The Argos pulled out the nice victory late, but it pays the same as a blow out. A little action coming on Thursday with Calgary and Winnipeg.
I've seen bad before, but the Bombers are really taking it to the next level. Less than 50 rushing yards... on the season. 2 games in and they have 49 rushings yards combined. Yikes that's bad! But that hurts only as much as knowing that the competition gains as many yards on the ground as WINNIPEG does through the air.
On the flip side you can see a tough ground defense in Calgary. But how tough does it have to be vs this weeks inept offense. Not that tough. But what is surprising (or not) is the amount of yards the Stamps gave up through the air in their first game. The Bombers aren't EDMONTON, but are certainly better than people are giving them credit for being. A tough road game followed by a tough home game isn't enough to judge how good or in this case how bad a team is.
WINNIPEG is 0-9 straight up at home the first 4 weeks of the season since '96, but with Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto up on the schedule after this week expect a maximum effort as this may be their best shot to pick up a win over the course of the first 7 games. The Bombers are staring 1-6 after the first 7 games right in the face and this may very well be their 1...
Being from Winnipeg I obviously follow them pretty in depth and from what I've seen they pretty much are as bad as people are saying they are. The offense is a complete mess. The reason the running game has been so bad lately hasn't been because of opposing defenses or because of Charles Roberts but because of the terrible offensive line. Charles Roberts just hasn't been given any holes to hit and thats cause alot of "run, pass, kick" series to occur.
However I definetly agree with you on one thing: this is Winnipegs best chance to win for a long time. Basically the only teams Winnipeg has a chance against is Calgary and Ottawa and I'm pretty sure they know this. If you figure that Winnipeg will probably only get 3 or 4 wins this season you gotta think that 75% of those wins will be at home (if not all of them).
So for this game I see motivation being higher for Winnipeg than I do for Calgary and that could be the deciding factor. I see this as a low scoring game which makes taking the points even more appealing.
Calgary does have good defense, and Winnipeg does have a serious problem at quarterback which is a major concern...but despite this I think Winnipeg could squeek this out. Whether it be by some sort of fluke INT for a TD or Stokes runs back a punt return..something crazy like that could happen to give Winnipeg a win. I'm more sold on the under than I am the side but I could picture Calgary winning but not covering.
More points isn't a bad thing. And the fact that everyone loves Calgary, according to Wagerline, isn't a bad thing either.
Road fav's can be so dangerous as they only hit about 50% ATS on the season. (Currently they're 3-2ATS, so 3-3 would fit the bill)
Only one team has lost S/U this year as a favorite. And they're 4-1 S/U on the road.
Two home favorites with one likely losing in the next day or 2.
Besides, T.Martin made a ton of cash for me at Tennessee back in '98 so this game is definately not out of reach. Although this is definately not Tennessee...
No news really. Bombers restructured their offensive line but that wouldn't have that big of a line increase. Weather is hot and humid, won't be any rain until after midnight.