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 |
| Aaron Rudnicki | 5-1 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | NYG | DEN | AZ | ||||||||||
| Alex Miglio | 5-1 | GB | NO | SEA | INDY | ATL | NYJ | AZ | ||||||||||
| Jason Wood | 5-1 | GB | NO | INDY | SD | NYG | NYJ | ATL | ||||||||||
| Chris Feery | 5-1 | DEN | NO | INDY | SEA | NYG | NE | AZ | ||||||||||
| Dave Larkin | 5-1 | DAL | NO | NE | ATL | GB | MIN | AZ | ||||||||||
| Steve Buzzard | 5-1 | DAL | MIA | NE | SEA | GB | NYJ | AZ | ||||||||||
| Jeff Haseley | 5-1 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | ATL | NYJ | AZ | ||||||||||
| James Brimacombe | 4-2 | GB | INDY | NE | INDY | DEN | SEA | AZ | ||||||||||
| Jeff Pasquino | 4-2 | DAL | INDY | NE | GB | ATL | SEA | AZ | ||||||||||
| Maurile Tremblay | 4-2 | SEA | NE | CAR | CIN | AZ | TEN | MIN | ||||||||||
| Andrew Garda | 4-2 | MIA | AZ | CIN | BUF | BAL | HOU | ATL | ||||||||||
| Dan Hindery | 4-2 | NE | BAL | HOU | SEA | KC | NYJ | AZ | ||||||||||
| Ari Ingel | 4-2 | JAX | BAL | SEA | INDY | KC | DEN | SD | ||||||||||
| John Lee | 4-2 | NYJ | NO | CAR | INDY | BAL | GB | STL | ||||||||||
| Andy Hicks | 4-2 | DEN | INDY | NE | SEA | KC | GB | AZ | ||||||||||
| William Grant | 4-2 | DAL | MIA | SEA | DEN | BAL | NYJ | STL | ||||||||||
| Justin Bonnema | 4-2 | NYJ | MIA | NYG | INDY | BAL | PHI | STL | ||||||||||
| Clayton Gray | 4-2 | GB | NO | NE | AZ | ATL | DET | SD | ||||||||||
| Mark Wimer | 4-2 | GB | TEN | NE | OAK | NYG | NYJ | ATL | ||||||||||
| Steve Holloway | 4-2 | MIA | INDY | SEA | BUF | ATL | NE | STL | ||||||||||
| Matt Bitonti | 4-2 | NYJ | MIA | SEA | OAK | GB | CIN | BUF | ||||||||||
| Bear Heiser | 4-2 | MIN | BAL | SEA | SD | GB | CIN | MIA | ||||||||||
| Justin Howe | 3-3 | CIN | BAL | CAR | SD | KC | TEN | WASH |
DISCUSSION
A few more incorrect picks in Week 6 separated the field of 23 for the staff. Seven of our staffers are still 5-1 on the season, with almost everyone else one game back. As the season draws closer to the midway point, it will be harder and harder to select good teams and big favorites with fewer teams available, so this will be a fun standings table to watch.
The picks this week fall into two distinct groups. Most of the staff (11 of 23) went with the big favorite on Monday Night Football, the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona hosts Baltimore, who is 1-5 on the year and one missed field goal by Pittsburgh from being winless this year. Arizona should exploit the biggest weakness for the Ravens, their secondary and pass defense. Looks like a very safe pick to me. Two other teams had multiple picks with the Rams getting four staffers behind them as they host Cleveland. Three others went with Atlanta at Tennessee. Both calls look solid this week, but as we have seen all year, it feels like no pick is a lock. The next group of picks are all unique as one staffer each chose Buffalo (vs. Jacksonville in London), Miami (hosting Houston), Minnesota (at Detriot), and Washington (hosting Tennessee). Eight different teams are in the mix so this could be an interesting week after the results are in this Tuesday.
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 totally bailed on my preseason picks this week as Arizona is just too good to pass up this week. I love Carson Palmer to tear apart a hapless Baltimore secondary. I do not trust Kansas City against the Steelers and the Jets-Patriots game is always closer than most people expect in a divisional contest, something I really try to avoid in survivor. I will figure something else out for Week 14, for I need a win this week.
Will Grant: I was very tempted to take Washington this week - since it's probably the only week that you can feel confident in picking them as your winner. But that hasn't worked very well for me this year so far, so I'm sticking with the safer pick. St. Louis is a 5.5 point favorite at home as of Wednesday - so that's the team I'm going with.
Good luck this weekend!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.
