Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Vindy's Picks Week 10-2018

PLANE-RIDE MAKES FOR INTERESTING PILLOW-FELLOWS  
 
SYDNEY, Australia (BBC)…An aircraft already-on-the-ground led to a flight, containing Prince Harry and Megan Markle, to continue circling the airport ”down-under” beyond its expected arrival-time this past-Friday. Ironically, the jet-setting Vegas Vindicator was also on-board. The delay allowed the fab-forecaster to introduce himself to the Royals and their staff, who ultimately, were captivated and amused during the extended air-time by Vindicator’s sneak-preview rendition of his forthcoming-picks! 
 
Following touch-down (at the airport, not the scoring-play), the omniscient-oracle bristled at media-questions regarding a second-consecutive 6-win outing (6-10-1) for Week 9 that sent our humbled-hero back to the wrong-side of break-even (75-79-3, .487). Now with aerial-coverage by Goodyear, we offer... 
 
THE WEBER KID'S 2018 WEEK 10 FORECAST  
(Sponsored this week by State Farm...providing Vindy “with just a car that works” and unpackin’ its khakis!)
 
THURS. NOV. 1 
Temple (+10 ½) over #9 CENTRAL FLORIDA: Knights were idle last week and should return starting-QB Milton Jr. to the backfield here. UCF was tested in one-point triumph at Memphis ahead of the bye. Both sides doing it on D, but both have yielded 30+ to the better-teams on their schedules so far. Owls, since surprising home-demise vs. Buffalo in early September have gone 5-1 outright and 5-0-1 against the number. Gotta’ grab the double-digits here...Central Florida 38 Barnyard Fowl 31 
 
FRI. NOV. 2 
#23 VIRGINIA (-7 ½) over Pittsburgh: LOCK OF DA’ WEEK. Cavs, unassumingly climbing the ladder to get here behind third-year coach Bronco Mendenhall, have permitted just 47 total points over current three-game win-streak (and 6-1 ATS overall) and should get revenge for three-straight defeats by the Panthers. Pitt, over last three outings, beat Syracuse in extra-frames, put into a scare into the Leprechauns with five-point loss in South Bend and took 54-45 track-meet win over the Blue Devils that was up-fer-grabs until the final five seconds last week. What can the Panthers possibly have left in the tank on the conference-road here...Wahoos 29 Panthers 14 
 
SAT. NOV. 3 
#4 LSU (+14) over #1 Alabama: This got a look fer “lock”. Both clubs are off bye-weeks. Bengals’ loss prolly kicks State to CFP-curb, while nominal Pachyderms’-defeat keeps them in the Final Four hunt. SU victories over Auburn, Joja’ and Mississippi State bolsters our confidence in spread-victory, though upset would necessitate uncharacteristic-mistakes by Tide in multiple-facets. State’s knocked-off nine of fourteen Top 25 foes (4-outta’-5 this season, three times gettin’points!). We might regret not callin’ “Under 53 ½"...Elephants 27 Bayou Bengals 22 
 
 #2 CLEMSON (-38 ½) over Louisville: CU 51 House of Cards 7 
 
#3 Notre Dame @ NORTHWESTERN (“under 53 ½”): Irish 24 N-DUB 14 
 
#14 Penn State (+10 ½) over #5 MICHIGAN: Lions fortunate to have held-off persistent-Hawkeyes last week. Traditionally, Big Blew doesn’t do well with time-off.  Teams have swapped beat-downs in last two seasons. Alma Mater will need same effort it brought in 1-point Happy Valley defeat vs. Ohio State. Margin-of-victory/defeat in last four matches fer the Nits has been 6 or fewer...Wolverines 27 PSU 21  
 
#6 Georgia (-9 ½) over #11 KENTUCKY: Second-choice is “under 43”...Joja’ 24 ‘Cats 13 
 
#7 Oklahoma @ TEXAS TECH (“under 77”): Can’t support either side in collective mediocre spread-records. Total looks a bit high with Sooners recording just three finishes beyond this and though “Guns-Up” got bashed fer 40+ four times to-date, it surprisingly-held Cowpokes to mere 17, and overall two-tilts above this final score. Tech is just one-game behind the Big 12-lead. Schooners unreliable as road-chalk...Okie-Doke 34 Raiders 31  
 
#8 OHIO STATE (-19 ½) over Nebraska: Buckeyes have taken last two years by cumulative 118-17. State has its Achilles Heel, but Huskers, even in light of 1-2 SU/3-0 ATS “run” haven’t provided us with sufficient-improvement to move us to back Scott Frost’s first-season charges. State’s looming-journey to East Lansing ain’t as daunting as preseason-expectations suggested. Buckeyes recover from embarrassment in West Lafayette....Buckeyes 54 Corn Chips 20 
 
California (+11) over #10 WASHINGTON STATE: Wazzou 34 Berkeley Bears 27
 
#15 TEXAS (-2) over #12 West Virginia: ‘Horns 30 Mounties 24 
 
Missouri @ #13 FLORIDA (“over 58”): Gators 34 Tigers 30 
 
ARIZONA STATE (+7) over #16 Utah: Two Utes 28 Fear Da’ Tail 24  
 
#17 Houston (-14) over SMU: Coogs 49 Pony Express 24 
 
#18 Utah State @ HAWAII (“over 70 ½”): Be advised...first-instinct had us layin’ da’ lumber (-19).‘Bows 4-1 straight-up in Honolulu behind third-year skipper Nick Rolovich, but allowed opponents to light the lamp for 139 points (46.3 ppg) over past three contests. UH has already-pocketed a half-dozen wins and still has home-date with floundering Sin City-squad following bye after this one. Warriors weigh-in at 6-2 ‘over”. Aggies 6-1 “over” with just a pair less than 42 points-scored, but suck as road-chalk badly over past 12 in the role...Utah State 49 Hawaii 38  
 
PURDUE (-3) over #19 Iowa: Choo-Choos 31 Hawkeyes 24  
 
#20 Fresno State (-25 ½) over UNLV: Currently at 2-6 SU with scoreboard-wins over I-AA Prairie View and 0-8 UTEP, UNLV has covered two of last three vs. the Bulldogs. Rebels’ broke-out a “All Ya’ Can Eat Buffet” for specified home-games to fill da’ stands with local fans. Somewhere, the techies botched that ad and sent it to visiting teams this year as “All Ya’ Can Beat”. As if the early loss of QB Armani Rogers wasn’t bad enough, apparently, the defenses of the Oakland Raiders and Rebels are interchangeable on any given Saturday and Sunday. UNLV has given-up 200 combined-points over past contests four, includin’ fitty-each to New Mexico and previously-winless San Josie. Rogers may be back on the gridiron here, but locals are still out-classed unless D miraculously-gels... Canines 52 Rubbles 16 
 
Louisiana Tech (+23) over #21 MISSISSIPPI STATE: MSU 27 LT 19 
 
#22 Syracuse (-5) over WAKE FOREST: This a huge overreaction to Deacs’ big-win over porous, staggering Louisville team last week. Outside that, Wake’s best game was mid-September 41-34 loss to now-ranked Boston College. ‘Cuse gets some payback for blow-out losses last two years. “Over 75” wouldn’t be a bad choice either, but, we’ll call...Birds 50 Vile Reverends 30 
 
#24 Boston College (-2) over VIRGINIA TECH: Hokies’ season was perhaps undone by loss to ODU. Eagles have gone 3-1 SU since lost to Purdue that dropped them from the Top 25. Four of BC’s last five tilts have ended below this number. Tech 2-2 over/under in past four, but gave away 45-49 points to the best three opponents on its slate. Eagles bested Temple, Louisville and Miami, all by double-digits, though all three at Chestnut Hill... Boston College 34 VT 14
 
 #25 Texas A&M (+5) over AUBURN: UPSET PICK OF DA’ WEEK...Aggies 23 Tigers 20 
 
BETWEEN THE HASHMARKS 
BTW, immediately after conclusion of the unsolicited-yet-free gratis entertainment, Prince Harry upgraded Vindy’s seat on his connecting-flight back to da’ States from “cargo” to “overhead-storage”! 
 
We predict Rebels’ loss, even a bad-one, to da’ Bulldogs won’t unseat Coach Sanchez, but subsequent –L's at San Diego and/or Hawaii will have fans chanting “Send Tony to Coney!” 
 
Local Sin City bookies are also struggling to convert British “pounds”/Euros to American-dollars fer purposes of sports-wagers on NCAA-teams vs. da' point-spread! 
 
With “Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald” hittin’ da’ Big-Screen recently, fer inquirin’-mimes that wannaknow...despite popular-misconception...Vindy’s Picks are part of da’ non-wizardingly-world! 
 
Thursday-night small-screen fare more-compelling than the Raiders-Niners (collectively 2-11 straight-up to-date) aptly-nick-named “Somebody’s Gotta’ Win Bowl”...the aforementioned Temple-UCF game (ESPN), “Christmas With The Kranks” (Free-Form), chick-flick “Magical Christmas Ornaments” (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) and “Tremors 6: A cold Day in Hell” (SyFy)!
 
In news related to our Week 9 lead story, Yoda quipped, “Blow-Dry not. ‘Do or ‘do not. And Colin Kaepernick, shunned by the NFL, got himself a supporting role in the Broadway-musical “Hairspray”! 
 
If John C. McGinley, who was a supporting-character in "Platoon and stars in good-faces-bad guys horror-series, successfully-stuffed an offensive-play from his-own one, would it be known as a “Goal-Line Stan vs. Evil”???!!  
 
A couple of biathlon events we’d like to see for future Winter Games...skiing and...darts or skiing and...croquet! 
 
“Wish We Had It Back”: We’ll happily take a do-over (someone say ‘do-over” on Badgers’ outright-14-point-loss as –6 ½, at Northwestern, after calling it “Second-best guess fer ‘wish we had it back’”! 
 
"Locked in a Box":  The “under 45 ½” on da’ Bulldogs-A&M tilt (41 total points) raises the record to 4-4 (.500). 
 
Black Shirt: Goes to A&M QB Kelly Mond for tossin’ a pick in the end zone with just over 2 ½-minutes left to keep the final total “under 45 ½”, confirming our “lock of da’ week”!   
 
Shoppe Talk: Da’ Alma Mater hangs-around with a push (2-4-2, .333). The Mounted Ears return at 2-4 (.333) and da’ JojaDawgs make an appearance at 2-4-1 (.333). 
 
Vindy's Week 10 Best Bets: Last Week: 2-2   Season: 21-17-1 (.551)  
UL-Lafayette +10 ½ over TROY, Tulsa-UCONN “under 58 ½”, Florida International –3 over FLA ATLANTIC, Texas-San Antonio-UAB “under 43 ½ 
 
On-deck...college hoops! (Loyola-Chicago-fans rejoice!) 
 
Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some Jack Daniels O’ Lanterns to carve before the night’s out!