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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.
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.
Staff Member | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
Andy Hicks | 15-0 | SEA | NE | GB | CIN | MIN | TEN | KC | DAL | SD | BAL | PIT | BUF | DEN | DET | ATL | LA | |
Matt Bitonti | 15-0 | KC | BAL | MIA | CIN | PIT | NE | GB | NYJ | DAL | AZ | NYG | BUF | OAK | DET | ATL | TEN | |
William Grant | 14-1 | SEA | CAR | MIA | WASH | GB | BUF | DEN | NE | KC | AZ | NYG | TEN | NO | DET | ATL | SD | |
Clayton Gray | 14-1 | SEA | DEN | MIA | CIN | MIN | NE | ATL | NYJ | DAL | BAL | NYG | TEN | OAK | DET | BUF | GB | |
Mark Wimer | 14-1 | KC | BAL | MIA | MIN | NE | PIT | CIN | NYJ | DAL | AZ | OAK | NYG | DEN | ATL | SEA | SD | |
Bear Heiser | 13-2 | GB | CAR | SEA | CIN | PIT | BUF | ATL | NYJ | DAL | AZ | KC | NYG | NE | DET | OAK | TEN | |
Aaron Rudnicki | 13-2 | HOU | CAR | MIA | AZ | GB | BUF | CIN | DEN | KC | AZ | DET | NO | NE | INDY | ATL | SEA | |
Jeff Pasquino | 13-2 | HOU | CAR | MIA | AZ | NE | BUF | CIN | MIN | KC | BAL | OAK | NYG | DEN | DET | ATL | SD | |
Andrew Garda | 13-2 | PHI | BAL | NYG | HOU | OAK | BUF | DEN | MIN | KC | AZ | PIT | TEN | SEA | DET | GB | NE | |
James Brimacombe | 13-2 | INDY | CAR | MIA | WASH | NE | BUF | CIN | MIN | DAL | AZ | PIT | NO | GB | ATL | SEA | SD | |
John Mamula | 12-3 | SEA | CAR | MIA | HOU | NE | PIT | CIN | MIN | GB | AZ | OAK | NYG | DEN | ATL | KC | X | |
Alex Miglio | 12-3 | SEA | CAR | MIA | DET | GB | AZ | ATL | MIN | DAL | BAL | NE | BUF | DEN | CIN | HOU | TEN | |
Chris Kuczynski | 12-3 | KC | BAL | MIA | DET | PHI | AZ | CIN | OAK | DAL | GB | PIT | NYG | DEN | MIN | ATL | NE | |
Jeff Haseley | 12-3 | KC | SEA | DAL | CIN | MIN | AZ | DEN | NE | GB | BAL | NYG | BUF | NO | DET | ATL | SD | |
Justin Howe | 12-3 | BAL | DET | MIA | HOU | PHI | BUF | NE | MIN | KC | AZ | NYG | NO | DAL | CIN | SEA | GB | |
Justin Bonnema | 11-4 | HOU | JAX | MIA | CIN | MIN | BUF | TB | DET | DAL | BAL | KC | NYG | ATL | INDY | SEA | NE | |
Devin Knotts | 11-4 | HOU | DET | MIA | CAR | NE | GB | CIN | NYJ | ATL | BAL | PIT | NO | DEN | INDY | BUF | OAK | |
Ari Ingel | 10-5 | SEA | TEN | AZ | CIN | NE | DET | GB | MIN | SD | BAL | KC | NO | DEN | INDY | TB | MIA | |
Jason Wood | 10-5 | HOU | NYJ | TB | AZ | NE | CAR | OAK | MIN | NO | AZ | NYG | BUF | DEN | TEN | WASH | X | |
Dave Larkin | 10-5 | HOU | CAR | SEA | NE | PIT | GB | BUF | MIN | NO | AZ | KC | DAL | OAK | DET | BAL | TEN | |
Chris Feery | 10-5 | SEA | OAK | CAR | AZ | NE | PIT | DEN | DAL | KC | NYG | DET | BUF | GB | INDY | BAL | TEN |
DISCUSSION
Twenty-one staffers are in the pool this year, but only two remain with hopes for a perfect season. Before I dive into that, the staff continues to have strong weeks including Week 14, where only two losses hit the group. Now, with two weeks left, we have both Andy Hicks and Matt Bitonti with perfect records, and both are picking different teams this week. Andy decided to go with the Rams at home, which I personally think is a very risky selection, but he has already used the big favorites this week (New England, Dallas and San Diego). That brings me to Matt's pick, which surprised me. With the Chargers left and the Browns at 0-14, I was sure that would be his selection, but he threw me a curveball by taking Tennessee at Jacksonville. Now, that's a reasonable pick, but to not use the Chargers when they were available definitely surprises me.
The rest of the picks are all in (except two stragglers), and two teams sit atop the choices - the Chargers (at the Browns) and Tennessee (at Jacksonville). Both are solid picks, as is any team against both Cleveland and the Jaguars these days. New England was third (big favorites over the Jets) but few teams still had the Patriots available. After those three, it gets interesting for anyone who has to go off of the top choices. Green Bay had two votes (vs. Minnesota), but divisional games are always tricky. Unique picks came in for Seattle (home against Arizona), Oakland (hosting the Colts), Miami (at Buffalo, tough call) and Matt's Rams pick. I'm following up with Matt now to see why he went with Los Angeles.
Please note a few things: We will be doing these picks every week, win or lose, to keep it entertaining all season long. Normally a Survivor / Eliminator pool would end once all but one player lost once, but to provide our subscribers with more perspectives, everyone will pick every week even if they lose. That said, we will still try and honor the spirit of an Eliminator / Survivor Pool, trying to win every week and not re-use any teams during the year.
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: Pretty simple this week - if you have San Diego or New England still left, those are the top choices. I left the Chargers for Week 16 knowing that they had the winless Browns on the schedule, so I hope that Cleveland continues their imperfect season.
The Pick: Chargers
Good luck this weekend!
Jeff Pasquino: I just asked Matt about his choice of Tennessee instead of San Diego. Here's his reply:
Matt Bitonti: Just not comfortable with a warm weather team (Chargers) playing outside in cold - but it's a safe pick. I also was looking at Seattle at home. I just like the Tennessee offensive line.
Jeff Pasquino: From an offensive line guy, this makes perfect sense.
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.