The first half of the Canadian Football League season is over and it’s pretty clear that the Montreal Alouettes have the team to beat, particularly after they boatraced Edmonton 48-30 on Aug. 8 in a battle of division leaders.

Following a bye, Montreal is back in action Thursday night when the winless Ottawa Redblacks come to town.

It’s not hard to see why the Als (8-1) are rolling. Their offense can pop the top off any defense with quarterback Davis Alexander’s passing or running over the top of them with Travis Theis taking turns at running back.

Add to that offense an underrated defense and a special teams that comes up with big plays, and you have a well-rounded team. But coach Jason Maas isn’t taking anything for granted, not even a home date with Ottawa.

“There might be 170 plays in a game,” he said. “Trust me, there’s plenty of plays to correct. That’s what we focus on. We want to play to a certain standard, regardless of the score. There’s plenty to improve on and we’ll continue to work hard.”

While Montreal tries to maintain its standard, the Redblacks (0-9) resume their search for their first taste of success under first-year coach Ryan Dinwiddie. Ottawa fell 33-21 on Friday night at Winnipeg, where it played well at times but continued to make critical mistakes in key moments.

“We always say we have to bring our four Es: energy, enthusiasm, effort and execution,” Dinwiddie said. “Sometimes the execution hasn’t been there, but the energy and effort has been there.”

Dating back to last year, the Redblacks have dropped 15 straight games, a modern-era CFL record. The schedule-maker has recently done them no favors. This is the last of a three-game road trip that started at Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan.

Two of Ottawa’s losses this year have been at Montreal’s hands. The Als pulled out a 37-35 home victory on June 28 and then cruised to a 34-13 road triumph on July 31.

–Field Level Media