The road to the 100th Grey Cup continues this week with the Edmonton Eskimos visiting the Ottawa Redblacks in the Eastern Semi-Final while the BC Lions visit the Calgary Stampeders in the Western Semi-Final. The Stampeders are expected to continue their outstanding season with a big playoff run to book their spot in the Grey Cup and while the Redblacks are small favorites at home to book their spot as well, the Eskimos could be in a favorable position to pull out another big road win. Here is your CFL betting rundown for the Conference Finals.
Sunday November 20 – 1:00 PM ET
Edmonton Eskimos @ Ottawa Redblacks
CFL Betting Odds: Ottawa -1
It isn’t very often that a CFL team records more rushing yards than passing yards on the way to a playoff victory but that was the case in Edmonton’s 24-21 win over Hamilton in the Eastern semi-final. John White averaged 8.0 yards per carry while rushing for 160 yards and two touchdowns and the Eskimos finished with 180 rushing yards compared to just 152 passing yards. That likely won’t happen again this week if Edmonton wants to win but it did show what was possible if their defense could step up and shut down the opposing attack. The Eskimos limited Zach Collaros to 236 yards and an interception and while they will face a much tougher test versus Henry Burris and the Redblacks this week they will need to step up.
Interestingly enough, though, the Redblacks may not have a huge home-field advantage in this spot. Although they were the top team in the East Division this year, they were just 2-6-1 at home this year. And it’s worth noting that while they were the top team in the East, they were just 8-9-1. Edmonton comes in with a record of 10-8 even though they were in third in the West.
Mike Reilly led the CFL in passing yards this season so it’s obvious that he has more in the tank than what we saw from him against Hamilton last week. Ottawa is coming off a bye week so it will be interesting to see if they come out firing or if they are a little rusty out of the gate. If the Eskimos can get more out of Reilly while continuing to lean on a strong rushing attack and stout defense then we could see Edmonton pull off another big win on the road and book its spot in the 100th Grey Cup.
CFL Betting Pick: Edmonton +1
Sunday November 20 – 4:30 PM ET
BC Lions @ Calgary Stampeders
CFL Betting Odds: Calgary -7.5
Calgary is also coming off a bye week following one of the most dominant seasons in CFL history and there is no doubt that Bo Levi Mitchell and company will want to pick up from where they left off looking to cap off an outstanding year with a Grey Cup celebration.
The Stamps are at home in this showdown, which makes this particularly challenging for the Lions. The Stamps were a perfect 9-0 at home this season and were 9-1 against the Western Division. As for the Lions, they were both 6-3 at home and on the road, so playing away from home may not be a huge disadvantage to them.
The Stampeders are the clear favorites to win it all and it will be very interesting to see how they fare against the Lions. BC is coming off a massive comeback win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in which they rallied back from a 28-12 deficit in the third quarter to pull out the 32-31 win. The Lions will need Jonathon Jennings to carry over his second half performance from that win and play at an elite level if they are going to contend with Calgary this weekend. However, that could be easier said than done if the Stampeders are firing on all cylinders the way they did in the last meeting between these teams. Calgary beat BC 37-9 back in Week 9 when the Stampeders held Jennings to 10-of-22 passing for 153 yards. The Calgary defense will look back at that tape with the intention of replicating their performance. On the season, they allowed just 369 points, which was by far the fewest in the CFL. No other team in the league allowed less than 415 points, so the Stamps defense was clearly head and shoulders above everyone else. If they can even slow down Jennings just a little bit, it should be enough to win and cover the spread at home.
CFL Betting Pick: Calgary -7.5
