The Betting Perspective - TOR @ CGY

Toronto @ Calgary (-7) - TOTAL 48.5

by Kyle Melo

Week 1 continues Saturday with a double-dose of football, first up, the Toronto Argonauts invade Calgary to battle the Stampeders.

The Argos are looking to turn the page on a couple of tumultuous seasons after winning it all in 2017. And the organization have done their due diligence to assure massive steps are taken this year. The double-blue have a new quarterback in Nick Arbuckle, a new head coach in Ryan DInwiddie and an optimistic attitude heading into the restart. Despite the improvements, the Argos are not considered favorites in the East division, Nick Arbuckle has never held the title of starter before in the CFL and there are so many new faces in the locker room. The Argos will start the season with 34 new players making their debut for the organization, so it may take some time to really make a prediction on how the club will play moving forward.

As for the Stampeders, chemistry will not be called into question, Bo-Levi Mitchell will be slinging the football for a 9th season in Calgary. Dave Dickenson is still on the sideline and he'll be looking to improve on a 2019 West-semi loss to the Blue Bombers. The defeat ended a streak of three straight years in the Grey Cup for the organization.

The Toronto Argonauts announced earlier this week that McLeod Bethel-Thompson will start the season behind center instead of Nick Arbuckle, who has been dealing with a hamstring injury during training camp.

The Stamps opened up as 5 point favorites in a lot of places, even as low as 4.5 at some books. That spread has been bet all the way up to -7, so the public dollars are backing the team with continuity and clearly the better quarterback. We're going to roll with home side Calgary this week regardless of where the line sits, Bo-Levi Mitchell is healthy again and we haven't been able to say that in a while.

PICK: Calgary -7