The Sports Cruncher's 2015 CFB Week 12 Lines & Market Plays

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Chomping at the bits
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Toledo @ Bowling Green

There's little doubt that Bowling Green, in this game, will get theirs...through the air. BGSU is back to having my #1 rated pass offense, while Toledo's pass defense comes in at 59th. BGSU has lit up better pass defenses than Toledo's. Whoever wins and/or covers this game hinges upon the other match ups.

Toledo has run for well over a yard+ more per carry in the games which RB Kareem Hunt has played. He missed a few games early in the season. With 3 RBs that average 5+ ypc the Toledo running game stays fresh from start to finish. It will be a test for a slightly below average BGSU rush defense that has, though, been playing a bit better as of late. BGSU's pass defense has been playing better as well, but some of that is down to stats compiled versus the ineffectual passing games of the worst MAC teams they've faced. Toledo has been committed to running a balanced offense this year; sometimes frustratingly so in situations where you've just wanted them to run the damn rock, lol. That balance should pay off in keeping this game close. If you've watched any of Toledo's games you've seen QB Ely throw to his receivers in man coverage many of the times the defense puts an extra defender in the box.

The opening # for the game briefly hit +9.5, a number worth playing, but then dropped all the way down to +7 while I was for an afternoon walk, lol. In a game that should be this high scoring the point spread value isn't as high despite the 5+ point difference in my line and market line. Being a bit of a degenerate I'm sure I'll still put an unposted play in on Toledo, though, lol.

I did recommend a 1% play on the Over 69 when it opened. Totals have been extremely random this year -- in spite of crushing the closing lines and setting up some big middles every week I'm somehow still in the red on my totals plays. It's a bit mind boggling and is some wicked bad variance, imo. Either that or myself and all the computer modelers out there that end up dictating where the closing totals should be are collectively wrong in our line making. Food for thought, lol.

Anyway, I did recommend quite a few totals this week, but with the intention of trying to middle the crap out of just about every one where we picked up at least a couple of points of line value. If you've tracked my sheet and plays this year you know I'm supremely confident in knowing which way the total lines are going to go...and then, like I said, the actual final scores all over the damn place! So yeah, I'm kind of just saying screw it I'll play for a bunch of middles, even with potentially small windows. Only the 2% and 3% plays am I going to hang onto 1% of the original play as a value bet. So, as far as the Over play for tonight goes, if the # gets to 72 I'm going to middle out of the whole thing, and if it doesn't I'll let it ride. I'm comfortable with the play as is, I think it should go Over.

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Mr./C..........with you on the Ov,..........thank you and BOL tonight..........indy
 

Chomping at the bits
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Ball St. @ Ohio

The Ohio running game has really gotten back on track putting up impressive stats the last couple of games against rush defenses better than Ball St. has. Ball St. has let every team not named Georgia State run for a higher ypc average than they normally average this season. On top of that, Ball State's pass defense is even worse, for those less frequent times when Ohio QB Vick actually decides to throw the ball instead of run with it.

Ball State started off the season with a few good running games, but then Toledo shut that down in Ball's fourth game and Ball has averaged 1.3 yards less per carry than their opponents usually allow since. They've been particularly bad in their last two games, and now they're on the road near the end of a season with nothing to gain from wins at this point. Outside of one good game passing the ball against MASS at home a couple of weeks ago Ball has been really awful passing the ball as well -- they are really a team fading on all fronts as the season draws to a close. Ball St. is coming off of a bye, but considering how their season has gone if anything this will only add to their disinterest. However, I rarely presume to know the psychology of a team entering a game -- instead I presume that every team comes to play every game. And THAT being said, lol, if the numbers indicate a team is fading toward the finish line, well, the numbers and my line do take that into account, and in-season trends do affect my line. Yes, the Ball St. Under 7 season wins play I recommended is already a winner, lol.

I recommended a 1% play on Ohio (-115) when the lines came out.

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Excellent write ups cruncher!
 

Chomping at the bits
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Thx guys.

I said I was playing tonight's total for the middle, so here's the buy back: 1% TOL @ BGSU Under 73 (-105 5D). Good luck and here's to a 37-35 BGSU win. :)
 

Chomping at the bits
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Okay, 25-29 2nd half points gets me the baby or full middle on the TOL - BGSU total. I went for the middle just to ensure that the original play of Over 69 would be a winner for followers, lol. As high scoring as the first half was, 28 second half points is actually within the realm of reason. Toledo has been running a slower pace than usual, and is leaning on the run more than usual as well. BGSU is running a little slower as well, but probably won't have the luxury of anything slower than their usual sub 20 seconds per play in the second half. I lean Under 2nd half, for sure. I did make an unposted TOL +8 play, but think TOL +7 in the 2nd half as a stand alone play is great, as well. They start with the ball and and BGSU hasn't been able to stop them except inside the 10 yard line.

Adding for .5 Unit: TOL +7 2nd half

As mentioned above, they start the 2nd half with the ball and are out gaining BGSU pretty heavily at both YPP and YPC.
 

Chomping at the bits
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Nah, just a little bit more on Ohio -3.5, lol.

Trying to get that perfect finish to get that middle in the TOL BGSU game, lol. The missed FG keeps the middle alive, but opens the door to losing the 2nd half play with a BGSU TD + 2 point conversion.
 

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One last turnover, sweet! And Bowling Green using their final time out before Toledo even runs their first down??? Uh, okay! lol Surrendered the Victory formation, boom.
 

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Nicely done Cruncher!
 

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Last week, zero middles. This week, 1 for 1, lol. Thanks guys. I had a rough go of it in the week day games last week, guess I was due for a little luck.
 

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well done pal
 

Chomping at the bits
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Kent's offense has been awful, and their defense, the only thing that had been keeping them in games, got smoked by the resurgent Ohio offense last week. That's bad news facing a Central Michigan team that defensively ranks pretty close to Kent while having, obviously, a much better offense. It's easy to see why this number quickly went to 10.5 after opening at 8.5. CMU still needs another win for Bowl eligibility, and they might as well get it this week even with Eastern Michigan on deck as a gimme' back up plan. Look for Kent to continue to struggle on offense, with CMU not able to pad the lead much in the 2nd half with their weak running game, in spite of Kent's defensive lapse last week. It's looking Undery here, especially with rain and wind in the forecast.

I recommended a 1% play on the Under 43 when the line opened, and am probably going to ride that one out instead of going for the middle with an Over 40.5. CMU hasn't had many games where they've entered the fourth quarter with a comfortable lead, but when they have they've run the ball a lot more than they usually do in close or trailing games. They're already a pretty slow paced team in spite of their preponderance for passing, so look for the possibility of little to no fourth quarter scoring in this game, outside of a defensive or special teams play. There's a definite possibility this ends up being the lowest scoring FBS game of the week.

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Excellent write up Cruncher, BOL tonight friend!
 

Chomping at the bits
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You thought that was a good one, Psych? Here's a real one, lol.

Western Michigan @ Northern Illinois

For me the most intriguing unit match up for this game is WMU's pass offense versus NIU's pass defense. WMU with QB Zach Terrell have a passing game that is just one spot shy of cracking my top 25 passing teams. Their passing game, and their team, got off to a slow start this season with a tough schedule playing Michigan State at home and then Georgia Southern and Ohio State on the road. Since then their passing game has thrown for a higher ypp average than their opponent usually allows in all of their games. They didn't do better much better than Bowling Green usually allows last week, but the weather conditions were tough and rather wet. It's supposed to be dry today, but the current wind forecast is for 18 mph. That's getting awful close to a strong enough wind to negatively affect the passing game. The WMU passing game is trending up.

The NIU pass defense has been a bit psychotic this year. Overall they're a pretty good unit, but they have the odd distinction of having their best games of pass defense against the best passing teams they've faced, and some of their worst games against some of the worst pass offenses they've faced. To wit -- they surrendered 329 passing yards to UNLV in the opener, followed by allowing just 136 to Ohio State in their next game. Now, UNLV has been a surprise on offense this year, and Ohio State was just getting into a big offensive lull, primarily in the passing game, when they played, but those are still some fairly extreme numbers. A couple weeks after that they gave up only 182 passing yards to a pretty good Central Michigan passing unit...but then 393 to a mostly bad Ball State passing unit the week after that. They'd settled into a pretty solid groove of good pass defense after that, including the game against Toledo -- Toledo's only bad game on pass offense in quite a while. And then, once again after a good performance, they followed it up with a poor one against Buffalo last week. Who knows what to expect from this NIU pass defense tonight? Looking at the home and away splits is of no help as they've been much better on the road than at home, lol.

Against the run, NIU has faced a pretty easy schedule outside of games against Ohio State, Toledo...and Eastern Michigan, lol. EMU had actually been pretty damn good at running the ball until their last two games. NIU did a good job against OSU and EMU, and just a little below average of a job against Toledo. It almost fits into their pass defense pattern of playing better against the better units, and then just "meh" against the average to poor ones.

WMU's run offense has really been gaining steam in this second half of the season. The only game in which they haven't rushed for 200+ yards and a good ypc average was versus Miami of Ohio a month ago. M-OH actually has a fair run defense.

Putting the pieces together, we've got a WMU offense that is balanced and executing very well versus an NIU defense capable of big games or below average games. The numbers give the advantage to WMU here.

In his first full start at QB for NIU last week, Ryan Graham did a pretty good job at Buffalo versus an average Buffalo pass defense. NIU attempted the fewest passes they have all year, 24 (though not by much with games of 25, 25, 26 and 26 pass attempts, lol). Still, Graham through for a pretty good ypp average. WMU's pass defense is a little better than Buffalo's, and I expect NIU to lean on their run game a lot like they usually do anyway. That's not a bad thing, as Graham is a better runner than injured QB Hare. He helped NIU have a huge day on the ground @ Buffalo last week, helping NIU to the most rush yards they've had in a game this season. Docking NIU's offense for Hare's injury (and WR Lewis) wasn't justified last week (yes, I had the Under in that game), so I've reduced the impact to the NIU projections based on those injuries. For the season, though, NIU has been a below average rushing team when looking at compensated statistics. Can they do enough on the ground to win this game?

Everything has been looking pretty rosey for WMU in the match ups up to his point, but here's where this game evens up pretty quickly. NIU's rush offense, while average, is still better than WMU's rush defense, which is the one unit for the team that is below average. Teams with mobile QBs like Ohio, M-OH, EMU and Ball St. have especially given them fits. And then along comes the same sort of team in NIU.

NIU still played an uptempo offense last week even with it being QB Graham's first full game. They are bound to play that way again tonight in an effort to wear out the WMU defense. WMU, for their part, are slower than average, even in games in which they're losing. There doesn't seem to be much giddy-up to their offensive pace, which is odd considering what a total spazz HC Fleck is.

High winds favor NIU, and will probably keep me off any total play. Gun to head I'd still take the Over, especially with the line down to 60 now. This game should come down to the wire which means 4th quarter scoring that can put the game Over.

As for the side, I recommended a play on WMU at +4 when the lines came out, as I project them to win a close game.

Well, I've written more than I intended do, and write ups frequently just serve the purpose of making your play look twice as stupid when things don't go as planned, but oh well, lol. I still like looking at all the numbers and games that go into a match up.

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