MONTREAL - The Montreal Alouettes are growing playoff beards and have new T-shirts designed by defensive tackle Keron Williams with the team slogan for 2009 -- Win The Day.
Whether that will help them get past their nemesis, the B.C. Lions, in the East Division final on Sunday (TSN, 1 p.m. ET) at Olympic Stadium remains to be seen.
''We had time on our hands and were dreaming up things and decided to not shave -- that's all it is,'' guard Scott Flory said Wednesday of the bushy growth he and most of his teammates sprouted during the bye they enjoyed last week for finishing atop the East Division with a 15-3 record.
It also allowed Williams, who studied graphic design at the University of Massachusetts, to bring out shirts with a logo-like depiction of the slogan coach Marc Trestman has preached since the start of training camp, one they may especially need to follow against the dangerous Lions.
''We're going to need it going against a team like the B.C. Lions, who have a great quarterback (Casey Printers) who is coming off a great win,'' said Williams. ''However we can get the motivation to get through practice and get something out of it, that'll be key.
''I consider myself a leader on this team, so however I can get my guys going, that's what I'll take on.''
Lions
The Lions (8-10), who crossed over from the West because they had a better record than third-place finisher Winnipeg (7-11) in the East, recorded a thrilling 34-27 overtime win over Hamilton in the conference semifinal. Now they will face Montreal before more than 45,000 at Olympic Stadium.
Since 2000, Montreal is 9-11 against B.C. in the regular season -- 1-9 in Vancouver, including losses in the last nine in a row, and 7-3 in Montreal. They also lost Grey Cup games to the Lions in 2000 and 2006, although they won an East semi-final over B.C. in a crossover game in 1997.
They split two games this season -- a 19-12 Lions win in Vancouver and a 28-24 victory by the Alouettes in Montreal, which needed a last-minute touchdown from tailback Avon Cobourne after the Lions took the lead in the fourth quarter.
