The Saskatchewan Roughriders are the reigning and defending Grey Cup champions.
Fresh off a bye, and with home field advantage, the Riders were also considered an obvious favourite at -4.5 at FanDuel for Thursday Night Football in Week 8.
The fans who packed Mosaic Stadium in Regina last night had plenty of reasons to believe they had bought a ticket to watch another Saskatchewan win.
Instead, it was the Edmonton Elks with another upset.
Cody Fajardo set a career-high with 510 passing yards, and Vincent Blanchard stepped up with the winning field goal from 57 yards out as the Elks stunned the Riders faithful with a 36-34 walk-off win.
Dismissed as an afterthought when the season started, with the longest odds to win it all, Edmonton improved to 2-0 against the lone remaining teams that still have shorter odds to win the Grey Cup at FanDuel.
The Elks own the CFL’s best record at 6-1, with a Riders rematch on deck in Week 9, before they travel across the country to face the Montreal Alouettes in Week 10.
Montreal remains the Grey Cup favourite at +210.
Saskatchewan is still the second choice at +410.
The Elks, which are 2-0 against the Alouettes and Riders, have gone from +1900 to +500 to win it all at FanDuel.
With only a third of the CFL regular season in the books, we still have a long way to go, and a lot left to be decided on the road to the 113th Grey Cup in Calgary.
Yet one thing is certain now.
Nobody is overlooking the Elks as a Grey Cup contender.
Turning the page this morning, the focus shifts some 570 kilometres from Regina to Winnipeg for another CFL West Division showdown on Friday Night Football.
The Calgary Stampeders were trending in the right direction prior to back-to-back losses to Montreal.
Now they brace for another tough test against an opponent that has won three in a row.
Fortunately for Calgary, TSN’s hottest handicapper is backing the Stampeders as a FanDuel Best Bet.
Let’s set the stage for Friday Night Football in this Morning Coffee column for Friday July 24th, 2026.
Stampeders, Bombers Set For Another West Division Showdown On CFL Friday Night Football
Wins and losses still matter to some of us.
After finishing off the biggest tournament of the summer on a high note, I found myself at a bit of a crossroads in terms of next steps.
With the NFL and college football seasons right around the corner, I was looking forward to a deep dive into everything I needed to finalize in my prep for September.
Fortunately, I’ve been able to both take a step back and continue to build my bankroll thanks to Drew Morrison.
In case you missed it, Drew went 2-0 with his FanDuel Best Bets for Thursday Night Football.
He’s on an epic 8-2 run dating back to Week 6 to improve to 16-7 with his FanDuel Best Bets for the CFL season.
All of Stamps Nation will be hoping he stays hot tonight.
Following back-to-back losses to Montreal, Calgary is +102 to end its slide tonight in Winnipeg.
The Bombers are a 1.5-point favourite at FanDuel.
The total is 60.5.
As Drew highlighted in 3rd and 1, Vernon Adams Jr. leads the CFL with 17 touchdown passes and has yet to throw an interception this season.
Tonight, he’ll face a Bombers secondary that has allowed only nine touchdown passes.
Fortunately for Calgary, reinforcements are on the way.
Meanwhile, Dru Brown took over for the injured Zach Collaros, and is coming off an epic comeback revenge win over his former team in the Ottawa Redblacks last week.
However, Drew highlighted a couple of dangerous throws that could have been picked and the narrow margin in which Winnipeg escaped with a victory in Ottawa as two reasons to believe the Stamps could pull off an upset.
When these teams met back in Week 1, it was the running backs that dominated with Dedrick Mills and Brady Oliveira combining for 225 rushing yards and two scores in a narrow 30-28 Bombers win.
Collaros went 17-of-28 for 233 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
If the Stampeders are going to get back in the win column tonight, they’ll need to slow down Oliveira and put the pressure on Brown to beat them with his arm.
Calgary has allowed a league-high 35.6 points per game.
As impressive as Adams has looked to this point, the defence needs to be a lot better if the Stampeders want to compete with the Bombers, Riders, and Elks in a loaded West Division.
Our guy Drew Morrison believes Calgary is in a decent spot tonight and backed the Stampeders +1.5.
With the Moose back in the lineup for Calgary, we could be in line for another entertaining West Division clash as Week 8 continues in Winnipeg.
Hopefully for Stamps Nation, TSN’s hottest handicapper can keep it going with another FanDuel Best Bet winner for Friday Night Football.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
