Khari Jones’ attention is not focused on the Canadian Football League playoff games, although his Montreal Alouettes could qualify with a win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday .
“I don’t look at (the possibility of qualifying) as the most important thing this week,” the head coach of the Montreal football club said on video conference Thursday. I only wish that we continue what we are doing right now. That we continue to win our matches. This is the most important to me. A participation in the playoffs will be a natural consequence of these victories.
“I did not talk for a second about the playoffs with the players. That doesn’t worry me at this point. We are in first place right now, that’s what we control and want to continue to control. If you play solid football in all three phases of the game, the playoffs will happen on their own. ”
The Alouettes come to this duel with four consecutive victories, which put them ahead of the Toronto Argonauts at the top in the East. As both clubs are 6-4, the Alouettes have little room to maneuver.
The Roughriders are also 6-4, which puts them second in the West, behind the mighty Winnipeg Blue Bombers (10-1), whom the Alouettes face over the next two weeks in a first leg series. -return.
Without saying that the Montreal team will escape these two clashes, the two points at stake against the Riders become even more important.
In principle, Matthew Shiltz should start a third game in charge of the Montreal attack. But in training Thursday, it was rather Trevor Harris, acquired to assist him following the injury suffered by Vernon Adams Jr., who took the rehearsals with the first unit.
“Matt has minor injuries and we wanted to give him some lighter training, but he should be able to be in his position on Saturday,” said Jones, who declined to elaborate on the nature of the bother. Shiltz. It was a great opportunity to put Matt down and give Trevor more quality reps. If Matt had needed to take more reps, he would have.
“As we speak, there’s no doubt in my mind that (Shiltz) will be the starter on Saturday. ”
Jones also reiterated that Shiltz is still considered the starter, despite the presence of veteran Harris.
“He does the things that we expect him to do. ”
The Alouettes will be deprived of the services of center David Brown, injured elbow, for this game played at 1 p.m. at Percival-Molson stadium. Jones believes the latter still has three to four weeks before he can return to training.
At halftime, the Alouettes will pay tribute to former defensive end John Bowman, Alouettes record holder and sixth all-time for sacks with 134.