Morning Coffee: Argonauts, Bombers set for CFL Friday Night Football rematch

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was a masterpiece.

Think “Draft Day” meets “Any Given Sunday”.

Back in 2021, the San Francisco 49ers decided before the NFL Draft it would be “Trey Lance, no matter what”.

The Niners thought they landed Patrick Mahomes 2.0.

Four years later, Lance finally lived up to the hype, only as the starting quarterback of the Los Angeles Chargers in front of 18,000 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.

Maybe that’s what they meant when they told us that Lance was always destined for Canton.

It was like if Willie Beaman didn’t make it with the Miami Sharks, then failed to find his way with the Dallas Knights, only to resurface years later with the California Crusaders and deliver the type of performance that would leave Tony D’Amato and Christina Pagniacci reminiscing about what could have been.

The Chargers scored three touchdowns and two field goals on nine drives with Lance at quarterback in a 34-7 win over the Detroit Lions.

The 25-year-old Lance went 13-of-20 for 120 yards and two touchdowns over three quarters of work.

Considering he’s younger than Any Given Sunday, I’m willing to believe Lance has the potential to succeed in the right situation in the National Football League.

If it doesn’t work out, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have the exclusive rights to negotiate with Lance if he decides to play in the CFL.

Meanwhile, Week 9 in the CFL kicked off last night when Dru Brown led the Ottawa Redblacks to a lopsided 31-11 win over the Calgary Stampeders.

The Redblacks improved to 2-6 this season.

Ottawa is 2-0 versus Calgary - 0-6 versus the rest of the league.

The Stampeders strong start was one of the biggest surprises of the CFL season through Week 7, but they’ve been devastated by injuries of late, losing back-to-back games against the Montreal Alouettes and Redblacks.

Former NFL QB P.J. Walker went 20-of-37 for 273 yards and a touchdown with three interceptions for Calgary in his first CFL start.

The Stampeders, which opened -4.5 and closed +3.5 in the biggest line move we’ve seen in the CFL this season, won’t win many games without their biggest stars.

Calgary will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 10.

First up, the Bombers will host the Toronto Argonauts on Friday Night Football.

Winnipeg is another West Division contender with an injured QB that is suddenly heading in the wrong direction following a hot start to the season.

Will the Bombers get back on track tonight at home? 

Winnipeg remains the betting favourite at FanDuel, but the Argonauts have some success against the Bombers in recent years, and the spread for Friday Night Football has trended in Toronto’s favour.

This is Morning Coffee for Friday August 1st, 2025.

Argonauts, Bombers Set For CFL Friday Night Football Rematch

The Bombers and Argonauts entered Week 1 of the CFL season as co-favourites to win the Grey Cup at FanDuel.

Winnipeg was the favourite to win the West Division.

Toronto was the favourite to win the East Division.

The regular season win total for both teams was 10.5 – tied for the highest mark in the CFL.

The Argonauts opened with three straight losses and sit at 2-5 after a 31-17 upset win over the Bombers last week in the first game of a home-and-home series.

With pre-season MOP favourite QB Chad Kelly placed on the six-game injured list, it appears to be the Nick Arbuckle show for Toronto moving forward this season.

Arbuckle went 22-of-31 for 316 yards, two TD passes, and 32 rushing yards in last week’s win over Winnipeg.

If he can lead the Argonauts to another win over the Bombers tonight, the path back to .500 will become a lot more realistic for a Toronto side that will host Ottawa in Week 10 and visit the Edmonton Elks in Week 11.

Meanwhile, Winnipeg appeared to pick up right where they left off as a perennial Grey Cup contender with three straight wins to open the season.

However, the Bombers have hit a wall with three straight losses, and an injury to Zach Collaros has raised some serious concerns about the team’s immediate future.

The Roughriders, Stampeders, and BC Lions are all legitimate contenders in the West Division.

If Collaros is forced to miss an extended amount of time or is not available when it matters the most come playoff time, Winnipeg will not be back in the Grey Cup.

Chris Streveler will start at QB for the Bombers tonight.

Streveler’s passing yards prop is 216.5 at FanDuel – the lowest mark I’ve seen for a CFL QB this season.

FanDuel’s spread has also moved in Toronto’s direction.

Winnipeg opened -5.5 but is down to -2.5 at FanDuel this morning.

The Argonauts have covered six of their previous seven meetings against the Bombers, which led to me jumping on the Argonauts +5.5 before the move.

I’m tempted to take Toronto to win outright at +130.

Per the FanDuel traders, 66 per cent of the spread bets have been on the Argonauts to cover as the underdog, leading to the line movement highlighted above.

59 per cent of the moneyline bets are on Toronto to win outright.

Make sure you give me a follow @Domenic_Padula on X so you don’t miss a play. 

In case you missed it, we swept the FanDuel Best Bets in Thursday’s column and still have a pair of pending best bets for this weekend.

I locked in a Same Game Parlay with Kenny Lawler to score a touchdown and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to beat the Edmonton Elks on Saturday afternoon at +128 in Tuesday morning’s column.

I also went with Riders -2.5 against the Montreal Alouettes as a FanDuel Best Bet in the second half of the CFL Saturday double-header in Wednesday’s column.

Hopefully, we can sweep our CFL Week 9 bets.

With the NFL pre-season getting underway, you can expect to see a ton of football picks in this column for the foreseeable future.

Have a great long weekend, everyone!