Preview of CFL Semifinal Weekend With Betting Odds
The home teams held serve last weekend in the first round of the Canadian Football League playoffs as the Toronto Argonauts beat the Edmonton Eskimos 42-26 and the Calgary Stampeders beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 36-30. Now both of those winners will go on the road with a berth in the Grey Cup Championship at stake.
History
Last week Calgary's Rene Paredes hit a 50-yard field goal on the last play of the first half to give the Stampeders a 19-16 halftime lead against a pesky Roughriders team. They got a one yard touchdown run at the end of the third quarter from Bo Levi-Mitchell to go up 26-16. But the Riders stormed back in the fourth quarter to take the lead at 30-29 with less than a minute to go on a 24 yard touchdown pass from Darian Durant to Greg Carr. But the Stamps pulled the game out on a 68 yard TD bomb from Drew Tate to Romby Bryant with 20 seconds left and the win.
In Toronto, the Argos exploded for 21 points in the second quarter to go up 31-7 at the half. They cruised in from there to win 42-26.
On Sunday, the Montreal Alouettes will host the Toronto Argonauts in the first semi final game. On July 27th, Toronto beat Montreal on the road 23-20. So they go into this game knowing they can win there. Montreal got even at home on September 23 with a 31-10 win over the Argos. On October 14, the Alouettes beat the Argos in Toronto 24-12 to take the season series 2-1. Montreal was 11-7 on the season while the Argos were 9-9.
Our Pick
Pinnacle has the Argos at +5.5 1.901 or 2.970. Montreal is -5.5 2.010 or 1.455. Over/under on the game is 55. Montreal won the last two games rather handily. But this game is for a trip to the championship. So the Argos will be pumped up. But we will go with Montreal -5.5 and we also like the Under. Championship games tend to get nasty on defense.
The Calgary Stampeders will face the British Columbia Lions. Many would probably say that this game is the REAL Grey Cup Championship game. After all, BC finished 13-5 and Calgary 12-6, the two best records in the CFL. On July 28, BC smacked the Stamps 34-8 at Calgary. On October 6, BC beat the Stamps at home 27-22. On October 26, Calgary won over BC at home 41-21. So the only thing separating the two teams was their head to head meetings which BC won 2-1. Should the Stamps draw even, they'll be playing for the Grey Cup next week.
There is no line on the game since the Stampeders starting quarterback, Drew Tate is out for this game with an injury suffered late in the game last week against the Roughriders. The Stamps will go with an experienced backup in Kevin Glenn, who has filled in for Tate and won eight of his ten starts. So do not count the Stamps out of this one, even if the sports books have.
