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Maybe it's an Ontario thing.

The CFL East was indeed the CFL Least for the first half of the season. Wins were rare for all four teams. When it came to glancing at the standings, most observers in Toronto were looking down the QEW to find out what Hamilton was doing. Meanwhile, Ticat followers kept a close eye on their provincial counterparts to see what they were up to.

Nobody paid much attention to the team from Montreal. That's changed.

It was easy to discount the Als early in the season. They had a great defence, but their offence was pedestrian at best. Jonathan Crompton took over at quarterback during an Aug. 22 game against Winnipeg and has been able to do what neither Troy Smith nor Alex Brink could do before him and that's make the offence work.

Argonauts head coach Scott Milanovich, who spent five seasons on the Als coaching staff - the last four as offensive coordinator before moving to Toronto - says that his old club's current success comes down to the basics.

"I think their quarterback is playing well," Milanovich told TSN.ca. "Their running game has really picked up and they're not turning it over."

It sounds like a simple formula for success and by football standards it is. But the coach doesn't limit the turnaround to just the offensive side of the ball.

"Their defence has continued to play well, which they have all season," added the coach, before talking more about the Als offence. "They're making plays when they have the opportunity and their quarterback is getting the ball to the guys who can make plays."

Argo Shea Emry did a longer tour of duty in Montreal than his head coach. The middle linebacker spent six seasons in bleu, blanc et rouge before signing a free-agent deal with the double blue in the off-season.

He again looked at one of the basic tenets of football as a reason why the Alouettes offence has improved to the degree it has.

"I think they're just consistent," said Emry. "They've been producing. Whatever they've done with bringing in different coaches and associates and advisors, or whatever you want to call them, they've done a good job at solidifying who their starting quarterback is.

"That's a big thing for a team to know who's leading the ship," continued the linebacker. "For them it's Crompton and he's been doing a great job, obviously, with his record as a starter (5-1).

It's not the first game against his former team. On Aug. 1, Emry and his teammates traveled to McGill and put a 31-5 beating on the home side. It doesn't mean that this week's game is any less significant.

"It always means something when you play against your old mates," admitted the Richmond, B.C. native. "It'll be a lot of fun, but at the same time it takes a heightened level of focus to go out there and perform and not get lost in the old relationships and to make sure you're not going too hard, or you're not going hard enough and balancing those types of things."

The last game between these two teams that truly meant something was the 2012 Eastern Final, played at Olympic Stadium. The Argos came back from a 17-7 first-half deficit, took a 27-20 lead, before a last-second potential TD pass to Brian Bratton went for naught and the Argos went on to win the 100th Grey Cup a week later.

That game featured a match-up of two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play in the CFL, Anthony Calvillo and Ricky Ray. Calvillo has since retired, but Ray remains at the helm of the Argos and says they haven't taken the Als lightly, despite their slow start.

"We've been in the same boat as them all year too," said Ray. "They're one of the hotter teams here in the east, we definitely know they're a good team. They've got good players and they're more than capable of going out there and playing a great game."

The quarterback, who turns 35 next week, says that much like their offence, the Alouettes defence also has a new look.

"They've changed quite a bit, to be honest, from the beginning of the year until now,"  explained Ray. "They're not as aggressive with some of the stuff that they're doing, but they've got those veteran guys that have been playing over there for a long time and they just do things well."

It's not a 'must win' for the Argos, but a victory would go a long way toward clinching a playoff spot. It would give them a two-point lead over Montreal with just three games left and more importantly it would give them the tie-breaker against the Als should the teams finish in a dead heat.

That means that two wins for the Argos in their last three games would leave them ahead of Montreal, even if the Alouettes win out. If the Als win it sets up what could an incredibly important game at Molson Stadium in two weeks.

This should be fun.