Alouettes rout Eskimos

Football Betting Lines

07/09/2009 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Anthony Calvillo completed 24-of-32 passes for 343 yards and two touchdowns and added a rushing TD, as the Montreal Alouettes routed the Edmonton Eskimos, 50-16, in the second game of the season for both teams.

Kerry Watkins caught nine passes for 119 yards and one score for the Alouettes (2-0), who kicked off the season by claiming a convincing 40-27 triumph over the reigning champion Calgary Stampeders. S.J. Green brought in five balls for 113 yards and a TD.

Avon Cobourne led the way on the ground, rushing for 65 yards and a score on 10 carries for Montreal, which was the only team in the East Division to post double-digit victories in 2008.

Edmonton (1-1), which won 19-17 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the season opener, sorely missed running back Jesse Lumsden on Thursday. Lumsden will miss at least nine games after dislocating his left shoulder in the opener.

Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray ended up leading the way on the ground, rushing for 33 yards on five carries. Arkee Whitlock finished with 29 yards and a score on 12 rushing attempts.

Ray completed 19-of-33 passes for 280 yards. Maurice Mann caught seven balls for 139 yards.

Calvillo's 28-yard strike to Watkins early in the first quarter gave the Als a 7-0 lead. The Eskimos used a 22-yard field goal from Noel Prefontaine late in the frame to cut the deficit to 8-3.

Montreal used the arm of Calvillo and the foot of Damon Duval to take a comfortable 19-6 margin heading into the locker room. Prefontaine cut the gap to three with a 15-yard field goal early in the second period. The Alouettes, though, finished out the quarter with an 11-yard field goal from Duval and a Calvillo 3-yard TD run to take control.

Prefontaine's 14-yard field goal proved to be the only scoring in the third period.

The Als turned the game into a rout in the fourth, scoring four touchdowns and a field goal. Calvillo got things started when he connected with Green on a 21-yard TD pass early in the frame. Also included in the quarter was a 67- yard punt return from Larry Taylor and a 38-yard interception return by Cory Huclack.

Whitlock capped the scoring in the contest with a 1-yard TD run.

Game Notes

It was the 87th consecutive sellout for Montreal...Als' Keron Williams had five tackles and two sacks, while Mark Estelle recorded eight tackles. Jonte Buhl led the Eskimos defense with six sacks.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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