Can the Montreal offence get on track against the B.C. Lions Thursday night?

Things are getting desperate for the Montreal Alouettes. They're just 2-5 on the season, three games behind Toronto for the East Division lead, and although they came close in last Saturday's 24-21 road loss to Saskatchewan, they lost plenty of crucial players to injury along the way, including quarterback Anthony Calvillo. Now they have to host the impressive B.C. Lions Thursday (7:30 p.m. Eastern, TSN/NBCSN), and they'll be doing so without the concussed Calvillo and several other key figures. Perhaps most concerningly, their struggling offence is going up against a Lions' defence that's been one of the league's best units thus far. Will Montreal be able to figure out a way to beat the B.C. defence, or will the Lions beard the Alouettes in their own den?

First, it's notable just how good that B.C. defence has been. Through eight weeks of play, the Lions led the CFL in yards of offence allowed (283.7 per game: second-place Calgary was allowing 322.7), first downs allowed (123), passing first downs allowed (67), gain per pass (6.6 yards), passing yards per game (196.9) and passing touchdowns (eight, tied with Saskatchewan). They were also second in points allowed per game (23.4) and third in gain per rush (4.9) yards. There are some concerns with the B.C. defence, including their inability to get to the quarterback (they have just 12 sacks thus far, a league-low total) and their tendency to sometimes give up big rushing games, but overall, this is a remarkable and effective unit that won't be easy for anyone to beat.

The Montreal offence, by comparison, hasn't been close to good on the season. They have a league-low 110 first downs and a CFL-worst 280.0 yards of offence per game. They're also last or tied for last in yards per pass (6.6), completion percentage (56.6 per cent), passing yards per game (214.6), and fumbles lost (11). Granted, it's not entirely fair to judge them completely by season-long stats, as their offence has been substantially revamped since the firing of Dan Hawkins and now features Doug Berry calling the plays, Mike Miller as the titular OC and quarterbacks coach and Calvillo with substantial input (until he got hurt, anyway). That hasn't produced impressive results yet either, though: the offence looked even worse than normal two weeks ago in a 38-13 loss to Toronto, and it didn't look great in that loss to Saskatchewan either.

In order for Montreal to find success in this one, they're going to have to have some less-heralded players step up. With Calvillo out, the focus on quarterback shifts to Josh Neiswander. He's in his third CFL season, so at least he has some experience, and maybe he can follow the wave of impressive backup debuts. He struggled against Saskatchewan, though, so his success is anything but assured. Running back Jerome Messam also carries questions: while he was a dominant CFL player two years ago, he's since faced numerous injuries and an unproductive NFL stint, and while he looked decent against Toronto, he wasn't great this past week. The Alouettes' receiving corps is also down two key players in Jamel Richardson (out for the season) and Brandon London (dealing with a concussion): perhaps the likes of S.J. Green and Arland Bruce III can step up, but that won't be easy to do. The odds are highly stacked against Montreal Thursday, but you can never count them out, as anything can happen in the CFL. An Alouettes' victory here would be far more surprising than expected, though.