Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

The stats say Als, the crowd says 'Riders, Spector says...

CALGARY — It has been, as their 15-3 record attests, too easy for the Montreal Alouettes this season. Too many games that played out the way the way the coaches had drawn them up, and too many snapshots of Anthony Calvillo, still standing upright in the pocket with his arms raised, as a receiver celebrated another touchdown pass.

So that is the mission — and perhaps the only option — of the Saskatchewan Roughriders this afternoon in Calgary: Change Montreal’s normalcy. Turn the game upside down, and perhaps the scoreboard will follow.

The Calgary Stampeders did it last year in this game, altering the landscape enough that Calvillo threw no TD passes and two interceptions. They chased him, they caught him, and they earned the turnovers on which the 96th Grey Cup game morphed into just another big game loss for the Alouettes.

Because unless someone tips this matchup on its ear a little bit this afternoon, the nine point favorite wins every time.

“It’s the intangibles that we have. It’s the little things that we do well that some people don't realize,” said Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant. “You can't measure the closeness of a team, how you deal with adversity ... those are things that matter out here on the field that experts don't realize what's going on.”

Look — the Roughriders aren’t going to blow Montreal out. The Als, however, could put up 35 or 40 points on the Riders, if this one gets away on Saskatchewan.

Recent history tells us however, that the high-scoring Grey Cup does not come around anymore the way it used to. In the last three Grey Cup games, the wining team has scored 22, 23 and 25 points. The loser has not scored 20 for three years now.

Still if you simply roll out the stats, this is a no-brainer. Montreal led the league with an average of 33.3 points scored per game, and was the stingiest in allowing just 18 points per game.

There weren’t enough nights however, when the Alouettes faced a foe that could put Calvillo on his keester. Flush the immobile QB out of the pocket and out of his comfort zone. That pressure is absolutely crucial for the Riders, because it leads to the turnovers they are going to need to win a game of this magnitude.

Calvillo’s 1-5 Grey Cup record suggests he has seen a scenario more than once where the game did not play out the way the Alouettes expected it to. Asked on Saturday how they will carry regular season dominance into Sunday, he suggested it was all in the heads of he and his teammates.

“We’re sick and tired of losing,” Calvillo said. “We all sense that. We have an excellent team right now, and we’re going to go out there and compete. The next 24 hours, especially for me, it’s a mental crunch time. All the stuff we’ve been putting in, all the plays, I have to start visualizing them in my head, like I've been doing all year long. I’m staying in the same routine like I’ve been doing, and it’s got us to this point, and I’m sure it’s going to get us over the hump.”

A staid, emotionless game favours the Alouettes. But you know it for certain, once McMahon Stadium is packed to the rafters with watermelon heads emotions will be running sky high.

Saskatchewan will make their breaks, jump on the momentum, and once this game begins to turn in the Green Riders’ favour, that old, “here we go again” music will start playing inside the helmets of the Montreal Alouettes.

Our pick: Saskatchewan 27 Montreal 16