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 | 3-0 | MIA | AZ | CIN | BUF | |||||||||||||
Dan Hindery | 2-1 | NE | BAL | HOU | SEA | |||||||||||||
Aaron Rudnicki | 2-1 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | |||||||||||||
Alex Miglio | 2-1 | GB | NO | SEA | INDY | |||||||||||||
Clayton Gray | 2-1 | GB | NO | NE | AZ | |||||||||||||
James Brimacombe | 2-1 | GB | INDY | NE | INDY | |||||||||||||
Jason Wood | 2-1 | GB | NO | INDY | SD | |||||||||||||
Jeff Haseley | 2-1 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | |||||||||||||
Mark Wimer | 2-1 | GB | TEN | NE | OAK | |||||||||||||
Ari Ingel | 2-1 | JAX | BAL | SEA | INDY | |||||||||||||
Steve Holloway | 2-1 | MIA | INDY | SEA | BUF | |||||||||||||
John Lee | 2-1 | NYJ | NO | CAR | INDY | |||||||||||||
Matt Bitonti | 2-1 | NYJ | MIA | SEA | OAK | |||||||||||||
Justin Howe | 2-1 | CIN | BAL | CAR | SD | |||||||||||||
Andy Hicks | 2-1 | DEN | INDY | NE | SEA | |||||||||||||
Chris Feery | 2-1 | DEN | NO | INDY | SEA | |||||||||||||
Dave Larkin | 2-1 | DAL | NO | NE | ATL | |||||||||||||
Jeff Pasquino | 2-1 | DAL | INDY | NE | GB | |||||||||||||
Steve Buzzard | 2-1 | DAL | MIA | NE | SEA | |||||||||||||
William Grant | 2-1 | DAL | MIA | SEA | DEN | |||||||||||||
Justin Bonnema | 2-1 | NYJ | MIA | NYG | INDY | |||||||||||||
Maurile Tremblay | 2-1 | SEA | NE | CAR | CIN | |||||||||||||
Bear Heiser | 1-2 | MIN | BAL | SEA | SD |
DISCUSSION
So glad to have Week 2 behind us all, and the staff responded well this week with a perfect set of selections. No one sufferred a misstep as the group collectively all got a solid winning pick in Week 3.
Now we have another interesting distribution this week with 10 unique picks, the largest group so far this year. The top choice is a split decision between five picks for the Chargers (hosting Cleveland) and five more for Indianapolis (hosting Jacksonville). I for one would not touch the Jaguars - Colts matchup as I know that Jacksonville always gets up for the Colts and Indianapolis does not look like a juggernaut team just yet. The next most common pick was Seattle (hosting the Lions) with four choices, and I like that pick with Detroit not looking so great and the Seahawks very anxious to get to 2-2. Buffalo (home vs. the Giants) and Oakland (at Chicago) both received two selections for Week 4, and neither looks like a lock, especially with Jay Cutler possibly back for the Bears. Finally, five Footballguys staff members are going out on their own with unique picks with Cincinnati (hosting Kansas City), Denver (hosting the Vikings), Green Bay (at San Francisco), Arizona (home against the Rams) and Atlanta (home against Houston). 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 struggled a little this week with my choice and decided to let Las Vegas guide me a bit. That steered me to either Green Bay (at San Francisco) or Seattle (home against Detroit). Based on my preseason article, Seattle has a solid Week 6 matchup (at home against the Panthers) on a slate that looks prety ugly for that week, so I quickly leaned towards the Packers. While Green Bay does have to go to San Francisco on a short week, this is not an East Coast team flying all the way across the country, and Aaron Rodgers has a great narrative (going home to northern Calfornia, where he grew up and played college ball) - so that set my pick for me. Go Pack Go!
Will Grant: Denver has struggled this season, but this week I think they have an easier time beating Minnesota. Since everyone else will be taking the 'safe' picks like Indianapolis or Green Bay, I'll try to steal an early win and take Denver instead. Green Bay is going to be an easy pick as the season wears on and I'd rather save them for a later day. Indy is just coming into their own and like Green Bay, I want to save the for later.
Good luck this weekend!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.