anwar
Stewart. "For us to go undefeated at home was great because we know
that if we go out and do our thing, nobody can stop us and we did that
today."
The Alouettes hit back with a Duval kick, then when Serna's 46-yard
attempt fell short, Taylor brought it back for the third-longest return
TD in Alouettes history.
"That's probably the most exciting play in football," said Taylor, who had 335 return yards on the day.
Duval got his fifth and sixth field goals in the fourth
to give him 48 for the season, three short of his career high. His 22 points gave him a career-high 218, only two
short of Terry Baker's club record set in 2000.
McPherson was at quarterback when Cobourne scored on a 14-yard run in the fourth.
Bishop came out in favour of Casey Bramlet five minutes into the
final quarter. He was picked off by Billy Parker to set up a Duval
field goal.
Kelly said Bishop had a hamstring problem.
"It was bothering him a bit so why tweak it any more?" the coach
said. "I looked at our playlist and we didn't have any 25-point plays,
so I figured what the heck, let's go ahead and put the other guy in and
get him some reps." Kick returner Jevon Johnson also hurt an ankle, but
he said it was minor and he'll be ready to go next week.
For Montreal, linebacker Walter Spencer had a hamstring problem and
Hawkins hurt his ribs, but Trestman said it did not appear to be
serious.
