CFL.ca
Regina – While the Montreal Alouettes remain in the thick of the playoff race, the Saskatchewan Roughriders find themselves taking the schedule one game at a time.
As the season enters the final stretch, it isn’t a surprise that some teams may need a spark to gear up for the upcoming crucial games. For Montreal, that boost may have come from the return of Jonathan Crompton. After being placed on the injured list following Week 1, the Alouettes pivot came back under centre and led the Larks to victory over the Bombers.
It wasn’t all roses for Crompton, however. Along with 181 yards and two touchdowns he also threw a pair of interceptions. It can take some time for a quarterback to get back on the same page as his receivers and Crompton focused on regaining that cohesion during practice this week.
“I’m trying to get back in the swing of things. I’ve had a good week,” said Crompton. “We’ve done a good job offensively making sure we know where the ball’s going, getting it there on time. The guys are making plays and that’s the big thing. We’re honing together, we’re playing together and we’re playing well right now.”
Head coach Jim Popp was mum throughout the week when pressed about who will be starting for the Alouettes against the Riders. Rakeem Cato, who filled in for Crompton while he was hurt, had missed a number of practices dealing with a family matter while Crompton was just coming back. While Crompton is listed as the starter on the depth chart, Popp cautioned that certain situations may call for a change under centre.
“It’s a matter of how the game is going or situation or packages,” said Popp. “You may see all three quarterbacks in the game.”
Crompton isn’t fazed by the possibility of Cato playing over him and is only worrying about what he does on the field.
“It doesn’t. This is professional sports so you never think of that. You go out there and focus on yourself, you focus on the guys around you and play ball.”
On the other side of the ball, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are seeing their playoff hopes fade as each week passes. While still mathematically in the race, a lot of dominos will need to fall their way in order to secure a playoff berth.
Instead, the Riders are focusing on taking the calendar one week at a time and are still preparing to win every game.
“They’re mentally strong. They’re going in and they’re preparing to win this weekend,” said head coach Bob Dyce.
“What we want to do is always maintain focus. If you’re not working on things to help you overcome some of your challenges then you’re not giving it the due diligence so we want to make sure that we’re locked in and taking care of all situations.”
The season has given the opportunity for younger players to see increased roles in the playbook while giving the coaching staff the chance to fully evaluate many pieces on the roster.
The emergence of rookies Jeff Knox, Nic Demski, Naaman Roosevelt and Andre Monroe are just some of the examples of players who have taken advantage of more playing time.
“We talked a little bit at the end of practice about young guys stepping up when they have their opportunity,” said Dyce. “Those are two guys (Roosevelt and Monroe) who have done an outstanding job of that. It’s really nice to see.”
The veterans on the roster have not lost sight of their roles both on and off the field. They realize that as the experienced leaders on the team they still can have a positive impact on their younger teammates.
“It’s obviously a tough situation that we’re in, that we put ourselves in, but as professional players we need to make sure that everyone’s still focused on winning this week because you never know what can happen in this league and stranger things have happened,” said Weston Dressler.
Though not eliminated yet, no club has ever made the playoffs with a 1-11 start. A win by Montreal would ensure that the best they could do would be a tie at 6 wins with the Alouettes at season’s end so it is a must win this week.
-Picking up where he left off, Glenn extended his streak to 5 consecutive games of 200+ yards passing. He has another unusual streak of 5 straight games with an interception and that is 6 including the final game of 2014.
-John Chick had just one sack in the first 5 games of the season but now has 7 sacks in his last 7 games to reach a tie for #3 in the CFL.
-Paul McCallum made 4 field goals last week raising his career total to 713, #2 all-time. It was the 54th time that he has made 4 or more in a single game. Since 2009, McCallum’s FG% has been 89.7% on 245-of-273 after being at 76.8% through 2008.
-John Bowman had 2 sacks last week for his second multi-sack game of 2015, & for the 15th time in his career with 2 or more. Bowman is #1 among active players with 90 and ranks #12 all-time in CFL history, 5 behind #11 Mike Walker (96).
-Fred Stamps is #36 in the CFL’s all-time receiving leader stats, spots #30-37 are tightly packed. With another 103 yards can move all the way up to #30 passing six other players.
-The rookie kicker leads the CFL with a kickoff average of 70.6 yards. That would shatter the CFL record of 67.9 yards set by Jamie Boreham in 2010. He made four more FGs last week increasing his % success rate to 93.5% on 29-of-31 attempts – he has not missed inside of 44 yards all year. To set a new single-season record (held by Rene Paredes at 94.74%) he needs to either not miss the rest of the way with at least 8 more makes (to get to 37/39 for 94.87%), OR go 26-of-27 if he misses one (making it 55-of-58 94.83%).
