Unlock More Content Like This With A
Footballguys Premium Subscription
"Footballguys is the best premium
fantasy football only site on the planet."
Matthew Berry, NBC Sports EDGE
Over the past few years, we have given the subscribers of Footballguys.com some help in playing office pools, one of the most popular methods to follow the NFL aside from fantasy football leagues. For the past few seasons, the staff members have done the Staff Confidence Pool Challenge, where numerous staffers try and pick the winners each week with a confidence ranking, and Jeff Pasquino’s “For The Win” column where Jeff attempts to pick each and every NFL game against the Las Vegas spread. Both of these have been very popular features, so this year Footballguys is adding a combination of the two called the “Against the Spread” Challenge and also the Eliminator Challenge, where staffers have to pick a team to win each week. Just one? That sounds easy, but here is the catch – you can only pick the team you choose in a given week once all season long. Many contests and pools out there get pretty big, so an Eliminator (or Survivor) Pool can go 16 or 17 weeks.
Jeff Pasquino has provided some insight into this kind of contest with two pre-season articles, first one that describes this kind of contest along with some advice on how to pick a team each week:
The second article is rather interesting, which describes Jeff’s pre-season plan to get all the way through 17 weeks. Will it work? We are about to find out.
This pool will run all season long, but to keep participation up, the pool will crown the staffer with the best W-L record for the season (which means that everyone in the pool will continue to make picks every week).
THIS WEEK'S PICK SUMMARY
Here are the picks for this week, along with the results and standings so far:
Staffer | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
Dan Hindery | 1-0 | NE | BAL | |||||||||||||||
Aaron Rudnicki | 1-0 | GB | NO | |||||||||||||||
Alex Miglio | 1-0 | GB | NO | |||||||||||||||
Clayton Gray | 1-0 | GB | NO | |||||||||||||||
James Brimacombe | 1-0 | GB | INDY | |||||||||||||||
Jason Wood | 1-0 | GB | NO | |||||||||||||||
Jeff Haseley | 1-0 | GB | NO | |||||||||||||||
Mark Wimer | 1-0 | GB | TEN | |||||||||||||||
Ari Ingel | 1-0 | JAX | BAL | |||||||||||||||
Andrew Garda | 1-0 | MIA | AZ | |||||||||||||||
Steve Holloway | 1-0 | MIA | INDY | |||||||||||||||
John Lee | 1-0 | NYJ | NO | |||||||||||||||
Matt Bitonti | 1-0 | NYJ | MIA | |||||||||||||||
Justin Howe | 1-0 | CIN | BAL | |||||||||||||||
Andy Hicks | 1-0 | DEN | INDY | |||||||||||||||
Chris Feery | 1-0 | DEN | NO | |||||||||||||||
Dave Larkin | 1-0 | DAL | NO | |||||||||||||||
Jeff Pasquino | 1-0 | DAL | INDY | |||||||||||||||
Steve Buzzard | 1-0 | DAL | MIA | |||||||||||||||
William Grant | 1-0 | DAL | MIA | |||||||||||||||
Justin Bonnema | 1-0 | NYJ | MIA | |||||||||||||||
Bear Heiser | 0-1 | MIN | BAL | |||||||||||||||
Maurile Tremblay | 0-1 | SEA | NE |
DISCUSSION
This year we have 23 staffers are in the pool, and it could have been quite interesting right out of the gate with so many different teams chosen. Week 1 only saw two losses, however, as only Minnesota and Seattle failed to get in the win column in Week 1. Had this been a single elimination contest, we would be down to 21 of our original 23. Just when you thought this would be easy, right?
Now we have another interesting distribution this week with seven unique picks. The top choice for eight staffers are the Saints, who head home after a tough loss to Arizona but are heavily favored to beat Tampa Bay in Week 2. Four staffers are going with Indianapolis at home against the Jets, four others are taking Baltimore in Oakland, and still four other staffers are taking the Dolphins on the road (but within the same state) at Jacksonville. All four seem like safe picks – but then again, so did the Seahawks and Vikings last week. Three Footballguys staff member are going out on their own with unique picks as Arizona, New Engand and Tennessee are all solo shots for Week 2. Clearly these picks are going against the grain to try and save some of the other teams for later.
COMMENTARY
Each week, contestants are invited to submit any comments that they might have about their picks. If they submit them early enough, we post them with the article. If not, the comments will be within the section below.
Jeff Pasquino: I decided to veer away from my preseason pick of the Saints here (and away from what I thought would be the most popular pick, and I was right) and I took the Colts at home against the Jets for a few reasons. First, Andrew Luck knows that he cannot fall to 0-2 in the AFC if he hopes to lead his team deep into the postseason. Second, I looked ahead at my preseason plan and saw that this might be the best time to use Indianapolis, and that will allow me to use the Saints for a very concerning Week 13 choice (the Saints host Carolina in Week 13). Third, and this might be a strange thought, but Tampa Bay could surprise the Saints here in Week 2, even after Tampa Bay really did look terrible in Week 1. We shall see, but if I am wrong with the Colts pick I can survive this early hiccup, but if I am right and New Orleans trips up, I am way out ahead of almost half the teams after just two weeks.
Good luck this weekend!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.