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CALGARY — They'll be the undisputed fan favourites all week.
Just don't expect to see any of the oddsmakers wearing green.
But the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who were greeted by a marching band and a smattering of fans as they arrived at Calgary International Airport Tuesday afternoon, don't mind being labelled Grey Cup underdogs.
“We're definitely comfortable with the underdog tag. We understand,” said Riders defensive end Stevie Baggs. “They're a 15-3 team. We're a 10-6-1 team. So it's only fair.
“We should be underdogs to a 15-3 team, to a team that's been to the Grey Cup seven times within the last however many years. They deserve that.”
On paper, it's easy to see why bookies have installed the Montreal Alouettes as nine-point favourites for Sunday's showdown with the Roughriders at McMahon Stadium.
The Alouettes are coming off a franchise-record 15-3 campaign, boast the CFL's highest-scoring offence and most stingy defensive unit and made a statement they're ready to roll with a 56-18 thrashing of the B.C. Lions in Sunday's East Final at Olympic Stadium.
But the Riders, fresh off a 27-17 win over the defending champion Calgary Stampeders in the West Final, certainly aren't lacking confidence.
“Everyone looks at us as the underdogs but, of course, we don't feel that way,” said starting quarterback Darian Durant. “We feel like we deserve to be here. If they want to overlook us, fine. That's pretty much the way it's been all year.”
Those comments were echoed by Riders fullback Chris Szarka, who insisted he couldn't care less about the point spread.
“That's for all those gamblers out there — all that other stuff,” Szarka said. “Everybody in our locker-room and everybody in Montreal's locker-room wants this just as badly. It'll be settled on Sunday by playing football, not by what the odds are.”
And odds are you'll hear plenty of banter this week about the Alouettes' record-setting campaign and the fact they've made a habit of advancing to the annual finale.
Anthony Calvillo & Co. have certainly shown they can win games, but with just one championship banner to show for six Grey Cup appearances since 2000, there's plenty of criticism they can't win the big one.
If Tuesday's airport arrival is any indication, the Riders, who lost both head-to-head meetings with the Alouettes this year, won't be serving up any bulletin board material.
Even Baggs, noted as one of the CFL's most notorious trash-talkers, had only glowing things to say about the Alouettes after touching down in Calgary.
But he warned this isn't the same Riders squad that was thumped 43-10 by the Alouettes in Week 3 and dropped a 34-25 decision in Montreal five weeks later.
“We have to do our due diligence and make sure we come out and establish ourselves as the team we've grown to be this year,” Baggs said. “Folks have seen the way we've played and the way we've come together and jelled as the season has progressed. We're not the same team we were the first two times we played them and, hopefully, we can go out there and show that.”