Justin Dunk
Ticats.ca
The Ticats head to Montreal with a shot at claiming the season series over the Alouettes. Hamilton holds the edge so far, winning two of the three meetings between the teams and the Tabbies hold a slim one-point edge, 91-90 in terms of point differential versus Montreal this season. A Tiger-Cats win is important if the Black and Gold want to have a legitimate chance of hosting a post-season contest.
“It’s not only the playoff game thing here, we want to get on a nice little roll heading into the playoffs,” veteran receiver Dave Stala said after practice Friday at Ivor Wynne Stadium.
Hamilton’s last visit to Molson Stadium was certainly a game to forget, and the team knows how difficult it is to earn a win in La Belle province.
“We’ve beaten them twice and we’d like to make it a third time,” offensive coordinator Khari Jones said. “It’s tough to win out there we know that, but it’s possible to win out there and we have to have that belief.”
Stala certainly believes his team can enjoy the train ride back from Montreal after a victory on Sunday afternoon.
“We have to make sure we get good field position. Our offence has to put up points and the defence needs to create some turnovers,” he said. “It’s going to be a tough game, but we’re focusing on winning.”
Number 88 flew out of the gates in 2011 scoring seven touchdowns in the first seven games of the year, but hasn’t crossed the goal line since August 13 against Toronto. A streak the veteran Canadian receiver is looking to snap in Montreal.
“It has been frustrating over the last five to seven weeks, but that’s just the way it’s worked out,” Stala said. “It would be nice to get back in the endzone, but as long as we score points I don’t really care who it is.”
Since the two teams met over a month ago a lot of change has taken place. Even though he missed the back-to-back games with Hamilton in September from a concussion, Shea Emry has since been officially ruled out for the season. As was safety Tad Crawford after he suffered a concussion on Labour Day against the Cats. And, maybe the most notable of all the Montreal injuries is defensive half back Dwight Anderson, who is dealing with a hip injury and has not seen game action since he played against Hamilton on September 11. Anderson’s injury forced the Alouettes to, once again, shuffle the deck in the secondary. Rookie Greg Laybourn was inserted into the starting lineup at field corner on September 18, allowing De’Audra Dix to kick inside to strong side half back, filling the void left by Anderson. All told Montreal is very young in the secondary; Laybourn is a rookie as is starting safety Jeff Hecht, who is banged up as well playing through a broken wrist, and when you add weak side corner Seth Williams, the unit barely resembles the squad that began the season.
“You take this game as its own. Every time we have played them it has been very different,” Jones said.
With the amount of injuries and changes to Montreal’s roster, there might not be a better time to be heading into the home of the two-time defending champs.
