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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 2013 articles. Please see the Week 16 2014 Page at Footballguys.com for the 2014 Week 16 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 preseason 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 |
Aaron Rudnicki | 14-1 | PIT | GB | NE | SD | NO | DEN | BUF | KC | CIN | BAL | WASH | INDY | STL | MIN | NYG | DET | |
Dan Hindery | 13-2 | PHI | DEN | INDY | SD | GB | BAL | NE | KC | SEA | CIN | PIT | SF | MIA | NO | DET | STL | |
Dave Larkin | 13-2 | PHI | DEN | NE | SD | DET | TEN | BAL | CLE | CIN | AZ | MIA | GB | STL | NO | NYG | PIT | |
James Brimacombe | 13-2 | PHI | DEN | NE | SD | GB | SF | SEA | KC | CIN | AZ | CLE | CHI | STL | DET | BAL | BUF | |
Jeff Haseley | 13-2 | NYJ | DEN | NE | PIT | SD | AZ | DAL | KC | CIN | BAL | NO | INDY | HOU | DET | NYG | GB | |
Alessandro Miglio | 13-2 | NYJ | TB | NE | SD | NO | DEN | AZ | CLE | CIN | PIT | SF | INDY | HOU | GB | KC | JAX | |
John Lee | 12-3 | PIT | TB | NE | SD | GB | TEN | WASH | CLE | CIN | AZ | NO | SF | INDY | NO | KC | SEA | |
Maurile Tremblay | 12-3 | DEN | AZ | NE | PIT | CIN | TEN | SEA | MIA | NO | PHI | WASH | DAL | DET | GB | BAL | BUF | |
Jeff Pasquino | 12-3 | PHI | GB | NE | PIT | SD | DEN | CLE | KC | SEA | DAL | NO | SF | INDY | DET | BAL | STL | |
Clayton Gray | 12-3 | PHI | DEN | NE | SD | DET | SEA | BAL | KC | CLE | AZ | WASH | INDY | MIA | GB | NYG | BUF | |
Matt Bitonti | 12-3 | NYJ | SEA | NE | PIT | PHI | DEN | BUF | KC | CIN | BAL | NO | SF | INDY | MIN | DET | GB | |
Jason Wood | 12-3 | PIT | HOU | NE | ATL | SD | DEN | SEA | DAL | KC | BAL | CHI | INDY | MIA | GB | DET | PHI | |
William Grant | 12-3 | NYJ | GB | NO | PIT | NO | CIN | NE | MIA | SEA | BAL | SD | INDY | HOU | DET | KC | DEN | |
Justin Bonnema | 11-4 | NYJ | WASH | NE | SD | DET | TEN | CHI | TB | CIN | BAL | PIT | CHI | STL | SF | NYG | DEN | |
Steve Buzzard | 11-4 | PHI | DEN | NO | PIT | GB | SEA | NE | DAL | SF | AZ | SD | INDY | HOU | DET | BAL | STL | |
Ari Engel | 10-5 | NE | NO | CIN | SD | SEA | DEN | DAL | DET | SF | BAL | NYG | GB | INDY | CHI | NYG | JAX | |
Steve Holloway | 10-5 | CHI | DEN | CIN | PIT | NO | SD | BAL | DAL | KC | SEA | CLE | INDY | STL | SF | NE | MIA | |
Andy Hicks | 10-5 | CHI | DEN | NO | SD | DET | CIN | NE | DAL | CIN | SEA | SF | INDY | PIT | GB | NYG | PHI | |
Andrew Garda | 10-5 | PHI | AZ | MIA | PIT | NYG | TEN | CHI | CLE | CIN | NO | MIN | DEN | DET | STL | BAL | BUF | |
Mark Wimer | 10-5 | NYJ | TB | CIN | WASH | GB | TEN | CLE | DAL | KC | BAL | NO | PHI | INDY | DET | NE | CAR | |
Bear Heiser | 8-7 | PHI | NO | NE | SD | PIT | GB | SEA | KC | SF | AZ | WASH | STL | NYG | SF | INDY | BUF | |
Phil Alexander | 8-7 | PHI | TB | NE | PIT | DET | SD | AZ | MIA | CIN | BAL | DEN | KC | NYG | NYG | CAR | NO |
DISCUSSION
This year we have 22 staffers are in the pool, and if this was really a "one and done" tournament, it would all be over now after the calamitous Week 11 results. But we press on - and now only one staff member has one loss, Aaron Rudnicki, while others still try and catch up with just a few weeks left. Week 15 was a perfect week for the staff, which is pretty remarkable given that we had seven different teams chosen. Now we have just two weeks to go, and there is little left in the cupboard in the "easy pick" category. The next two weeks should be very interesting.
Week 16 picks are in (all but one) and wow, do we have a big mix. Twelve different teams were chosen amongst 21 staffers, and only Buffalo (5) and St. Louis (3) had more than two selections. Jacksonville, Green Bay and Denver all received two picks, while Carolina, Detroit, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Seattle were all unique choices. That is partly due to this being Week 16 and 15 picks are already behind us, so most of the staff has already used Denver and Seattle, for example. That's why planning the season is so important, as picks are slim in December, and you need to save a few good options for the final weeks. There is little doubt that the standings could look a little different after this weekend.
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: Last week was not a problem with the Ravens saved, but now it gets a little tricky. Most of the good teams are all used up, so I am down to just a few options. St. Louis looks pretty inviting against the Giants, but I am pretty sure I still will be scrambling in Week 17. I may join Steve with Miami that week, but it could be a tricky one.
My other choices this week (assuming you have used up any team that is a 8+ point favorite this week) is Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Buffalo in that order. If you are truly desperate, I think Jacksonville wins on Thursday, but that's a big gamble.
As always, you can ask Steve or myself any questions and use "For The Win" and our staff confidence picks for the week as well to help you.
Good luck!
Steve Buzzard: The last few weeks have been rather slow on the knockout front but I think these last two weeks could get pretty interesting as there are a lot of tight point spreads. My original plan was to plug in the Dolphins this week but I am going to make a last minute audible from that plan and save the Dolphins for week 17 against the Jets. The main reason for this is I am running really low on choices for week 17 and I think the Vikings are playing a lot better than the Jets right now.
In addition to that the Rams, whom I am going to be switching too are playing like a playoff contender recently, especially on defense. So as of right now I am going to finish up Rams and Dolphins. However, I don’t think that is the optimal finish by any means. If you have any of the following teams left I would play them over the Rams this week; Packers, Patriots, Seahawks, Lions, Eagles, Ravens, and Sains in that order. If you have two of those teams and one of them is either the Seahawks, Patriots or Ravens I would save them back for next week. That is of course unless you have the Dolphins who are probably going to be a better play anyway. As always if you have any questions pertinent to your specific pool please feel free to reach out and I am more than happy to help out. Let’s win some of these pools.
Good luck this weekend!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.