It’s an early matchup of division leaders to kick off Week 3 in the CFL on Thursday as Ottawa visits Calgary. The Stamps opened as 8-point favourites at Sports Interaction.

Betting Analysis

Calgary is the second-biggest favourite of Week 3 behind Saskatchewan, which is -11 Saturday against visiting Montreal. Early action is heavy on Calgary giving the points. The moneyline for this one has the Stamps are -370 and Redblacks +290. The total of 57 is the highest on the board. The total has gone over in six of the past seven meetings.

Calgary is -167 to be the first team to score, and the favored first scoring play is a Stamps touchdown at +260. Ottawa is +120 to score first. The favoured winning margin at +375 is Calgary by 7-12 points. The Redblacks’ shortest odds are +650 to win by 1-6 points.

Last season some a rather unusual schedule between the teams as they played both Weeks 1 & 2. They tied in the season opener Ottawa 31-31. That would be the only tie in the entire league all year. In Week 2 at home, Calgary won 43-39 to stay unbeaten in four home meetings in this series. Of course, the franchises met in the 2016 Grey Cup and Ottawa pulled the upset.

Ottawa RedBlacks

Ottawa closed as a 2-point home favourite last week against Saskatchewan, a game we projected would end 27-25 in favour of the Redblacks. It wasn’t near that close as Ottawa rolled to a 40-17 victory in its season opener. The Redblacks rolled up 459 yards offence. Trevor Harris threw for 345 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and William Powell rushed for 94 yards and a touchdown while catching two passes and a score.

That continues a good betting trend for the team in June has Ottawa has covered its past six in the month. However, the Redblacks have yet to cover a Week 3 game in their short history.

Calgary Stampeders

The Stamps were -3.5 last week at Toronto in a Grey Cup rematch and they got payback in a big way in a 41-7 blowout (we had it a close Calgary win). Bo Levi Mitchell completed a franchise-record 90.9 per cent of his passes (20-for-22) for 324 yards and three touchdowns (he didn’t play the fourth quarter), and Eric Rogers caught five passes for 131 yards and two scores.

Running backs Don Jackson and Terry Williams combined for 193 yards rushing, including a 70-yarder from Jackson in the third quarter that set up a touchdown. Williams added a 102-yard punt return for a touchdown. Mitchell was named the CFL’s top performer of the week, and the Stamps are the only 2-0 team in the league. They are 5-1 ATS in their past six Thursday games.

RedBlacks vs. Stampeders Prediction