Alouettes and Eskimos do battle in Edmonton

Football Betting Lines

09/21/2011 - Edmonton, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Now two games off the pace set by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Eastern Division, the slumping Montreal Alouettes hope to generate some momentum in the right direction on Friday night as they battle the Edmonton Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium.

Montreal, which is 3-2 versus the Western Division in 2011, has gone from a team that was 5-2 after seven weeks of action to one that is just a game over .500 at 6-5 and now in second place in the Eastern Division standings as the Blue Bombers continue to fire off victories. Last week, the Als nearly took down Winnipeg but had to settle for a 25-23 loss at home instead.

In that battle for Eastern Division bragging rights, Montreal's defense was a bit lax as it allowed 430 yards to the Bombers, 312 yards and two touchdowns alone to quarterback Buck Pierce, who was named the CFL Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. The Als did manage to take down Pierce behind the line of scrimmage three times and intercept one of his passes, but it still wasn't enough to turn the tide.

Anthony Calvillo stood in the pocket and converted 22-of-39 passes of his own for 258 yards and a pair of majors, those going to Jamel Richardson and Brian Bratton, the QB also adding an uncharacteristic 24 rushing yards along the way but at the same time losing possession on his one fumble of the day.

As for the Eskimos, they were the top-scoring club in the CFL last week with 38 points in their 15-point road win over Hamilton. For Edmonton, it was the second win in the last three outings, but still just the second triumph since the program began 2011 with five straight wins when they appeared poised to run away with the regular season title. Edmonton is now tied with Calgary for the top spot in the Western Division with a record of 7-4.

Against the Tiger-Cats, there was a Jerome Messam sighting for Edmonton as he stepped up with a career-best 15 carries for 139 yards and two scores. Messam, who ran for 104 yards and two majors in the first meeting of the season against Hamilton, had been less than stellar in recent weeks with just a combined 66 yards over four games. Nevertheless, Messam showed that he can still be an important piece of the Edmonton puzzle as he was named the top Canadian player in the CFL for the third time this season.

While Messam was making waves on the ground for the Eskimos, Ricky Ray was handling the action over the top as he hit 25-of-32 passes for 227 yards and a score. Fred Stamps accounted for 14 receptions for 130 yards for an Edmonton squad that not only produced 449 yards and controlled the ball for nearly 38 minutes, it also limited the opposition to just 269 yards of offense as well.

Stamps, who needs just three more touchdown receptions to match his career best of eight set back in 2009 when he rolled up 85 catches for 1,402 yards, missed several games recently but is back to the form that allowed him to record four straight 100-yard receiving games, a stretch during which he logged all five of his majors on the season.

As good as Stamps can be, he still has a long way to go to compare himself with Richardson, at least for this season. A slotback from Victor Valley College, Richardson is in his eighth CFL season and is on pace to crush his previous high for receiving yards which stands at 1,287 from back in 2008. Richardson, who recorded a whopping 16 TDs during that same season, has had three games this season in which he's tallied a pair of majors, but he has just two over his last three games for Edmonton. Richardson is currently the only receiver in the league with more than 850 yards (he has 1,080), his 69 grabs also pacing the CFL.

Richardson's production shouldn't be much of a surprise given that Calvillo is the one delivering the ball. The league's all-time leader in passing TDs (409) and completions (5,297), Calvillo is now just 862 yards away from matching Damon Allen's record for all-time passing yards at 72,381 and barring injury it is a safe bet that the 18-year veteran will surpass that total in the next few weeks.

As far as the all-time, regular-season series is concerned, Edmonton controls the action with a mark of 37-24-2 dating back to 1949 even though the Als have won three in a row and five of the last seven encounters. The most recent matchup went to Montreal on August 11 at home by a score of 27-4, a game in which Calvillo threw two TDs and was sacked three times. For the Esks, they failed to adequately protect Ray in that battle as the Als sacked the QB a total of six times, resulting in minus-one net rushing yards for the visitors.