MONTREAL — For the Montreal Alouettes, beating the Toronto Argonauts means stopping big running back Cory Boyd and slippery kick returner Chad Owens.
The Argonauts have been one of the surprises of the early CFL season by forging a 3-1 record under new head coach Jim Barker and are tied with the defending Grey Cup champion Alouettes for first in the East Division.
The two teams meet today night (TSN, 5:30 p.m.) at Percival Molson Stadium.
Since Marc Trestman took over as the Alouettes head coach in 2008, they are 6-0 against Toronto and have outscored the Argos 214-92, including a 25-0 shutout last season in Montreal.
But Toronto looks to be a tougher opponent and much of their success has come from the defence, the running game and special teams.
Boyd leads the league with 66 carries for 431 rushing yards and leads in yards from scrimmage with 455, while Owens is the CFL leader in combined yards with 749.
Add in that new quarterback Cleo Lemon is always a threat to take off with the ball and it makes for a dangerous ground attack.
“We know that Boyd runs pretty hard,” Alouettes defensive end Anwar Stewart said this week. “He’s a strong kid.
“What we need is for everyone to play their position and do what they’re supposed to do. Every play we run, there’s always someone on the running back and someone on the quarterback, so if we all do our job, we’ll be fine.”
Both teams take three-game winning streaks into the encounter. Boyd has had three 100-yard rushing games in a row, but he will be tested against an Alouette defence that has allowed the league’s fewest rushing yards — 84.5 per game.
Last week, Montreal held Hamilton running back DeAndra’ Cobb to 25 yards on eight carries in a 37-14 victory.
“He’s a power guy, but once he’s in the open, he has enough speed to get to where he needs to be,” Stewart said of Boyd. “If we have a chance to hit him — get after him and strip the ball because he holds it very loosely. Everyone has to go out and be vicious and nasty up front and if we do that hopefully we can dominate like we did last week.”
The Alouettes lead the league with a plus-10 differential in giveaways and takeaways, while Toronto is tied for second, at plus-1.
Montreal’s coverage team also stuffed Tiger-Cats kick return magician Marcus Thigpen and will try to do the same to Owens, who left the Alouettes camp in June to sign with Toronto. Montreal elected to keep rookie returner Tim Maypray, who has also been solid.
The Alouettes didn’t avoid kicking to Thigpen much last week and it remains to be seen how they’ll handle Owens.
“Sometimes we’ll kick to him, sometimes we won’t,” said Trestman. “We’ll use the same kind of methods as in last week’s game.
“Trying to defend Thigpen is the same as trying to defend against Chad. They’re the kind of players that, when they touch the ball, we’re all on the edge of our seats.”
While Boyd and Owens give Toronto hope, Lemon is struggling. He has thrown for only 763 yards and two touchdowns, compared to 1,212 and eight TDs for Montreal’s Anthony Calvillo. The Argos are the only CFL club with fewer than 1,000 passing yards and receiving leader Jeremaine Copeland is 22nd in the league with 12 catches for 173 yards.
The Alouettes will likely go after Lemon, led by rush end John Bowman, who is tied for the CFL sacks lead with five.
It is the pass defence has been a weak point this season.
Montreal has also had trouble getting the ball into the end zone. They went seven straight quarters without a touchdown, but Calvillo took heart in ending that string with TD passes to Kerry Watkins and Kerry Carter in the fourth quarter against Hamilton.
Another concern is that they’ve allowed 13 sacks, 12 more than at the same point a year ago. Calvillo was slow to get up from one last week after twisting his left knee, but returned to play without missing a down.
Montreal appears to be taking time to adjust to the loss of retired veteran centre Bryan Chiu, whose place was taken by guard Paul Lambert, and to having young lineman Luc Brodeur-Jourdain take over at left guard.
”On offence, you need all 12 guys to function properly,” said Calvillo. ”If there’s one mistake by one guy it can devastate the offence and that’s what’s going on.
”Whether it’s up front, or a guy not running the right route, or me holding onto the ball too long, all of those come into play. The scheme has been sound here for the last three years. It’s just that right now the defensive fronts are coming up with some unusual twists that are a challenge for us, so we have to make sure we’re able to see everything. Toronto’s not a big twist team. They’ve got bigger guys who are more physical that our line is going to have to deal with.”
NOTES — Montreal slotback Ben Cahoon needs one catch to tie former Calgary star Allen Pitts for third place in career receptions with 966. Terry Vaughn leads with 1,006 ahead of Darren Flutie with 972. Cahoon hopes to make a catch in a 132nd consecutive game. Donald Narcisse is the all-time leader with 216 while Tony Gabriel went 137 games with at least one reception.