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Through 19 games and two quarters of football, the Montreal Alouettes offence was surgical, clinical, the pigskin equivalent of a searing knife through a stick of butter.

In the final 30 minutes of their season, the Alouettes mustered precisely one point — a 63-yard single from punter Damon Duval.

It was a miserable end to a fine season, and punctuated a performance that will do nothing to dissipate the perception the Alouettes just can't win the big one.

Indeed, Montreal's impressive run of six Grey Cup appearances in the past nine seasons is blighted by the fact they have won only once — the 2002 edition in Edmonton.

"This game will probably define our team, and we're better than that," said slotback Ben Cahoon, who made eight receptions for 92 yards.

Quarterback Anthony Calvillo, intercepted twice in the final quarter, will likely bear the brunt of that legacy of disappointment.

"[Our guys] deserve better, and Anthony deserves a lot better," said disconsolate offensive lineman Bryan Chiu.

Losing the game before a hometown crowd of 66,308 made it all the more painful.

"Yeah, we didn't win as many as we should have, but it's the CFL and things happen. It's a one-game season, and the ball takes funny bounces sometimes," a red-eyed and sniffling Chiu said after the game.

The Als scored at least 30 points in all but three of their regular-season games in 2008, but when it counted most, the CFL's most vaunted offence could tally only a meagre 14.

It didn't help to be pitted against a ravenous Calgary Stampeder defence.

First-year head coach Marc Trestman was philosophical in defeat, saying "when we put ourselves out there in front a country and it doesn't work out, it's a big hit … it's happened to this team before and it's happened to some individual players before. But every season is a new season. I would rather be on this ride and fail than not be on it at all."

Veterans Cahoon, Chiu and quarterback Anthony Calvillo may have been tempted to retire had Montreal triumphed, but in Chiu's case at least, those plans will be put off.

"This was supposed to be a storybook ending," he said, pausing. "Yeah, I've got a hunger. I'm not ready to end it like this."

Calvillo said he will await test results to determine whether his wife is in remission from a bout with cancer before deciding on his future.

In analyzing his team's performance, Calvillo — who is 1-5 in Grey Cup games — credited the Calgary defence for bottling up his team.

"They started knocking the ball down. I was releasing and guys were open, but they did a good job of getting their hands up and getting us off the field," said Calvillo, who was intercepted twice in the fourth quarter.

The Alouettes started brightly enough, marching the length of the field on their opening drive for a field goal.

But the fact they couldn't get more from a first down at the Calgary seven-yard-line was an ominous portent.

And another stalled drive at the Calgary 12 with the Stamps defence on the ropes — Montreal's game plan to attack the corners and confound them with crossing routes — the Alouettes could muster only another field goal.

"That was the difference when you look back at it now," a wistful Calvillo said.

The two field goals and a 16-yard scamper by Montreal tailback Avon Cobourne, who was largely held in check, gave the Alouettes a 13-3 lead, but then a funny thing happened.

"We had trouble sustaining drives, we were two and out a lot, definitely to start the first quarter. We had trouble getting in a rhythm. We were doing well in the second quarter, but just came out sputtering. I don't know all the reasons, but Calgary did a good job," Cahoon said.

An offensive game plan that had yielded 199 passing yards in the first half, using crossing routes and short passes to great effect, suddenly lost its magic and regressed to post 157 total yards in the second as the running game ground to a halt.

"In the second half they went a lot more zone, they got out of that [man-to-man], they switched up coverages, we were trying to spread the ball around, but we just beat ourselves, basically," said rangy, powerful wideout Jamel Richardson, who torched the Calgary defence for 101 receiving yards, including a 55-yard ramble on the opening drive. "We kept them around, we had the chance to shut the door, but we kept them around."

In the third quarter, Montreal had only three possessions, and crossed into Calgary territory just once — and even that was to the Stamps' 54-yard-line.

The Alouettes' offensive line, impermeable for much of the season, allowed two fourth-quarter sacks.