The CFL’s East final features a familiar matchup but in a different setting.
The Montreal Alouettes will be looking for a familiar outcome when they face the Toronto Argonauts in a rematch of last year’s final.
Although Montreal (12-5-1) owns the best record in the CFL, repeating as champions will be a tough task.
For Toronto (10-8), this game provides an opportunity for redemption and, perhaps, a return to the Grey Cup.
A sellout crowd will be on hand with the East being played in Montreal for the first time since 2012, when the Alouettes lost to the Argos in front of 50,122 at Olympic Stadium.
Here is a capsule look at the East final.
The schedule
Saturday, 3 p.m. ET / noon PT, at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.
The line
The Alouettes were favoured by 2.5 points as of Thursday by BetMGM.
Weather
The afternoon high is 7 C with winds at a modest 14 km/h and gusts up to 26 km/h.
At stake
The winner goes to the Grey Cup on Nov. 17 in Vancouver against the winner of Saturday’s West final between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Argonauts booked their ticket to play Montreal with a thrilling 58-38 win over the Ottawa Redblacks in the East semi in Toronto.
The Alouettes started the season with five straight wins and were in the driver’s seat in the division with, at one point, a 10-1 record. Toronto handed Montreal its first loss, ending the Alouettes’ streak, which began in September 2023. During the regular season and playoffs, the Alouettes won 13 straight games.
Season series
The Argos won two of three against the Alouettes, winning the last two meetings.
Montreal took the first game 30-20 in Toronto with Cody Fajardo completing 33-of-41 passes for 284 yards with a touchdown and interception.
The Argonauts would get some revenge in Montreal with a 37-18 road win, with their defence getting a pair of interceptions off backup Caleb Evans, who took over for Fajardo, who left the game in the first quarter with an injury.
In the rubber match later in the season, the Argos won 37-31 in a back-and-forth affair that featured eight fields from kicker Lirim Hajrullahu.
Playoff history
The Alouettes will look to follow the Blue Bombers’ path of winning back-to-back Grey Cups. Technically, Montreal was the last team to win in consecutive years, back in 2009-10 with the Blue Bombers winning in 2019 and 2021 with the 2020 season being cancelled.
This is the fifth straight year the Alouettes have made the playoffs and the third straight time they have played in the East final.
With their Grey Cup win last year, Montreal ended a 13-year championship drought.
Toronto had made it to the East final the last four years, which it hadn’t done since 2007 when the team went on a six-year run to the finals.
The Argos have won three Grey Cups since 2012, with their last title coming in 2022.
The coaches
Jason Maas (Montreal) vs. Ryan Dinwiddie (Toronto)
Maas, 48, will be making his fifth appearance in a divisional final where he has a 1-3 record.
As a player, Maas has won two Grey Cups and earned two in his coaching career, one as an assistant in 2012 and his first as a head coach in 2023.
Dinwiddie is 46-24 since joining Toronto in December 2019, winning the East Division three times and qualifying for the playoffs each year.
The former quarterback guided his team to a 10-8 record and, with his starting quarterback, suspended for the first nine games. Last season, Dinwiddie guided the Argos to a 16-2 record during the regular season, the best mark in the franchise’s 150-year history.
The quarterbacks
Chad Kelly (Toronto) vs. Cody Fajardo (Montreal)
This is the second meeting between Kelly and Fajardo in the playoffs.
The Argos quarterback was suspended the first nine games of the season for violating the CFL’s gender-based policy after a former Argos strength and conditioning coach filed a lawsuit against him for sexual harassment. He returned on Aug. 22 against Saskatchewan and threw for 2,451 yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions while adding 214 yards and five touchdowns on the ground.
In his first year as a CFL starter, in 2023, Kelly went 15-1 and was awarded the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player. He lost his only playoff start to Montreal last year after helping the Argos win a Grey Cup in 2022 after relieving an injured McLeod Bethel-Thompson in the fourth quarter.
Fajardo finally climbed the mountain as a CFL starter after leading Montreal to an upset win over Winnipeg in Hamilton last year.
The veteran appeared in 14 games this season, throwing for 3,105 yards, 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also had his best quarterback rating of 105.6 as a starter.
Four matchups to watch
Argonauts RB Ka’Deem Carey vs. Alouettes run defence
The last time the Argonauts played the Alouettes, it was a day to remember for their running game, with 234 rushing yards. Ka’Deem Carey led the way with 13 carries for 90 yards and a touchdown. In three games against Montreal, Toronto ran for over 500 yards total.
Toronto was second in the CFL with 121.3 yards per game and rushing touchdowns with 20. It was something the team relied heavily on with Kelly suspended, and a big part of that was Carey remaining healthy all season.
He rushed for 1,060 yards and seven touchdowns this season and Montreal knows that containing the Argonauts running back will be crucial as the Argos will want to run a balanced attack on offence.
“That’s a great challenge for us, I think everything you play a team that’s capable of that, you’d like to stop the run,” Maas told reporters. “Stop the run first and then go from there. Obviously, I know we’ll play team defence, gap sound, alignment technique and play fast and physical footall.”
Chad Kelly vs. Montreal secondary
It’s no secret that a big talking point heading into this year’s East final has been a reminder of what Kelly went through in 2023.
Montreal knows that it would like nothing more than to have a repeat performance on the nine turnovers it forced against Toronto in last year’s East final.
The Argos have been making a point to move forward from that game but also use it as a learning tool and hopefully learn how to deal with the highs and lows that this game will likely bring.
“It’s done and over with,” Kelly said of last year’s East final. “I definitely looked at it throughout this year but it’s about managing. Take what they give you and if it’s not there, don’t force it.”
After sitting out the first nine games of the season, Kelly had to adjust and try to get up to speed. Upon his return, there were some games in which he was guilty of trying to force the ball into situations he didn’t need to.
However, he found his stride to end the season and delivered arguable his best game of his CFL career with 358 yards and four touchdowns on just 18 completions.
Kelly will have his hands full against defenders such as Marc-Antoine Dequoy and Tyrice Beverette, who will hunt for turnovers and any potential mistakes the Argos quarterback makes.
Alouettes offensive line vs. Argonauts defensive line
The Alouettes will want to try to keep the pressure of Fjardo as much as possible on Saturday and it will be a tough task against this Argos’ pass rush.
Toronto had 48 sacks as a team to lead the league with rookie Ralph Holley leading the way, followed by Jake Ceresna and Folarin Orimolade.
According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), the Alouettes earned the highest pass-blocking grade and the third-highest overall grade.
In 2023, Fajardo was the second-most sacked quarterback in the league during the regular season but the Alouettes make strides in protecting their quarterback, as he was taken down only 21 times through 14 games.
Cody Fajardo vs. Toronto secondary
The Alouettes offence has been through a tough time, with Canadian Tyson Philpot suffering a season-ending injury. However, there was a lot of excitement with Austin Mack returning to the CFL after getting cut from the NFL.
However, Mack hasn’t found his form from last year just yet, and the Alouettes will want to find a way to make plays against the Argonauts secondary that allowed Dru Brown to throw for 487 yards.
Fajardo won’t hesitate to try to throw the ball deep but the Alouettes will pick their spots and try to wear down the Argonauts.
Prediction
Toronto 38, Montreal 31
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