The Montreal Alouettes demonstrated the form that has made them the CFLs top team in a Saturday visit to Winnipeg. Anthony Calvillo threw four touchdown passes and the tenacious Montreal defense all but shut down the Winnipeg offense as the Alouettes prevailed easily over the Blue Bombers by a 39-12 score. The Alouettes improved to 6-1 in CFL play, while the Bombers dropped to 2-5.
CFL bettors who backed Montreal cashed their tickets as the Als easily covered as -8 road favorites. Montreal improved to 5-2 against the number while the Blue Bombers slipped to 4-3 against the spread. The combined 51 points scored exceeded the posted total of 47, leaving each team with a 4-3 edge to the OVER this season.
Calvillo not only through four TD passes, he through three consecutive passes for touchdowns which is a feat that he cant recall accomplishing before:
“Somebody mentioned that to me out there. I didn’t realize that and they asked me if it’s ever been done or if I’d done it before and I can’t recall.”
Montreals defense held Winnipeg to four FGs and recovered four Blue Bomber turnovers that led to Alouette scores. After the game, Calvillo gave all of the credit for the victory to the defense and insisted that his team had a lot of work to do:
“Our defence put us on the short field throughout the night and we capitalized on the turnovers. We have a lot of work to do. We had a few dropped passes, a few misreads by myself and two turnovers. We’re always looking to improve and we definitely have to improve on offence.”
Kerry Watkins caught one of Calvillos touchdowns and spoke his pleasure in playing with the CFL legend in his postgame interview:
“It’s a great accomplishment, but something we don’t keep track of. It’s an honour. That’s a living legend. I’ve been so fortunate to play my whole (six-year) career with him.”
Bombers head coach Mike Kelly, who also serves as the teams offensive coordinator, chafed when asked if it was time to revamp the offense:
“There’s nothing wrong with this scheme. I’ve seen this scheme work 1,000 times .If you want to get right down to it, we have to block when we need to block and catch when we need to catch and throw to the right people. And right now we’re not doing those things so we’ll continue to look at it.”
Winnipeg defensive tackle Doug Brown concurred with his coachs assessment:
“Let’s put it this way, we were in a good enough dogfight without as many critical errors as we made ourselves. You play a team of this calibre, the last thing you need to do is dig yourself your own hole with penalties and turnovers and missed tackles and not executing our assignments and so on and so forth.”
Montreal will host Saskatchewan next Friday night, while Winnipeg travels to Vancouver for a game against the British Columbia Lions.
Ross Everett is a freelance writer and noted authority on football betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.