Things have really changed for the better for us Rider fans.  I started writing this article back in 2001.  Over the next few years, I was able to write about playoff games, but wished for the day I could write a Rider Grey Cup edition of Mits.  That wish finally came through in 2007, as I wrote the majority of the article while flying to Toronto. Now here we are two years later, and I get to write another one.  You have to go back to the 60s to find as good a time to be a Rider fan as it is today.  It’s been a while since these teams played so I can’t just recycle recent articles this time.

Offense

Quarterbacks:

This is an interesting matchup.  You have a QB who is the current league MVP and future hall of famer going up against the guy who looks like he is the next superstar QB in the league.  Anthony Calvillo has had another fabulous season.   Darian Durant has had a meteoric rise as this season went on.  Early in the year, I thought he was aiming rather than throwing the ball, hesitant to find secondary receivers, and not protecting the football.   He’s fixed all three.  The way he is playing right now, Darian would get the edge against almost any QB in the league; one of the exceptions being the guy he’s playing this week.  Edge Alouettes

Running backs:

It’s a double-edged sword watching the Rider running game.  On one hand, you can’t get one-dimensional and throw every down.  On the other hand it’s tough to see too many 1 and 2 yard gains.  On the other hand, you can’t get one-dimensional.  The one positive was the drive in the fourth quarter where Cates had his best carries to help eat up the clock.  Much to my surprise, Stu Foord got a few looks last week.  Avon Cobourne is quite the double threat for the Als.  Not only did he rush for over 1200 yds, but he’s also a good receiver out of the backfield.  Kerry Carter and Dahrran Diedrick give the Alouettes depth as well.  Edge Alouettes

Receivers:

The Riders’ Canadian receivers have gotten a lot of attention for their performance on Sunday.  It couldn’t have been a more fitting story with Fantuz, Getzlaf, and Bagg all getting TDs.  Ok, Jason Clermont also getting one would have made it complete.  Walker came back just in time with J.Q.’s injury.  Jason Armstead hasn’t seen a lot of looks as a receiver.  Just when you think this is a place where the Riders may have an edge, you look across at the Als numbers.  Kerry Watkins was second in the league in yardage, with Richardson and Cahoon also in the top 10.  You can’t exactly ignore Brian Bratton either.  If Weston Dressler or even Johnny Q had been healthy, you could have at least thought of making this an even matchup.  Slight Edge Montreal

Offensive line:

Through their decade of excellence, Montreal has consistently had a good line.  They are anchored by Bryan Chiu in the middle with Lambert and Flory as guards.  Josh Bourke and Jeff Parrett round out the line.  After some early trouble the Rider line did a great job of giving Darian lots of time to through last weekend.  Outside of the “flu game” against Hamilton, our pass protection has been very good in recent weeks.  When you put it in perspective, this line has done a good job for having 3 first time starters (Best, Parentue, and Bell).  Edge Montreal

Defense

Defensive line:

Big congratulations to John Chick on winning Defensive Player of the year award.  This marks the third straight year a Rider has captured an individual award (Joseph – 2007 MVP, Dressler 2008 rookie).  Another sign of how things have changed for the better.  Stevie Baggs was brilliant in the West Final against Calgary.  They aren’t getting a lot of press, but I think Shologan and Adams have played well recently in the middle.  Anwar Stewart and John Bowman would be the next best set of ends in the CFL.  Keron Williams has been a real force in the middle.  Eric Wilson has been decent.  This is a tough one.  I think the Riders are better on the outside, and the Alouettes are better in the middle so Even

Linebackers:

Rey Williams picked a perfect time to have his best game of the year for the Riders.  For the Riders to have a chance on Sunday he will have to be just as good again.  The second game in Montreal was Mike McCullough’s second start of the year at MLB.  Had he squeezed a football, he would have had a pick-six that day.  Mike ability to recognize and be a QB on defense could be huge vs. the Alouette motion on the sets where he is on the field.  Kornegay and Lucas give the Riders speed at OLB, if not size.  Like McCullough, Shea Emery’s play scored big for aspiring Canadian MLB’s everywhere.  Chip Cox did nicely in his transition to OLB from the secondary.  He has the aggressive nature to play LB, and it keeps his somewhat suspect coverage skills (imo) less likely to be exposed.  Diamond Ferri had some troubles earlier this year, but not recently.  Even

Secondary:

Mark Estelle and Davis Sanches are solid on the corners.  Estelle doesn’t get a lot of press but is one of the best.  Sanchez is aggressive, so you can still catch him deep but you need to be very careful with the out..  The Montreal halfbacks were a question mark going into this season but youngsters Jerald Brown and Billy Parker have held up well.  Mathew Prioulx had a couple of good games against the Riders, picking off Darian a couple of times.  The Als don’t lose much when they have to go to Etienne Boulay.  Omarr Morgan played like a man possessed on Sunday.  You could see how important it was for him to get to the show.  Davis and Frazier may be the best pair of halfbacks in the league.  James Patrick has really come on late in the year.  There was a good view on replay of his first pick on Hank last week.  The way he read Hank, went to the ball, and made the play was textbook.  Edge Riders

Special teams

Return game:

I am sure all of us in Rider nation were thinking about the lack of scoring in the third quarter last week, and wondering if the Riders would be trailing going into the fourth.   That big return by Armstead to start the half really got the momentum going in the Riders’ favour.  We could use another one from him this week.  Larry Taylor was an integral part of the 2^nd win for the Alouettes against the Riders as he took one to the house and then set up the Als with great field position on another return.  Edge Alouettes

Placekicking:

Damon Duval had a fantastic year for the Alouettes making 87 percent of his kicks.  Luca was less than that in the regular season.  He did come through with a couple of kicks last weekend.  The one into the wind in the fourth quarter was huge.  Luca has shown us since 2006 that he is a good playoff performer.  Even

Punting:

Damon Duval was in the middle of the pack in punting this year with a 44.8 yard average.  Louie Sakoda’s numbers have been the equivalent of Duval’s since he started punting for the Riders.  Louie’s impact on this team was evident very early in the West final.  On the first drive, the Riders were punting from deep in their end.  Louie got off a huge punt with great hangtime.  After the Stamps took a holding penalty, they started from inside their 45.  It’s reassuring to have a guy who can punt us out of trouble.  Even

When the Riders have the ball

There was a stark contrast in how the Riders did against the Als in the first and second matchup.  In the first game, the Riders were quite effectively shut down.  Wes Cates didn’t get rolling in his first game back.  The line was unsettled with injuries, and Darian was having growing pains.  The second game was a different story.  The Riders exploited some weaknesses in the Alouette D.  There were still issues with turnovers and the inability to cash in a first and goal from the one.

Even though it has not been overly successful, the Riders can’t just abandon the run.   Montreal’s front loves to pass rush, and we have to run the ball to keep them honest.  If Cates isn’t getting the yards, I am all for giving Stu some chances like last week.  Cates’s ability to pick up the blitz is invaluable so he should be the back for all the 2^nd down plays. 

The passing game requires some tricky balance.  The Riders had a problem with protecting the ball, so Darian has to be aware of that.  The Montreal defenders are good at stripping the ball, so he really has to be aware of what’s around him.  The secondary is aggressive so he has exercise good judgment throwing the ball.  At the same time playing scared and conservative is also not the answer.  The Riders proved in the 2^nd matchup that you can get over top on the Alouette defenders and hit big plays.  Bagg and Walker got long TDs and Dressler had a field day.  It really hurts that Weston is not back this week, but the Riders will have a red-hot Andy Fantuz who was not available in August.

Sanchez is a guy who you can definitely go after with deep ones.  I don’t think Nicholson is the answer for that so I would like to see Walker, Bagg, or Armstead line up there.  Even though the youngsters played well, the Riders should attack the Montreal halfs.  Our slots are our strength.  I don’t think Chip Cox can over our slots if he gets matched up man to man.   That is another area for a potential big play or at worst a holding penalty as he is notorious for dong that to receivers.  Bagg and Fantuz are the guys I would love to see matched up on Cox.  The Bagg on Cox matchup makes for some great one liners too.

Montreal generates a big rush from the outside so Geno and Joel Bell will have to have big games to give Darian time.  One of the key things Darian started doing in August was not hesitating to run when he saw openings.  He needs to do that again to help his line and escape pressure.  Making the linebackers respect him can open up room for the slots in behind them.

When the Alouettes have the ball

Coach Etcheverry has a very unenviable job of  trying to slow down the Montreal offense.  I say slow down, because as big a Rider supporter as I am, I really don’t think our defense can stop the Alouette offense cold.  I mentioned earlier that Rey Williams will need to have another big game.  The Als love to use motion to get Cobourne to the outside.  Rey is going to have to be fast at reading what’s going on so he can get to the whole before getting caught up by the o-linemen firing out.  The linebackers as a whole will need to have big days to stop Cobourne.

Here are the matchups I anticipate that we will see on Sunday.  Davis on Cahoon, Frazier on Richardson, and Morgan on Watkins.  You will see some different looks from the Riders where Lucas or Kornegay will have to take the slots in man coverage.  Both guys are capable of filling that role.  The Riders need to avoid blown coverages.  A mix-up between Eddie and Omarr allowed Watkins to get a long TD in the July game.  The other thing I worry about is the ability of the Als big three to make outstanding catches.  Remember the amazing catch by Cahoon over Kornegay in July?  Richardson and Watkins will make one-handed grabs when they are covered.  Our guys will have to be aggressive in fighting for the ball.  James Patrick will have his hands full in his chess game with Cavillo.  The Als love to run layered crossing routes where they have guys crossing short, intermediate, and deep.  Cavillo will read where the safety is playing and throw the ball accordingly.

So how do you stop Calvillo?  He’s got a good line, so it’s tough to get to him with four guys, and if he gets time to throw he’s accurate.  However, the blitz may not be the answer either as he reads that quickly and will throw the ball before the rusher can get there.  So what do you do?  I think what the Riders have to do is mix it up a lot.  They have to disguise their looks a lot and hope to cause some hesitation in Calvillo.  The guy is human.  As I mentioned, he put one right into Mike M’s hands that should have been picked. 

In the best case scenario, the Riders will get to Calvillo with four.  Chick and Baggs had monster games in August, and put a lot of hits on A.C.  We need to see a similar performance on Sunday.  What you hope is that our secondary does the job and take away the first option.  Then by the time Calvillo looks around to re-load, hopefully the pressure gets there.  Due to Calvillo’s love of the quick throw, the line needs to get their hands up to try and knock passes down too.  Unlike Burris last week, Calvillo is not much of a threat to run, so our ends can tee-off a little more.  The main contain issue this week is keeping Cobourne from getting outside.

Outlook

Noone is going to try and sayt that the Riders are not underdogs in this one.  They absolutely are, and form the way I did the matchups, it’s pretty apparent that I think they are too.  However there is no need for the Riders to be scared.  The first matchup was close for 30 minutes.  The 2^nd game was close all the way.  Don’t let those point differentials people are tossing out fool you.  The Riders played the Als tough for 6 out of 8 quarters.

Don’t let the 56 points on BC scare you either.  Yet it was impressive and the Als deserve all the credit in the world.  But remember that  about 28 points game off turnovers and the Lions played most of the game without the two corners they started most of the year.

Then let’s look at the August game.  The Riders turned it over 5 times, gave up a special teams TD, got stuffed on the goal line.  Despite that, it was a one score game for 59 minutes.  Remember the Riders forced the Als to punt and get the ball back down 8, but Eric Morris allowed that punt to bounce into the end zone and couldn’t get it out, making it a 9 point game.

Our guys have to play the game of their lives, not make huge mistakes, and hope they can rattle Calvillo enough that he is not on his game.  Last week we won the turnover battle and created more big plays than allowed.  That same formula has to happen this week.  Who cares what the stats, experts, and odds makers say.  My team is in the Grey Cup, and I sure as **** am not going there expecting a loss.  Go get em boys!  One last note, thanks again everyone for all of your support.  It’s good to get comments from people who say they read the article, and humour me by laughing at the jokes.  It’s been another great season, and lets up we cap it off in a big way.  Thanks again and see you next year.  Now I am off to join Grey Cup festivities!