For Ottawa there is good news and bad news and then some sort of good news. Ottawa got their first win in week 4 and then their winning QB turned out to have a torn ACL and is now out for the season. The sort of good news is that star QB Masoli is back after a year off from a broken leg. Great to have him back, but welcome to the 2nd lowest scoring offense in the CFL. As the rest of the league is beginning to get enough reps on offence to shake off the rust and begin to string some plays into drives and hopefully into points, Masoli will be starting at square one. It won’t be pretty. His star favorite receiver from last year, Ellingsen, is still out and this year’s top recruit Evans is still out too.

Luckily for him his “D” has been solid this year with the third best results in the league for yards allowed and points allowed by their opponent’s offence. They should be able to contain Hamilton’s offence, what with two starters on the O-line (including the off-season’s biggest signing LT Figueroa)

Hamilton has their own problems with top signing QB, Levi-Mitchell, on the shelf. Backup Shiltz has slowly improved, with his best outing in week 4, but although they lead the league in red zone trips they have the third worst points for number in the league.

What we have here is a perfect storm for a low total. They are the 2nd and 3rd worst teams in offense yards/game, last and 2nd to last big plays (20+ yds rush play; 30+ yds pass play) and major questions with unproven receivers on both sides.

Put that together with under being 5-2 in both their last 7 in Hamilton and against each other and you have a pretty strong case.

Another interesting stat is that by the end of week 4, 66% of games have been under and to start week 5 both games have been under. Going for the under with these two sputtering teams is a good call for this one.