MONTREAL (CP) - The Montreal Alouettes' late-season slide looks to be over.
Anthony Calvillo returned from a calf injury to throw two touchdown passes and Damon Duval kicked six field goals as the Alouettes pounded the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 48-13 on Sunday afternoon for a team record-tying 14th win of the season.
The victory came a week after a 41-24 loss in Winnipeg with back-up Adrian McPherson at quarterback and gave the Alouettes a perfect 9-0 record at home for the season.
Calvillo said the calf was completely healed and he'll be ready to play when the Alouettes (14-3) go after a 15th win as they close the regular season Saturday against the 3-14 Argonauts in Toronto.
"Every team's goal is to be undefeated at home and have a winning record at home and that would get you to about 14-4, so we're right on target," the veteran pivot said. "We're excited about it because it's something we haven't done since I've been here.
"And we didn't want to make them think they could beat us at home. Last week, they played well and give them credit for that, but we wanted to play the way we wanted, putting offence, defence and special teams together, and we did that and you saw the result."
Marc Trestman's Alouettes equalled their win total set in 2004 under former coach Don Matthews, although that year Calvillo was injured in the East final and they were beaten by the Argonauts.
Brian Bratton and Andrew Hawkins caught TD passes, Larry Taylor also scored on a 115-yard missed field goal return and Avon Cobourne ran in his 15th TD of the season for Montreal.
Titus Ryan had a TD catch and Alexis Serna booted two field goals for the Blue Bombers (7-10), who can finish second in the East Division with a win over Hamilton (8-9) next weekend.
The Bombers and Ticats split two games this season, both in Hamilton. If the Ticats win, they take second place outright and Winnipeg will be bumped from the playoffs by a crossover team from the West Division. If Winnipeg wins, they will tie Hamilton but get second place based on winning the season series.
That may be why the Bombers, who beat Montreal 41-24 in Winnipeg last weekend, were never in the return match.
But coach Mike Kelly was irate when it was suggested his team didn't show up, even though his offence was held to 197 net yards and only seven first downs, compared to 392 yards for Montreal.
"We played hard," he said. "I never questioned the effort our players put in and if anyone questions it they're dead wrong.
"We just couldn't seem to sustain anything today. We had too many drops. It was just one of those days where we didn't get any kind of rhythm."
He said his team will have to forget the loss and concentrate on the Tiger-Cats, who downed Saskatchewan 24-6 on Saturday.
"We have to," Kelly added. "They put us over their knee and gave us a little spanking and said 'We're the big dogs,' and we understand that and congratulations to them.
"They're a good football team. It's hard to go 9-0 at home and they were able to do it. Ok, it's over, now all our thoughts are positive and getting ready for Hamilton."
Kelly liked that his defence forced Montreal to kick field goals instead of score touchdowns six times, a problem with finishing drives that has dogged Montreal all season.
"We got more field goals than we wanted, but we scored when we needed to," replied Calvillo.
The Bombers got a break when Taylor fumbled the opening kickoff and Derrick Doggett recovered at the Montreal 18-yard line but they had to settle for a field goal.
The Alouettes bounced back with a Duval field goal followed by a drive capped by a 24-yard TD pass to Bratton. Montreal got five more points off a safety and a 27-yard Duval field goal in the quarter.
Hawkins caught a 19-yard scoring pass 11:01 into the second and Serna answered with a 40-yard field goal for a 25-6 Montreal half-time lead.
It was a statement game for the struggling Montreal defence, which had allowed 79 points in its previous two games. Star tailback Fred Reid was held to one yard on six carries in the first half and ended up with 37 on 11 attempts, while Michael Bishop completed only 8-of-21 throws for 145 yards.
Much of that came only 21 seconds into the second half when he found Ryan behind the Montreal defence for a 65-yard TD pass.
"We knew we were a better defence than that," said Rush end Anwar Stewart. "For us to go undefeated at home was great because we know that if we go out and do our thing, nobody can stop us and we did that today."
The Alouettes hit back with a Duval kick and, when Serna's 46-yard attempt fell short, Taylor brought it back for the third-longest return TD in Alouettes history.
"That's probably the most exciting play in football," said Taylor, who had 335 return yards on the day.
Duval got his fifth and sixth field goals of the day in the fourth to give him 48 for the season, three short of his career high set in 2006. His 22 kicking points gave him a career-high 218, only two points short of Terry Baker's club record set in 2000.
McPherson was at quarterback when Cobourne scored on a 14-yard run in the fourth.
Bishop came out in favour of Casey Bramlet five minutes into the final quarter. He was picked off by Billy Parker to set up a Duval field goal.
Kelly said Bishop had a hamstring problem.
"It was bothering him a bit so why tweak it any more?" the coach said. "I looked at our playlist and we didn't have any 25-point plays, so I figured what the heck, let's go ahead and put the other guy in and get him some reps."
Kick returner Jevon Johnson also hurt an ankle, but he said it was minor and he'll be ready to go next week.
For Montreal, linebacker Walter Spencer had a hamstring problem and Hawkins hurt his ribs, but Trestman said it did not appear to be serious.
