Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Watch List: Marquee Match-Up

The Alouettes return home to face top team in the west the Edmonton Eskimoes. Here is what to watch in tonights game.

-RB Jerome Messum should see a lot carries early on, Kavis Reed will want the Als to concentrate on the run game to give Ricky Ray more time in the pocket later in the game.

-To counter the Als injuries on the Defensive Line (McElveen and Bekasiak), look for Ferri and Emry to get more blitzes than normal.

-John Bowman had 4 sacks in his first 3 games, none in the last 3 weeks. He is too good not to hit Ray at least once tonight.

-Look for shorter and quicker passes form Ray throughout the game as Fred Stamps and Adarius Bowman will not play. Marcus Henry will see more balls. Take the over of 6 balls to Jason Barnes at slotback.

-For the Als, success goes through Brandon Whitaker, he’ll need to catch 3-5 balls to go with over ten carries for an Alouette win.

-Anthony Calvillo only has 2 TD passes in his last 3 games. He’ll have at least 2 tonight.

-If Damon Duval misses just 1 FG, he will hear it from the Alouette faithful.

Here are some interesting numbers heading into tonights game, The Eskimoes have lost their last 3 games at Percival Molson Stadium. The average margin of victory for Montreal has been 29 points. Montreal also holds a 10 point playoff win over Edmonton at the Olympic Stadium in 2008.

The spread is 6 and a half, so it is tempting to take the Alouettes by a TD. But I like the way that Kavis Reed has his team thinking let alone playing. In an exciting tight game I’ll take the Alouettes by a late Sean Whyte FG 38-36.

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