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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.
Note that the links above are for 2012 articles. Please see the Week 12 2013 Page at Footballguys.com for the 2013 Week 12 updates.
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.
Staffer | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
Heath Cummings | 9-2 | NE | CIN | SEA | IND | STL | SF | NYG | NO | DAL | TEN | HOU | DET | |||||
Aaron Rudnicki | 9-2 | INDY | ATL | SEA | NO | STL | DEN | GB | SF | DAL | TEN | HOU | DET | |||||
James Brimacombe | 9-2 | NE | GB | SEA | IND | ATL | SF | SD | KC | DAL | TEN | PHI | NO | |||||
Matt Bitonti | 9-2 | INDY | OAK | SEA | NO | ATL | DEN | GB | SF | DAL | TEN | NYG | CAR | |||||
Will Grant | 9-2 | INDY | NE | MIN | NO | STL | SF | KC | GB | DAL | TEN | SEA | CAR | |||||
Adam Harstad | 9-2 | TB | CIN | SEA | IND | STL | DEN | SD | SF | DAL | TEN | AZ | HOU | |||||
Steve Holloway | 9-2 | INDY | NE | MIN | TEN | ATL | SEA | GB | KC | DAL | NYG | CHI | CAR | |||||
Greg Russell | 8-3 | INDY | NE | SEA | DEN | STL | SF | GB | KC | NO | TEN | DET | HOU | |||||
Mark Wimer | 8-3 | NE | PHI | SEA | AZ | STL | DAL | KC | SF | GB | TEN | NYJ | DET | |||||
Jeff Haseley | 8-3 | INDY | PHI | NO | TEN | STL | CIN | MIA | CAR | DAL | NYG | HOU | BAL | |||||
Andy Hicks | 8-3 | TB | GB | SEA | IND | ATL | DEN | KC | SF | DAL | TEN | AZ | NO | |||||
Maurile Tremblay | 8-3 | TB | PHI | SEA | IND | DEN | SF | GB | NO | DAL | TEN | AZ | CAR | |||||
Jeff Pasquino | 7-4 | INDY | PHI | SEA | DEN | ATL | CHI | GB | SF | DAL | TEN | HOU | DET | |||||
Ryan Hester | 7-4 | PIT | PHI | DEN | NO | STL | SEA | MIA | SF | DAL | TEN | NYG | HOU | |||||
Jason Wood | 5-6 | TB | NO | MIN | CIN | ATL | SF | MIA | SEA | TEN | IND | AZ | PIT |
DISCUSSION
Last week was pretty eventful, with six overall losses for the staff. Houston’s remarkable loss (Matt McGloin? Who?) provided the majority (four) of those, but two other losses were due to the Lions and the Jets. That makes the playing field much more even now with the entire staff suffering at least two losses this year, including the two perfect teams from two weeks ago who have suddenly dropped two in a row. Selections only get tougher as the season progresses, so this could get very interesting. There are not many clear favorites this week aside from Houston and Detroit, so this could be another week full of different picks.
With entries in, I was correct that the picks are all over the place this week once again. Detroit does lead the way with four entries, but they are tied with four other choices for Carolina as the Panthers visit Miami. Houston is just one pick behind as three other staff members went to the Texans well this week as they face Jacksonville. Two additional Footballguys’ staff members chose the Saints for Thursday against Atlanta, which could be tougher than you might think. Two other unique choices round out Week 12 with Jason Wood taking the Steelers in Cleveland while Jeff Haseley took the Ravens hosting the Jets. Without question the standings could change quite a bit by Sunday night.
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 – This week I went the Lions at home against Tampa Bay, as Detroit returns home for the first of two home games (they host Green Bay on Thanskgiving). Not the easiest of calls, but I like Detroit to get a big win at home after a tough loss on the road in Pittsburgh.
Good luck this weekend!