The B.C. Lions will attempt to make CFL history today as the first crossover team to reach the Grey Cup.
To do so they will have to travel across the country to Olympic Stadium and defeat the 15-3 Montreal Alouettes in the East Division Final in front of a crowd of more than 50,000.
Watch the game live at 1pm et/4pm pt on TSN and TSN HD.
The Lions took the first step towards their goal by defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 34-27 in overtime in the East semi-final, thanks to Ticats castoff Casey Printers, who threw for 360 yards and a touchdown.
Printers returned to the Lions in September and has become the catalyst of their offence in recent weeks after injuries thrust him into the spotlight.
Now he will lead the Lions against a Montreal club with one of the most dominant offensive attacks in the Canadian Football League. With veteran quarterback Anthony Calvillo at the helm, the Als unleashed their plethora of weapons including receivers Jamel Richardson and Kerry Watkins, and the always-dangerous runner Avon Cobourne, who led the league with 15 touchdowns this season.
"It's been hard to sleep all week, knowing that it's such a big game and I feel like I'm going to have such a big role in it," explained Cobourne.
"We feel like we can run on them because statistically it works, they're pretty big up front and active, but if we can get some holes and keep them off balance it's going to be a long day," he added.
Looking to prevent Cobourne from having a big day on the ground will be linebacker JoJuan Armour and the Lions defence which allowed a league-worst 138 rushing yards per game. While Armour refuses to discuss exactly what cause the bad-blood he feels towards Cobourne, he was adamant in expressing his desire to shutdown the talented back.
"You don't want to have a guy like that do well against you," admitted the veteran linebacker. "When you have feelings against anybody you don't want to see them do well against you. He's an outstanding player and he definitely has the ability to make big plays, just not against us."
The game will showcase two teams that are coming from opposite ends of the country and opposite ends of the spectrum. Montreal clinched their spot in the post-season in October, and had a week to rest thanks to their first round bye.
The Lions, who were fourth in the West but crossed over because they had a better record than the bottom two teams in the East, ended the regular season with three losses as they dealt with injuries at the quarterback position. Now it appears they have found their way with Printers behind centre, but they will face their biggest test of the year in Montreal where they have lost their last three contests.