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CFL Preview - Ottawa (1-7) at Montreal (1-7) (ET)

GAME NOTES: A couple of teams with a combined two victories entering Week 10 action get together at Percival Molson Stadium on Friday night, as the Montreal Alouettes entertain the expansion Ottawa RedBlacks.

The RedBlacks were expected to have some growing pains this season, but Montreal wasn't supposed to be this bad as both clubs hold down last place in the East Division at a mere 1-7. Funny thing is, even with such poor ledgers to this point in the campaign, the teams are just four points out of first in a very disappointing division.

Montreal, which has dropped six in a row since defeating British Columbia by a score of 24-9 at home in early July, was defeated by Winnipeg for the second time this season last Friday, 24-16.

With quarterback Troy Smith making a trip to the six-game injured list, the Als called on Alex Brink to lead them against the Blue Bombers, but he soon found himself on the bench after converting 5-of-7 passes for a mere 14 yards. The Als then inserted Jonathan Crompton into the game and he too struggled to get the offense into gear.

Crompton managed to hit on 18-of-29 passes for 266 yards, but he was sacked two times and had three interceptions. Outside of a one-yard TD run by quarterback Tanner Marsh in the third quarter, the 371 yards of offense produced by Montreal were largely empty. Kicker Sean Whyte tried to give the team a fighting chance as he converted 3-of-4 field goals and finished with 10 points in yet another losing effort.

In the case of the RedBlacks, they hosted Calgary over the weekend and at least got off on the right foot when Jonathan Williams returned an interception 35 yards for a major less than two minutes into the first quarter to account for the first points of the contest. Unfortunately, Ottawa was never heard from offensively, as the club produced a mere 197 yards, while being flagged 11 times for a loss of 92 yards.

Quarterback Henry Burris connected on 12-of-23 passes for a mere 113 yards, was picked off once and sacked three times as he aimed to work his way up the CFL's all-time passing list. Burris, who was credited with a mere 39 passing yards in the first half, hit Dobson Collins on a slant for 15 yards to midfield on the final play of the third quarter, sending the signal caller into third place on the all-time CFL passing list. The Temple product, now with 53,273 passing yards, trails only Anthony Calvillo (79,816 yards) and Damon Allen (72,381) in CFL history.

The glory for Burris was short-lived as he took a bench in the fourth quarter in favor of backup Thomas DeMarco, but that experiment had dire consequences. DeMarco, who proceeded to misfire on several passes, was subjected to a low hit to his left leg with just over a minute remaining in regulation and was subsequently carted off.

On Monday it was announced DeMarco was done for the season and was in need of surgery to fix an ACL injury to his left knee.

As if all of that were not enough for the RedBlacks, defensive tackle Keith Shologan also left Sunday's game with a knee injury and is being listed as questionable for the meeting with Montreal.

After eight games, Ottawa is scoring a mere 15.8 ppg and while that sounds absolutely dreadful in a league that is built around giving offenses plenty of advantages, the number leaves the RedBlacks next-to-last in that department. The only team worse at scoring points at the moment is Montreal with just 15.6 ppg.

Unfortunately for Ottawa, it is currently combining one of the weakest offenses with the most porous defense, giving up 28.9 ppg. Again, the RedBlacks are not that far removed from where the Als are in that category, with Montreal surrendering 27.1 ppg.

While the RedBlacks are new to the league this year, there have been previous CFL teams that called Ottawa home, which is why there is a history between these two cities on the football field. Dating back to 1946 and taking into consideration only regular-season meetings, Ottawa owns an 87-70-4 edge in the all-time series with the Als.

However, Montreal has won two straight and seven of the last eight clashes, including a 43-23 victory in Ottawa back on Oct. 29, 2005.

The teams are set to meet two more times during the 2014 regular season, with Ottawa hosting the Als on Sept. 26 and then again a month later during Week 18 play.

With so many questions about both of these teams less than midway through the season, there's no telling how this meeting might turn out. But at least the RedBlacks know that Burris is capable of bouncing back and being a reliable contributor again, at least as much as he needs to be in order to defeat this week's hosts.

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