The Hamilton Tiger-Cats entered the season as the consensus betting favourite to win the Grey Cup.

After back-to-back road losses to open the season, the Tiger-Cats limp into a bye week at 0-2.

A return to Tim Hortons Field can’t come soon enough.

Hamilton’s odds to win the Grey Cup lengthened from +350 to +500 following a 30-8 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday night.

The Tiger-Cats will return from the bye with a short trip to face the Montreal Alouettes in Week 4.

Will Jeremiah Masoli be back at quarterback for Hamilton? Or will we see Dane Evans start in Montreal after he replaced Masoli in the loss to Saskatchewan?

It might not matter who gets the start unless that offensive line plays a lot better than it has the first two weeks.

Considering how good the Alouettes looked in their opener, there is a very real chance that the Tiger-Cats could be staring down a 0-3 start before they return home to face the Toronto Argonauts in Week 5.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Monday, Aug. 16, 2021.

CFL Grey Cup odds movement

Hamilton isn’t the only projected contender that has struggled out of the gate.

The Calgary Stampeders were a consensus top-three choice to win the Grey Cup entering this season.

They’ve averaged 14.5 points per game in back-to-back losses. It’s the first time that Bo Levi Mitchell has started 0-2 in his career.

It doesn’t get any easier for Calgary either.

The Stampeders will visit the new Grey Cup favourite in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 4.

After a 2-0 start, Winnipeg’s odds to win the Grey Cup shortened from +500 to +450. That was just enough to leapfrog the Tiger-Cats on the board.

Meanwhile, the BC Lions and Edmonton Elks are the biggest movers when it comes to the Grey Cup odds.

BC’s odds to win it all shortened from +1100 to +800 after a win over the Stampeders. Edmonton’s odds lengthened from +1100 to +1600 following a loss to Montreal.

The Lions and Elks will play each other in Week 3. BC opened as a nine-point favourite for that game.

Here are the opening numbers for Week 3 in the CFL:

Edmonton Elks at BC Lions -9

Montreal Alouettes at Calgary Stampeders -7

Winnipeg Blue Bombers -3 at Toronto Argonauts

Ottawa Redblacks at Saskatchewan Roughriders -10.5

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for an early season trend that you can count on, keep an eye on the lack of scoring across the league.

CFL unders went 4-0 in Week 2 to improve to 7-1 so far this season.

NFL preseason trends

Speaking of trends, the NFL preseason has provided a couple that you just won’t find once the regular season starts.

Most importantly, following a 17-14 win over the New Orleans Saints on Saturday night, the Baltimore Ravens have now won 18 straight preseason games dating back to 2015.

They are 16-1-1 against the spread over that span. Those are just ridiculous numbers.

Baltimore will close out the preseason on the road against the Carolina Panthers and the Washington Football Team.

Also ridiculous is the trend towards the under.

The under went 9-1 on Saturday and is now 14-2 so far this pre-season. That’s an 87.5 per cent hit rate.

It’s another number to keep in mind over the next two weeks.

Finally, the Las Vegas Raiders beat the Seattle Seahawks 20-7 on Saturday night.

Las Vegas is now 7-2 in their last nine exhibition games dating back to 2018.

Next to the Raven’s streak, that might not seem all that impressive.

However, with Derek Carr, Marcus Mariota and Nathan Peterman on the roster, the Raiders have the depth at quarterback that you need to win exhibition games.

Las Vegas will visit the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers to close out the preseason.

MLB favourites extend impressive run

MLB favourites delivered again on Sunday with a combined 10-5 record.

Favourites have cashed at a 59.3 per cent rate so far this season. That number is even higher over the past couple of weeks.

Since Aug. 6, MLB favourites are a combined 97-41 – a 70.3 per cent success rate.

The disparity between the playoff contenders and the rest of the league can’t be overlooked.

However, things could look a little different this week with a total of nine series that feature playoff hopefuls, including the Oakland Athletics and Chicago White Sox, the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants, and the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees getting underway today or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a different kind of favourite appears to be locked in when it comes to the MLB futures market.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a pair of home runs in his return to lead the San Diego Padres to an 8-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.

Tatis was -220 to win NL MVP when he returned on Sunday. As of this morning, he’s -280 to win that award.