It's déjà vu for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes as the two East Division rivals meet Saturday at Percival Molson Stadium in the Eastern semifinal for the second season in a row on TSN.
While 613 kilometres separate Tim Hortons Field from the doors of McGill University, the Tiger-Cats and Alouettes have seen a lot of each other over the past three seasons.
Watch the Eastern Semifinal between the Tiger-Cats and the Alouettes on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT LIVE on TSN1/4, TSN.ca, and the TSN App.
The 2021 season sparked the first of what is now three consecutive Eastern semifinals to feature the Tiger-Cats and the Alouettes, with the Black and Gold coming out on top 23-12 en route to a second straight Grey Cup appearance.
Last season saw the series shift to Montreal, with the Alouettes getting revenge in a 28-17 win.
Heading into Saturday, Tiger-Cats head coach Orlondo Steinauer is expecting to see a lot of Alouettes running back William Stanback, who has cemented himself as one of the top backs in the league.
"I think at the end of the day, they're going to want to establish him whether it's early – somewhere in the game they're going to try to establish that [the run game]," Steinauer said Wednesday. "They do a good job in their schemes and mixing things up, adding people to the box."
"He's definitely a guy that you're going to have to wrap him up. He's tough to bring down. He runs behind his pads and falls forward; we understand that...It just depends on how many carries they want to give him. If they want to give him 20 carries, he's going to get some yards."
While the Tiger-Cats have kept the 29-year-old Stanback out of the end zone in their three prior regular-season meetings, he went for a season-high 106 yards against them in Week 9.
"Just staying disciplined," said defensive tackle Casey Sayles on the key to bottling up Stanback. "It's just everyone just doing their individual jobs and if we do that and if we're perfect on a play then maybe he'll only get one or two yards rather than four to six."
Sayles is in his first season in Black and Gold after spending the previous two seasons in Winnipeg with the Blue Bombers, including the 2021 season that saw Sayles lift the Grey Cup in the city he now calls home.
"Obviously, playing here in '21 for the Grey Cup was great but being on the other side of it would be great, especially having games, not having this bye week, it would probably be even more special to end up in the Grey Cup."
But before Sayles and the Ticats can think of playing in front of their fans on the largest stage the league has to offer, they'll have to go through the Alouettes, their fans – and, of course, the horns.
"It's a great crowd," Sayles said. "They got the noise in there with the horns and everything... They get into it. So I'm sure there will be even more there this game."
The Tiger-Cats will roll out Bo Levi Mitchell and Matthew Shiltz on Saturday as Steinauer told TSN's Matthew Scianitti Tuesday that “both quarterbacks will play.”
This comes in the wake of what has been a dramatic season for the Tiger-Cats at the quarterback position with Mitchell and Shiltz both spending time on the six-game injured list, leaving the team and the offence in the hands of rookie Taylor Powell.
"It's taken us all [referencing the quarterback room] the entire year," Mitchell said Tuesday. "My job in the playoffs has always been to come out and perform. When the number is called, be ready to go."
"I think it's been great getting the offence kind of rolling when we're both in there," said Shiltz on splitting time with Mitchell. "Regardless of who is in there, I think the whole team has confidence and just want to keep that rolling."
