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“You get healthy, you start to get momentum and you can look like world beaters,” said Redblacks running coach Joe Paopao, who was a quarterback in the league from 1978-87, then in 1990, and has coached on and off since 1989 with B.C., Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Ottawa (with both the Renegades and Redblacks). “We’ve seen it happen in the CFL.”

Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

The Redblacks are hoping to swing the momentum in a positive direction Friday night in Montreal — against an Alouettes team that has won three straight games after two losses.

“We’ve had our issues the past couple of weeks,” said Redblacks GM Marcel Desjardins Wednesday. “But we like what we have around here — we like the players, we like the coaching staff. We need to, for the lack of a better term, believe in what we have, believe in what we’re doing and take it one game at a time. The big picture is the big picture, but we’re just looking at it one week at a time to be honest.”

“Momentum is big, but you can’t look at it that way. You have to look at it as getting this one, getting the next one and the one after that — one at a time. When you look back, you think, ‘Yeah, we’re on a bit of a roll.’ That’s what we have to strive toward. Everything can be so different from one week to the next.”

Remember two seasons ago — in 2017 — the Redblacks started the season 1-6-1, then reeled off some wins, going 7-3 the rest of the way before getting knocked off in the East semi-final by Saskatchewan. In 2016, the Redblacks won the Grey Cup with an 8-9-1 regular-season record. They started the season strong, but struggled in the middle part of the season before putting it together down the stretch drive. The 2017 Argos won the Grey Cup after finishing the regular season with just nine wins. So it’s not necessarily a case of East is least and West is best — teams can’t go into any week thinking the opponent is a free spot on the Bingo card.