With the CFL going into Week 4 action, we’ve seen enough from each team to feel ready to start betting on the action.
Our first bet of the 2018 CFL campaign comes Friday night as the 1-1 Ottawa Redblacks visit the 1-2 Montreal Alouettes in a showdown of East Division rivals. Let’s check out the odds for that contest, then break down the game to see where the best betting value lies in this clash.
RedBlacks/Alouettes Betting Odds
The RedBlacks have been one of the hotter bets in Week 4 of the CFL, moving from an opening line of -5.5 all the way up to -7.5 as of Thursday afternoon. That makes Ottawa the biggest favourite on the Week 4 slate, and a road favourite to boot.
The Over/Under for this matchup has barely moved, however. Oddsmakers opened this line at 48.5 points and most betting sites still had that number available Thursday, although Pinnacle had gone up to 49.
RedBlacks/Alouettes Betting Pick
These teams enter this game with two different mindsets. Ottawa looks to rebound from a disappointing performance last week in Calgary, when quarterback Trevor Harris was pulled after going 13-for-29, zero touchdowns and an interception in a 24-14 loss to the Stamps. Meanwhile, Montreal is coming off a 23-17 upset of the Roughriders as 10.5-point underdogs in Saskatchewan, snapping a 13-game losing streak that dated back to the middle of last season.
But when you look at the boxscore, the Als’ win in Regina really wasn’t that impressive. Montreal struggled to move the chains with any consistency, recording just 10 first downs compared to Saskatchewan’s 17. Keying the Alouettes’ victory was their four interceptions of Roughriders quarterbacks Brandon Bridge and David Watford, a number they likely won’t match this week against Harris. We can’t forget that the Alouettes were 3-15 just a year ago, and there’s a reason they hadn’t won in 13 straight outings.
Facing that very same Saskatchewan team the previous week, Ottawa shredded the Roughriders for 459 total yards, gaining 25 first downs in the process. And while the RedBlacks may have looked mediocre last week in Calgary, they’re hardly the first team to look that way against the powerful Stampeders.
Ottawa has won 9 of the last 10 meetings in this series, including the last three by a combined score of 88-22. The RedBlacks have also covered 20 of their last 26 games on the road, while home field hasn’t been much of an advantage for Montreal recently, going 5-16 ATS in their last 21 at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. All things considered, we feel quite confident laying the 7.5 points with the RedBlacks here.
Betting pick: RedBlacks -7.5 -105 (available Thursday afternoon at Pinnacle or Bodog)