The stage is set for the 108th Grey Cup.

Next Sunday, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a championship showdown.

The Tiger-Cats opened the season as the consensus Grey Cup favourite at +450 and could be found at that exact price as the third choice to win it all heading into Sunday’s victory over the Toronto Argonauts in the Eastern Final.

Hamilton, after trailing Toronto 12-0 at the half, rallied to win 27-19 as a +114 money line underdog.

Meanwhile, the Blue Bombers opened the season at +800 to win the Grey Cup and were the favourite at -130 to win it all entering their win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Western Final.

Winnipeg survived the freezing temperatures and heavy winds with an ugly 21-17 win as a -320 favourite but failed to cover the 8.5-point spread.

Last week in this column, I suggested it was a good spot and likely the final opportunity to jump on the Blue Bombers at even-money to win the Grey Cup.

I feel even better about that suggestion now after Winnipeg survived their worst performance of the season to advance.  

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Monday Dec. 6, 2021.

 

Blue Bombers, Tiger-Cats advance to Grey Cup

As dominant as they were throughout the regular season, the Blue Bombers certainly looked vulnerable in the first half of the Western Final against Saskatchewan.

Winnipeg had almost as many turnovers (five) as points as they trailed the Roughriders 10-7 at the break.

The flip side of that equation is that despite looking that much worse than they had at any point during the regular season, the Blue Bombers still only trailed by three at the half.

Winnipeg had six turnovers and still won.

As it turns out, the Blue Bombers got it together and played mostly mistake-free football in the second half, and outscored Saskatchewan 14-7 the rest of the way for the victory.

Sure, Winnipeg was awful by any standard in that first half against the Riders. At the same time, for as bad as they looked and for as harsh as the conditions were, they still found a way to advance.

What is more likely to happen moving forward?

The Bombers come out just as flat in the Grey Cup and fall behind early against the Tiger-Cats or they clean up their mistakes and play much better football versus Hamilton?

As mentioned, I feel very confident holding a ticket with Winnipeg to win the Grey Cup right now.

Also, if I wanted the opportunity to look for a middle, I could look for the Tiger-Cats at plus-money and hope for the Blue Bombers to win a close game.

However, Hamilton really struggled against the Argos before making the change from Jeremiah Masoli to Dane Evans at quarterback.

While Evans clearly deserves to be their Grey Cup starter following a strong performance, he’ll face a much tougher challenge against a motivated Winnipeg defence in a rematch of the 2019 Grey Cup.

For the time being, I’ll let it ride with the Blue Bombers.

Make sure you check back in right here at TSN EDGE throughout the week for everything you need to know to get you ready for the 108th Grey Cup.

 

Lions get first win

The Detroit Lions will not go winless this season.

After a couple of bad beats left them at 0-10-1, the Lions looked destined to blow another game after they let the Minnesota Vikings rally from down 20-6 to take a 27-23 lead with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter.

However, Jared Goff marched Detroit down the field and threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown with no time left for the win.

Detroit snapped a 15-game winless streak dating back to last season as a +245 money line underdog.

It was the Lions’ first win without Matthew Stafford at quarterback since 2010.

Meanwhile, MVP favourite Tom Brady threw four touchdowns and improved to 10-0 all-time against the Atlanta Falcons with a 30-17 win.

Kyler Murray returned with four touchdowns as the Arizona Cardinals beat the Chicago Bears 33-22.

Also, don’t look now but the Miami Dolphins have won five straight to force their way back into contention at 6-7.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, Miami is the fourth team in NFL history to win five straight after starting 1-7 or worse.

The Dolphins will host the New York Jets and then visit the New Orleans Saints coming out of their bye week, before finishing with a trip to face the Tennessee Titans and a home game against the New England Patriots.

It won’t be easy to make the playoffs following a 1-7 start, but a 9-8 finish is within reach, and the fact that Miami is still alive in the first place following their terrible start is downright impressive. 

 

College Football Playoff field set

The College Football Playoff field was announced on Sunday.

Alabama, Michigan, Georgia and Cincinnati will compete for the NCAA Football FBS Championship as the top four ranked teams in that order.

It’s the third time that a single conference has had two playoff teams.

No. 1 Alabama, which beat Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, opened as a 14-point favourite versus No. 4 Cincinnati.

The Tide are the obvious favourite to win the national championship at +115. The No. 1 seed has won the past two titles.

The Bearcats, which were 80-to-1 to win it all at entering this season, are now +1200 to win the national title.

Meanwhile, despite falling short against Alabama in their conference championship game, No. 3 Georgia opened as a 7.5-point favourite versus No. 2 Michigan. The Bulldogs are +140 to win it all.

The Wolverines, which entered the season at 100-to-1 to win the FBS Championship, are now +750 to win the national title.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, Michigan and Cincinnati are the sixth and seventh teams to reach the playoff after entering the season with odds longer than 25-to-1 to win the national championship.

Each of the previous five lost in the semifinal.

If the Wolverines and Bearcats suffer the same fate, then we would see an SEC Championship Game rematch between Alabama and Georgia in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

As it turns out, this is the second Monday in a row that I will give out a futures play.

After what we saw on Saturday, I’ll take Alabama at plus-money knowing that when they beat Cincinnati as a double-digit favourite in the semifinal, their opponent for the national title game will be an underdog.

Once again, I get the best team at the best price with a potential chance to middle for the national championship if needed. 

I’ll lock in the Tide at +115 to win it all again.