Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

The Riders and Co. head to Calgary where they will eat, drink and be merry and may win as well.

Expect a large contingent of Rider fans to make the drive down the Trans-Canada to Calgary.

The bottle of green tequila has been a Gene Makowsky-like fixture in the trenches of my liquor cabinet for two years now. Big, green and imposing - you just didn't want to go near it.

It was concocted for a Grey Cup party in '07, when Saskatchewan and Winnipeg met in the Grey Cup. A few Rider fans were on their way over, and the idea was that we would all have a shot of green tequila every time the Riders scored a touchdown.

Well, Saskatchewan only scored two majors in a 23-19 win, and there obviously weren't enough guests. When everybody left the party, there it stood: A food-colouring infused, bad-smelling, Irish-Mexican.

It would hold fort behind the doors above my fridge for the next 24 months, terrorizing the international community of Scots, Jamaicans and Kentuckians who live up there. A headache under glass that just never was going to be poured, as long as there was the option of something - anything - else to go in your glass.

Perhaps now we can get rid of the thing once and for all.

Saskatchewan is back in the Grey Cup, and a half a bottle of anything doesn't stand a chance against the truck loads of Pilsner and rye whiskey that will fall as the flatlanders stage their invasion of Calgary this week.

Pull out the bronto burgers, Wilma, the Hatrocks are comin' to town.

"It will be like having a home game in Calgary," said Riders head coach Ken Miller. "Our fans will be there en masse and we look forward to seeing and greeting them there. I don't know how many Montreal fans will be there but I know there will be thousands of Riders fans."

It's about 755 km from Regina to Calgary, all along The Trans-Canada. That's about seven hours by truck. By combine, if you haven't left already, don't bother.

For those of us who have spent a CFL lifetime watching Montreal play Edmonton in the Grey Cup - and everybody else who preferred not to see a Calgary-Montreal rematch from a year ago - well, it can't get any better than this.

The best team from the 2009 Canadian Football League season will face the best team any serious Grey Cup partier could want in his Grey Cup Sunday in Cowtown, as the Montreal Alouettes will meet Saskatchewan for the first time in league history.

It is Saskatchewan's eight Grey Cup appearance since 1948. It is Montreal's seventh appearance of this decade, and the Als will have to answer a lot of questions this week about how they've managed a pathetic 1-5 record in the big game since 2000, despite having the type of team that could absolutely dismantle the B.C. Lions 56-18.

"I've prepared myself with ready answers. I know how to prepare myself for that stuff," quarterback Anthony Calvillo said. "I've just got to protect the ball. It comes down to a few plays and you try and learn from that experience."

Truly, defending Calvillo is completely dependent upon infusing some discomfort into his world. If Saskatchewan can't give Calvillo reason to focus on some immediate pressure in his backfield - if he is allowed to simply watch his receivers' routes unfold - he'll tear them apart downfield.

Because Calvillo's Als are the ultimate frontrunners. When things are good, they are soooo good for Montreal.

But history tells us this team has seldom conquered real adversity in the big game. And that will be the Roughriders' job defensively - to give Montreal the opportunity to come up small.

Across the ball, it's another mismatch between these two receiving corps. Just as the Riders weren't supposed to have a chance against Nik Lewis and the boys in red.

"They talked about slow, white Canadians," slotback Andy Fantuz said Sunday. "But how many scored touchdowns today?"

More than the speedy loud-mouths from Calgary, to be sure.

But it fits, that the Riders would be led by the same kind of quiet, get-the-job-done personalities that embody that province. Somehow, there is an undeniable feeling that Riders fans are getting what they deserve.

Put it this way: How many Calgary Stampeder fans did you see among the Sea of Green in the Mosaic Stadium stands Sunday? And how much green would you have seen in Calgary, had the game been played at McMahon?

It's no great revelation to pronounce the wearers of the green as Canada's best fans. Leafs Nation might outnumber them, but compare a Rider game day to a Saturday night at the ACC.

Well, there is no comparison.

They are Canada's Cubs fans, but with one big difference:

This team could actually win it all.