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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 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:
Staff Member | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
Andrew Garda | 2-0 | MIA | AZ | CIN | ||||||||||||||
Dan Hindery | 1-1 | NE | BAL | HOU | ||||||||||||||
Aaron Rudnicki | 1-1 | GB | NO | SEA | ||||||||||||||
Alex Miglio | 1-1 | GB | NO | SEA | ||||||||||||||
Clayton Gray | 1-1 | GB | NO | NE | ||||||||||||||
James Brimacombe | 1-1 | GB | INDY | NE | ||||||||||||||
Jason Wood | 1-1 | GB | NO | INDY | ||||||||||||||
Jeff Haseley | 1-1 | GB | NO | SEA | ||||||||||||||
Mark Wimer | 1-1 | GB | TEN | NE | ||||||||||||||
Ari Ingel | 1-1 | JAX | BAL | SEA | ||||||||||||||
Steve Holloway | 1-1 | MIA | INDY | SEA | ||||||||||||||
John Lee | 1-1 | NYJ | NO | CAR | ||||||||||||||
Matt Bitonti | 1-1 | NYJ | MIA | SEA | ||||||||||||||
Justin Howe | 1-1 | CIN | BAL | CAR | ||||||||||||||
Andy Hicks | 1-1 | DEN | INDY | NE | ||||||||||||||
Chris Feery | 1-1 | DEN | NO | INDY | ||||||||||||||
Dave Larkin | 1-1 | DAL | NO | NE | ||||||||||||||
Jeff Pasquino | 1-1 | DAL | INDY | NE | ||||||||||||||
Steve Buzzard | 1-1 | DAL | MIA | NE | ||||||||||||||
William Grant | 1-1 | DAL | MIA | SEA | ||||||||||||||
Justin Bonnema | 1-1 | NYJ | MIA | NYG | ||||||||||||||
Maurile Tremblay | 1-1 | SEA | NE | CAR | ||||||||||||||
Bear Heiser | 0-2 | MIN | BAL | SEA |
DISCUSSION
I have never seen a week like Week 2 before - ever. With so many different picks, I would have thought that there would be at least a few winners, but the decimation was rampant across all 23 picks. Only two selections were correct - Maurile Tremblay's pick of New England and Andrew Garda's selection of Arizona. Had this been a normal Eliminator pool, Garda would be the winner after just two weeks - incredible. I thought i was sitting pretty having faded all the losing favorites on Sunday and going with the Colts on Monday night, but even the Jets showed that no pick was safe in Week 2.
Now, as I said before, Andrew Garda would normally be the winner of this contest and this article would no longer exist after Week 3, but that's not why we are doing this. We want to give all of our readers some insight as the weeks go on to try and pick winners. That's why this contest is based on best record for all 17 weeks, not just to get to a last man standing. So now we all (but Maurile and Garda) hit the reset button again and make some picks for Week 3. I sure hope this goes better than last week.
Now we have another interesting distribution this week with seven unique picks, just like last week. Sorry, don't mean to tie this week to Week 2. Let's move on. The top choice for eight staffers is Seattle hosting a banged up Chicago Bears team that may be without Jay Cutler this week (latest news is that he will try and suit up). Seatlle is 0-2 on the season after two tough road losses and they will be anxious to get home and get a much needed victory. As a two touchdown favorite, I like their chances. Next most common pick was New England, another big favorite at home against Jacksonville. Carolina had three selections as a home favorite against New Orleans, but now I hear that Drew Brees will try and play. That maks this game a very dangerous pick, plus it is a divisional contest, always a tough choice. Two staffers chose Indianapolis at Tennessee, another tough choice (divisional game, on the road) but I can see the desperation for the Colts that should lead to a win. Finally, three Footballguys staff members are going out on their own with unique picks with Cincinnati (at Baltimore), Houston (hosting Tampa Bay) and the Giants (hosting Washington on Thursday). It seems that these picks are going against the grain to try and save some of the other teams for later, but after the train wreck that was Week 2, what picks can really be safe?
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 stick with one of my two preseason picks and chose New England at home against Jacksonville for Week 3. Green Bay hosting Kansas City looks like a bad choice now, so I will stick with the Patriots and save Seattle for later (possibly in Week 6, but we shall see). I just want to get back in the win column after Week 2.
Will Grant: Seattle has struggled this season, but with their first home game against a struggling Chicago team this week, they are a no-brainer pick in a Survivor league. Granted, a lot of guys bit the dust on no-brainer picks but I think Seattle is about as safe as they come this week.
Good luck this weekend!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.