Forget about Labour Day rivalries, Montreal versus Saskatchewan is a much better offering.
EDMONTON -- Here it is, the lead-up to the last game of the Canadian Football League season, and we’re still talking about the first one.
Can you recall a season when, on Nov. 24, you even had the faintest clue who played in Game 1 back on Canada Day?
“The thing that comes to mind is the lesson we learned,” Montreal coach Marc Trestman began, when he was asked to go back to July 1 and that 54-51, double-OT thriller at Mosaic Stadium, a rematch of the spectacle that was the 2009 Grey Cup game, only this time won by Saskatchewan. “I believe we were up by 20 or 21 points, in the third quarter.”
It was 21 points, Marco. And it was LATE in the third quarter, when Darian Durant and the Roughriders finally dug into what has become the CFL’s premier rivalry, putting up a career-high 478 yards passing.
- Als coach Trestman is smart in his lawyer-ish way
- Riders' Miller is the old-time, Andy Griffiths-smart coach
- The two clubs played to 54-51, double-OT thriller in Game 1 of the season
Together, the Riders and Als gave us 1,116 yards of total offence and 105 points on that long, sunny evening on the prairie, introducing us to return man Tim Maypray, the Alouettes speed merchant who ran a missed field goal back 125 yards for a major. That was the night when S.J. Green -- in Game 1 of the 2010 CFL season -- laid claim to the catch of the year, with a one-handed, toe-drag miracle in the back of the end zone for a two-point conversion that kept the game alive for Montreal.
It was where we remembered just how valuable little Weston Dressler -- who missed the ’09 Grey Cup run with a busted leg -- was to Saskatchewan’s aerial attack. And in case you’d forgotten, it was a quick refresh on how fantastic our football can be -- and might be again, Sunday afternoon in Edmonton.
“We felt that was one of the better football games we had played since I’ve been in Regina. Just a tremendous football game,” recalled Saskatchewan head coach Ken Miller, a smile creeping across his face. “We would aspire to play one that is as good and as entertaining as that one on Sunday.”
If they did bring that kind of excitement to Commonwealth Stadium on Sunday, it would cement what has become the CFL’s best rivalry. That’s right: Montreal-Saskatchewan -- better than anything Labour Day can offer.
Forget about the Argos and Ticats, two teams who can’t come within 25 points of Montreal when it counts. And the Battle of Alberta? Some “battle” -- it settled in an average score of 48-13 this season.
Winnipeg-Saskatchewan? Sorry -- you need to be better than the lowly Bombers to get consideration for any “Best Of” category.
Maybe that is why Saskatchewan and Montreal seems so right this week in Edmonton, where the Als and Roughriders work to become in the 2000s what the Als and Eskimos were in the 90s, 80s and 50s.
Two good teams, two fine coaches. They aren’t anything like each other, really, other than the fact they keep meeting up here on the podium at the Grey Cup coaches press conference.
Miller practised his team in the cold and snow Wednesday. Trestman took his club indoors for a walk-through.
Miller will entertain retirement after the season and talks about it openly. Trestman will be entertaining an offer from the University of Minnesota, but got a tad indignant when asked about that Wednesday.
Together, like their ball clubs, they are at the top of their class in the CFL.
“When Marc came to this league, he brought a lot of concepts with him relating to offence. He is probably the most emulated offensive coach in the league,” Miller said. “He has brought considerable change to how people throw the ball ... and operate their offence.”
Those accolades suit Trestman, who is smart in his lawyer-ish way. As for Miller, who is the old-time, Andy Griffiths-smart football coach, his team is as tough, disciplined and street-wise as their coach.
“He’s put together a team that is highly disciplined, highly unselfish, extremely organized, and the science of their football is outstanding in every phase,” Trestman said. “That’s what we want to be about as well.”
They are all -- Trestman and Miller, the Roughriders and Alouettes -- what every other organization in the CFL wants to be about.
Winners -- from Game 1 'til Sunday.
