The Telepathic Tabernacle - Week Eight

The nog continues to flow at the Telepathic Tabernacle headquarters - and the spigot opened up a bit for both sides of the building this week. The TeleTab continued their 2010 standard practice of being on fire in the Straight Up [SU] Division as the Tab pulled in yet another good-but-not-great 2-1 mark for the seventh week. While normally an 80% week in the SU is golden, because the Tab continues to be so smokin' hot in the first seven weeks, that actually lowered the overall 2010 season percentage to a still-impressive 85% - which remained well above the gold standard of 80% that the Tab sets for the year. The only loss this time was Oregon State, who was upset by Washington when they decided to go for a two-point conversion win in double overtime - Riley's Rodents strike again. USC easily - and predictably - defeated California while Arizona did the same number on Wazzu [though with their second string quarterback - the third week in a row the Wazzu defense has had the distinction of going against the other team's second flinger]. If not for the fickle nature of Riley's Rodents, the Tab would be sitting damn near 90% in the SU Division in 2010. Instead, the Tab has to settle for a measly 85%. The Tab benefited from the two-point conversion attempt by Riley's Rodents in the Against The Spread [ATS] Division - well, sorta - only because they failed. If they had succeeded then lost in triple overtime, the Tab would have taken another hit. But that did not happen and instead, the Tab was close to an ATS skunk with only an Arizoan quarterback injury keeping the skunk away. That puts the Tab at 26-20 and 56% for the year in the ATS Division - close to the gold standard of 60% set for this division - but not close enough for the Tab to have a party. The boys of Troy finally helped the Tab with a Gem of the Week pickup and the Tab now stands at 3-4 overall in Gems in 2010.

Week Eight is a tricky week as there are four games and one of them - is on Thursday evening when UCLA travels to Eugene to take on newly minted top-ranked Oregon. As usual, the Tab tosses out the Hussy game right off the bat since there was not a less convincing performance at quarterback than the one Matt Scott put on last week in Pullman and the other team he is facing this week is the Hussies - need more be said? That leaves the Thursday drinker, Wazzu/Stanford and Arizona State/California. ASU and Cal are another pair of untrustworthy teams. Neither team knows when it is going to show up and that is not good when it comes to predicting time. The Trees will fall upon the Cougars but by 34 points or so? Might be too close to call there so no need to waste a Gem on it. The obvious choice is the Nikes, who are getting a paltry 21 points against the headed-for-ninth-place Bruins. The most intriguing match-up would be if the backup quarterbacks played for each team - slow-as-molasses Richard Brehaut against gimpy Nate Costa - now that would be a pick'em. But the Tab suspects the Nikes' will have their first-string QB play long enough to rack up enough points to cover the low spread and therefore, the Tab officially selects the Nikes for the official Gem of the Week. The rest of this week's ruthless, rabble-rousing rumrunners….

STRAIGHT UP

Oregon over UCLA

California over Arizona State

Stanford over Wazzu

Arizona over Washington

Last Week: 2-1

Overall: 39-7

AGAINST THE SPREAD

Oregon [-21] over UCLA

ASU [+3.5] over Cal

Stanford [-34] over Wazzu

Arizona [-4.5] over UW

Last Week: 2-1

Overall: 26-20

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