Kickoff: Thursday, 7:30 p.m. EDT
Line: Montreal -6.5, Total: 54.5

Edmonton puts its 5-1 record on the line Thursday night in Montreal at McGill Stadium. The Eskimos will be without a key player on Thursday, as their star receiver, Fred Stamps (33 rec., league-high 619 yds, 5 TD), will miss the next 4-to-6 weeks after surgery to stop internal bleeding.

The Eskimos and Alouettes (4-2) are two of the better teams in the CFL, but their past seven meetings have all been decided by 10 or more points, with Montreal winning five of the seven matchups (SU & ATS). The Alouettes have won all four home meetings during this stretch by a combined score of 157 to 60 (24.3 PPG margin). With their 28-16 loss at Winnipeg last week, the Eskimos have dropped two straight games ATS. The Als won big in Toronto last week, 36-23 and lead the CFL with 32.5 PPG. Expect MONTREAL to win big again over an Edmonton team that will suffer without its star wideout.

This FoxSheets trend also sides with the Alouettes.

Marc Trestman is 20-9 ATS (69.0%, +10.1 Units) after playing their last game on the road as the coach of MONTREAL. The average score was MONTREAL 33.7, OPPONENT 19.5 - (Rating = 1*).

Quarterback Ricky Ray (1,718 pass yds, 11 TD, 4 INT), is having a remarkable year, but must quickly forget last Friday’s game which ended in a 28-16 loss to Winnipeg. Ray threw for 226 yards, but more importantly tossed three interceptions and was sacked four times. With Stamps out, the Eskimos will most likely rely more on their running game, which means Jerome Messam (324 rush yds, 5.1 YPC, 2 TD) will have to take on a heavy load rushing the football. Messam is fourth in the league in rushing and should be able to take a bundle of carries with his 6-foot 3, 245-pound frame.

Montreal is coming off a nice win in Toronto where it scored a touchdown in all four quarters and won 36-23. The Als legendary quarterback Anthony Calvillo (1,834 pass yds, 12 TD, 3 INT) had a tremendous game, completing 30-of-36 passes for 349 yards and a touchdown. Calvillo leads the league in passing this year and is the league’s all-time leader in completions (5,180) and touchdown passes (398). Montreal also has a terrific rushing attack with the CFL rushing leader, Brandon Whitaker (493 rush yds, 6.8 YPC, 1 TD), who ran for 150 yards on 19 carries last week against Toronto. Teammate Dahrran Diedrick scored three times and is tied for the league-lead with four rushing touchdowns, despite only 21 carries.