The Montreal Alouettes are 10.5-point underdogs heading into the CFL Eastern Final on Saturday, but that feels like familiar territory to Cody Fajardo.
Speaking to the media this week, the veteran quarterback told reporters that he and his teammates have grown accustomed to such long odds.
“I think it’s been our role all season. It started from day one of training camp and really throughout free agency, we’ve always been placed as the underdog team. It’s a role we’re familiar with and a role we embrace,” Fajardo said.
“I know me personally, I feel like I’ve been an underdog my entire career and so it’s a role I like to be in because it’s fun to prove a lot of doubters and naysayers wrong.”
The Alouettes are in the midst of their best campaign since the retirement of Anthony Calvillo, capping an 11-7 regular season with a home playoff victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last week. However, many analysts initially projected them to finish last in the CFL entering the year, after the club was rocked by ownership turmoil in the offseason that caused the departure of several marquee players.
Fajardo, who landed with Montreal in free agency after being run out of town by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, has used that narrative as a badge of honour entering the postseason. Ahead of the team’s 27-12 victory in the Eastern Semi-Final, he warned people around the league that it was “too late to buy stock” in the Alouettes and insisted there was no more room on the bandwagon.
Head coach Jason Maas finds the team’s underdog status much less compelling and claims his players have paid little attention to those broader narratives.
“Honestly, I don’t know how many guys listen to anything outside of our dressing room. We’ve been so focused on ourselves all year that we haven’t had time for anybody to tell us what we can’t do,” the first-year bench boss said this week.
“We’ve just been grinding, working, coming together, doing all the things necessary to get put in this position. We’ve done that and that’s why we’re here. I think everyone’s excited about the positives of this opportunity, not listening to anybody talk about the negatives of this opportunity.”
Whether acknowledged or not, the Alouettes’ underdog reputation has not aided them in actually pulling an upset this season. The team was a combined 0-7 against the three other franchises still alive in the CFL playoffs, including three losses against the Argos, which has contributed to the current double-digit playoff spread.
With Toronto hoping to add a second consecutive Grey Cup win to their case to be named the best team in CFL history, not even Maas could dismiss the merits of that betting line.
“They’re in first place. They’re 9-0 at home. They’re 16-2. I don’t know any team that wouldn’t be underdogs to them right now,” he admitted. “Do we care about that? No. We’re focused on ourselves like we have been all year.”
In their three previous meetings with the Argonauts, the Alouettes fell by a combined score of 97-57. They lost by eight points in Week 6, were blown out by 29 in Week 14, and came up three points short in the second half of a back-to-back in Week 15. Along the way, Fajardo threw for 791 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions — accounting for more than a third of his passing majors for the season — but couldn’t deliver when it mattered.
“It’s gonna be an incredibly tough task,” the quarterback acknowledged of the game. “It’s funny you say that [they beat us three times] but they’re 16-2, so a lot of teams didn’t beat them this year. It goes for everybody around the league. I know, personally, we’ve got to play our best ball if you want to have a chance.”
Despite those previous defeats, Maas isn’t willing to let himself get caught up in a David vs. Goliath fantasy.
“We’ve earned the right to be in this game to face them for a fourth time and that’s all we’re concerned about; us doing our jobs each and every day, living for the moment, trying to get better this week,” he said. “That’s all we can control. We cannot control what anybody else says about us or what the prognosticators are saying. We’re focused on ourselves.”
The Alouettes (11-7) will kick off against the Argos (16-2) at BMO Field on Saturday, November 11 at 3:00 p.m. EDT.
