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Montréal – Jonathan Crompton will make his first start since Week 1 for the Montreal Alouettes when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers visit Percival-Molson Stadium to close out Week 13 action on Sunday afternoon. The game will be broadcast on TSN, TSN 690 and on ESPN 3.
⇒ WHAT NOT TO MISS ON SUNDAY’S GAME
Crompton left the first game of the season with a shoulder injury. Since then, the Allouettes have played four different quarterbacks over the past 12 weeks.
Crompton has a history of turning teams around after last year, which is exactly what the Alouettes need as they sit at the bottom of the East.
The quarterback established a name for himself in the CFL in 2014 when he made his first start for the Als midway through the season, taking over for Tory Smith. Montreal was a 1-7 team when Crompton took over, but lost only two games the rest of the regular season and finished with a 9-9 record.
But Crompton says that he is focused on this season and not what happened last year.
“We’re not looking in the past,” Crompton told MontrealAlouettes.com. “We have a lot of veteran guys that know what’s at stake and know what we have to do. We need to go on a run, and in our minds we’re thinking, ‘Why not us?’”
The quarterback situation has been a rollercoaster in Montreal, as the Alouettes have continued to cycle through quarterbacks since Week 1.
But newly appointed co-offensive coordinator Anthony Calvillo says that the quarterback instability throughout the season will not affect the team’s game plan.
“When we’re developing the plays, we don’t even think about the quarterback position, said Calvillo. “We didn’t care who it was. We’re going to build plays based on how we think it’s going to benefit our football team. We’re going to go with the guy who’s healthy and who’s going to give us the best chance.”
The Alouettes will be well rested heading into the match as the team is coming off of a bye week. Montreal last played on Sept. 3 when they fell 25-16 to the BC Lions at home.
The Als will be up against another tough matchup as Matt Nichols will get his second start for the Blue Bombers after being traded three weeks ago by the Edmonton Eskimos. Despite the Bombers’ slow start last week that saw Nichols fumble the ball twice and trail 7-3 at half, the pivot was able to lift the team to a 22-7 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in his first start as a Bomber. Nichols finished the Banjo Bowl 21-for-30 and 283 yards with one touchdown pass and one interception.
He will have a tough task ahead of him as he faces one of the league’s top defences. Montreal has allowed the least amount of points with 207 heading into Week 13.
“They’re going to make you work for every point that you get,” Nichols told BlueBombers.com. “It’s tough that way in this league. You need explosion plays to put points up on the board and they’re a team that doesn’t really allow that. “
Nichols and the Bombers will have some help getting past the Als’ defence with the return of the teams’ top receiver Nick Moore. It was believed that Moore would not be in the lineup for at least a week after suffering a minor shoulder injury the previous game and missing practice at the beginning of the week.
But Moore, who leads the team with 547 yards on 47 catches, ensured at Friday’s practice that he is good to go against the Als.
“I think the coaches didn’t think that I needed to be out here for three days,” said Moore. “They kind of threw me a bone and let me know that if I was good to go that they were going to play me.”
The Blue Bombers have won the last five matches against the Montreal Alouettes.
The Als are hoping for a better result this time around and will also be looking for redemption against the Bombers. Although the Als are known for their strong defensive play, it was Winnipeg’s defence and special teams that stole the show when the teams met in Week 3. Johnny Adams had a pick six while Teague Sherman’s touchdown off of a blocked punt helped the Bombers edge out a 25-23 victory over the Alouettes. Lirim Hajrullahu also added four field goals in the Blue Bombers’ winning effort.
Game Notes:
-The five consecutive Winnipeg victories over Montreal have come by a total of only 26 points (5.2 per game) and none by more than eight points. It is the longest current win streak for Winnipeg over any other club, and the longest since a seven-game winning run vs. Saskatchewan across 2002-2004. Their club record is 11 in a row over Calgary 1959-1962 and Saskatchewan from 1977-1981.
-The Als #1 QB Jonathan Crompton returns this week after missing 9-game due to injury. He started the season opener and went 5-of-17 for 51 yards with one interception, one TD pass and only 29 offensive plays run. All-time his QB record as a starter is 8-3, however, he has never started against Winnipeg.
-Last week Nick Moore caught just three passes but took them for 103 yards for his first 100+ yard game of the season. It was the very first time he has reached the 100-yard mark for Winnipeg in the 18 games he has played since signing in 2014.
– In their last game, S.J. Green caught just one pass for 11 yards and was targeted six times. It was lowest catch total since getting one on Oct. 13, 2014 vs. Saskatchewan. The one reception last game extended his current streak to 22 games with at least one catch. Green is now #3 in the CFL with 701 yards on 43 receptions with 14 going for key second down conversions.
-Over his last 3 games, Kyler Elsworth has 15 tackles and three QB sacks. Last game he led Montreal with eight tackles.
-As they will be doing this week, since 2013 the Alouettes have come off a bye week four times and have just a 1-3 record in those games. They lost in 2013, split in 2014 and lost this year on Aug. 1, 2015 to Calgary.
-The Blue Bombers shutout Saskatchewan over the final 44:39 of the game last week and limited them to a season low 169 net yards and 13 first downs. That was the best defensive effort by Winnipeg since they held BC to 6 points on July 25, 2014. The last time a Winnipeg opponent had fewer than 169 net yards was on July 4m 2013 when Montreal had just 122 net yards.
