Montreal wide receiver Kerry Watkins breaks the grasp of Edmonton defender Jonte Buhl on Thursday night at Percival Molson Stadium.Montreal wide receiver Kerry Watkins breaks the grasp of Edmonton defender Jonte Buhl on Thursday night at Percival Molson Stadium. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo and his defensive teammates took turns frustrating Edmonton on Thursday night, an all-too-familiar scenario for the Eskimos in recent visits.

Calvillo passed for 344 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another major in Montreal's 50-16 home victory.

CFL teams won't be thrilled to learn that in addition to the usual suspects, the already prolific Calvillo might have found another target.

Filling in for sick slotback Jamel Richardson, S.J. Green — with just 11 receptions over the past two years — caught five for 113 yards and a touchdown. He complemented reliable receiver Kerry Watkins, who counted a touchdown on the opening drive among his nine catches for 119 yards.

"It was a very frustrating, very humbling experience for me having to sit and wait two years on the practice squad knowing that I could play and contribute," Green said. "I waited my turn and made the best of the opportunity I received."

The game was still in the balance until the fourth, when Montreal scored 31 points. Larry Taylor, who returned two punts for touchdowns against Edmonton in last year's CFL East final, took one back 68 yards for a score.

Later, Avon Cobourne ran in from short yardage while Cory Huclack returned an interception of a deflected pass as the Als poured it on.

Trying to replace Jesse

A fumble and two dropped passes in the end zone did not help Arkee Whitlock’s quest to take over for the Eskimo's injured Jesse Lumsden.

The second dropped pass bounced off Whitlock's chest with no defenders in sight.

He did score on a short run with less than two minutes remaining, but by then the Esks were only thinking of survival.

"He had an opportunity to make some plays and things just didn't work out for him, but there were some good things that he did out there," Edmonton coach Rickie Hall said. "You don't give up on a person after one game.”

"The game was close up until that fourth quarter and then, all of a sudden, there's a special teams touchdown, then we score a touchdown and the defence as well," Calvillo said.

Those three touchdowns all came after the key juncture of the game, which occurred early in the fourth.

Edmonton strung together an impressive 90-yard drive but for the third time in the game came away with only a Noel Prefontaine field goal.

Ricky Ray's 34-yard completion to Maurice Mann brought the Eskimos close to pay dirt, but when the quarterback looked for Fred Stamps in the end zone, the receiver couldn't hold on to the ball after getting drilled by Montreal safety Mathieu Proulx.

The Alouettes on the next drive made the visitors pay for yet another missed opportunity, with Green marking his second career CFL touchdown, on a 21-yard play for a 26-7 lead.

"Things just kind of fell in place in that fourth quarter for us, but it definitely wasn't easy," Calvillo said. "The score may show it, but it wasn't easy."

Kicker Damon Duval had two field goals in four tries for Montreal (2-0).

Edmonton (1-1) has now scored just two offensive touchdowns in the last four visits to Montreal. Both of those touchdowns have come in the fourth quarter with the Eskimos trailing badly.

The Eskimos were playing for the first time at Percival Molson Stadium since a 40-4 shellacking last September. In between was a 36-26 loss to the Alouettes in the East final in November at Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

"From start to finish, we didn't play as well as we're capable of playing and, after a while, we sucked out there [and] that's not us," Eskimos rookie head coach Richie Hall said. "We got our butts kicked."

Edmonton looked to be heading into halftime down just 12-6 despite the missed chances, but aided by a debatable pass-interference call, Calvillo scampered into the end zone from three yards out with just one tick left on the clock to extend the lead.

"What happens against good teams is if you don't take care of business early, it comes back to haunt you," Hall said. "That's what happened.

"We hung in there, we thought we were good at halftime. Then, we had some chances to do some things and we didn't."

Ray finished 19-of-33 passing for 280 yards and was sacked five times, numbers not far off from his miserable outing last year at Percival.

Replacement Jason Maas threw the pass intercepted by Huclack. Whitlock, who rushed for 29 yards on 11 rushes, had the first crack at the ball that Huclack took the other way for a 38-yard touchdown.

Edmonton will host B.C. next week while Montreal travels to Saskatchewan.

With files from The Canadian Press