Matt Cauz
CFL.ca
All right I admit I’m starting to get sucked into the perfect season talk. I promised myself I wouldn’t, but here I am looking at the number: 18-0. Yes I know the season is early, the fact that the Blue Jays haven’t been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs tells me it is way too soon to write about an undefeated season. But have you seen what the Montreal Alouettes have been doing to the rest of the league?
I could list off all the statistical categories that the Alouettes rank first in but that would take far too much time and you could go online to CFL.ca and see all the numbers for yourself. The most important stats, beyond wins, is that Montreal leads the league in scoring and is allowing the fewest points by an astounding seven points per game over the next best team.
Anyone who missed their 21-8 victory over Hamilton might naturally assume it was a close game.
They would be wrong.
Montreal was in complete command of this game after a sloppy first quarter. Much like in a bad Steven Segal film where the dude with the pony tail never breaks a sweat, at no point on Thursday do I think the Alouettes were ever in danger of losing. This was never more evident than during a four minute stretch in the second quarter when Anthony Calvillo just tore up Hamilton’s secondary going 6-6 for 147 yards and two touchdowns.
By the way, after Calvillo passed Ron Lancaster for second all time in touchdown passes why did the stadium have to play ‘Simply the Best’? Is there no other song out there? Why does Tina Turner have such a stranglehold in the world of sports?
Anyway.
Jock Clime (without a doubt the best analyst on TSN) summed it best, saying Hamilton made a mistake switching from zone to a man-to-man coverage in the second quarter. The Tiger-Cats just didn’t have the athletes to play a successful brand of aggressive man defence.
I don’t know if there’s a secondary in the country that can match-up with Kerry Watkins, Ben Cahoon and Jamel Richardson. These guys are fast, they are completely in synch with Calvillo and they do not get tackled upon first contact.
The passing game can kill you in just about every way possible. Deep post patterns, every out route imaginable, crossing patterns, short, middle, deep they have the WR’s to run every route out there and a quarterback who can make every throw. Oh sure Calvillo’s deep throws look a tad wobbly but it usually finds its target. Jarious Jackson may throw the prettiest deep ball, but Calvillo throws the most accurate one.
Moving away from the offense I want to highlight one player who really stood out, 4th year cornerback, Mark Estelle. He spent much of the game on an island locked up with the 6’5′ 210 Prechae Rodriguez and for the majority of the game, despite an obvious size disadvantage, he made Rodriguez a non-factor. Hamilton put the ball up in the air 40 times on Thursday and Prechae caught only three passes.
The only excitement late in the game was whether or not Montreal would cover the 14 point spread. If they had wanted to, the Alouettes easily could have trounced the Tiger-Cats, but they pulled back early and were content to sit on their double digit lead. Consider in the third quarter they had two drives that lasted over 12 minutes. Yes they only had three points to show for their time of possession dominance but the message was clear, they were going to dominate a team that was coming off its first two-game winning streak since 2006.
So why do I think it’s time to start mentioning 18-0? Well it’s more than just about the wealth of talent on Montreal’s roster. It’s also about the inconsistency around the rest of the league. There are no other dominant teams in the league. Every other team is dealing with either quarterback controversies, quarterbacks that are too young or who are getting too old, or quarterbacks going through unusual slumps. This is a passing league and right now no team can touch what’s going on in Montreal.
Also, I can’t help but think about the legacy of this team and more specifically of Anthony Calvillo. They’re the CFL’s version of the Atlanta Braves. Every year they have a brilliant regular season only to see it end in disappointment in the postseason. I can’t believe that Calvillo and the Alouettes have a 1-5 record in Grey Cups. It’s like waking up and realizing that Nicholas Cage actually won an Oscar for Best Actor. You convince yourself that it can’t be true but yet you find yourself staring at your computer in disbelief when you read that it is true. I see the 2009 season as a redemption season for Calvillo and his team to erase the disappointment of last year’s Grey Cup loss and of Grey Cup’s past.
I see only two games that could end a record Montreal season:
Friday September 4th in B.C.: The Lions will be a better team in September than what they are right now.
Saturday October 3rd in Toronto: Montreal will be playing their second road game in a row against a team fighting it out for a playoff spot while the Alouettes will have assured themselves the #1 playoff seed.
There are so many great storylines to follow this season but at least for now this one is the most intriguing. Even if you’re not a fan of the Montreal Alouettes, I guarantee you will find yourself watching their games once they hit 9-0. All sports fan are fascinated with the quest for perfection. We know it won’t happen, but as the cliché goes, sometimes it’s more about the journey than they destination.
