Over the past few years, we have given the subscribers of Footballguys.com 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 proud to bring you the combination of the two. The Footballguys.com Staff Against the Spread Pool Challenge. Multiple staff members (22) will pick the winner of each NFL game against the Las Vegas line. As a tie-breaker, the person who is closest to the total points scored in the last Monday Night game will be the winner. Winners will be announced from week to week and the best overall record will be crowned Against the Spread Champion. Picks and ranks are due on Wednesday, so any late-breaking news may not be reflected in the choices.
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
Here are the results from this week.
Road Team: | CLE | GB | CHI | DAL | HOU | NYJ | WAS | CIN | CAR | NO | KC | JAC | ARI | BUF | OAK | SF | ||
Home Team: | PIT | DET | MIN | PHI | IND | NE | NYG | BAL | ATL | TB | DEN | TEN | SEA | MIA | LAC | LAR | ||
Favorite: | PIT | DET | MIN | DAL | IND | NE | WAS | BAL | ATL | NO | DEN | TEN | SEA | BUF | LAC | LAR | ||
Point Spread: | -13.5 | -7.5 | -12.5 | -2.5 | -3.5 | -15.5 | -3.5 | -9.5 | -3.5 | -7.5 | -3.5 | -3.5 | -8.5 | -2.5 | -7.5 | -2.5 | ||
Staffer | Last Week's Picks | MNF | Year to | |||||||||||||||
Tot Pts | Date | |||||||||||||||||
John Mamula | PIT | DET | CHI | PHI | IND | NE | NYG | CIN | ATL | NO | KC | TEN | SEA | BUF | LAC | SF | 44 | 138 |
Keith Roberts | CLE | DET | MIN | PHI | HOU | NE | WAS | CIN | ATL | TB | KC | TEN | SEA | BUF | LAC | LAR | 44 | 132 |
Matt Bitonti | CLE | DET | MIN | DAL | IND | NE | WAS | BAL | CAR | TB | KC | JAC | SEA | BUF | LAC | SF | 65 | 147 |
Jeff Haseley | PIT | DET | CHI | DAL | IND | NYJ | WAS | CIN | CAR | NO | DEN | TEN | ARI | BUF | LAC | SF | 48 | 129 |
Jeff Pasquino | PIT | GB | MIN | PHI | IND | NE | WAS | BAL | ATL | NO | KC | JAC | SEA | BUF | LAC | SF | 45 | 132 |
Alessandro Miglio | CLE | GB | CHI | DAL | HOU | NYJ | WAS | CIN | ATL | TB | DEN | TEN | ARI | MIA | OAK | SF | 55 | 133 |
Andrew Garda | PIT | DET | MIN | PHI | IND | NE | WAS | BAL | ATL | NO | KC | JAC | SEA | BUF | LAC | LAR | 45 | 137 |
Bear Heiser | PIT | DET | MIN | DAL | HOU | NYJ | WAS | CIN | CAR | NO | KC | JAC | SEA | BUF | LAC | SF | 44 | 142 |
Chris Feery | PIT | GB | MIN | PHI | IND | NE | WAS | BAL | ATL | NO | KC | JAC | SEA | BUF | LAC | SF | 45 | 126 |
Mark Wimer | PIT | GB | MIN | DAL | HOU | NYJ | NYG | BAL | ATL | NO | KC | TEN | SEA | BUF | LAC | LAR | 69 | 141 |
Aaron Rudnicki | PIT | DET | CHI | DAL | IND | NYJ | WAS | BAL | CAR | TB | DEN | TEN | SEA | BUF | OAK | SF | 40 | 133 |
Andy Hicks | CLE | GB | CHI | PHI | HOU | NYJ | NYG | CIN | CAR | TB | KC | JAC | ARI | MIA | OAK | SF | 47 | 115 |
Dave Larkin | PIT | GB | CHI | DAL | IND | NYJ | WAS | CIN | CAR | TB | DEN | JAC | ARI | BUF | OAK | SF | 50 | 138 |
Devin Knotts | CLE | GB | CHI | PHI | HOU | NYJ | NYG | CIN | CAR | TB | KC | JAC | ARI | MIA | OAK | SF | 44 | 130 |
Justin Bonnema | PIT | DET | MIN | PHI | HOU | NE | WAS | CIN | ATL | NO | KC | JAC | SEA | MIA | LAC | LAR | 48 | 135 |
Stephen Holloway | CLE | DET | CHI | DAL | IND | NYJ | WAS | BAL | CAR | NO | KC | JAC | SEA | BUF | LAC | LAR | 50 | 124 |
William Grant | PIT | GB | MIN | PHI | IND | NE | WAS | BAL | CAR | NO | KC | JAC | SEA | BUF | LAC | SF | 47 | 135 |
James Brimacombe | CLE | GB | CHI | PHI | HOU | NYJ | WAS | BAL | ATL | NO | DEN | TEN | SEA | BUF | LAC | SF | 42 | 132 |
Justin Howe | PIT | GB | CHI | DAL | HOU | NYJ | WAS | CIN | ATL | NO | DEN | TEN | SEA | BUF | OAK | SF | 43 | 113 |
Danny Tuccitto | PIT | GB | CHI | PHI | HOU | NYJ | NYG | CIN | CAR | TB | KC | JAC | SEA | MIA | OAK | SF | 49 | 136 |
Phil Alexander | PIT | GB | CHI | DAL | IND | NYJ | WAS | BAL | CAR | TB | DEN | TEN | SEA | MIA | OAK | SF | 46 | 139 |
Jason Wood | 126 |
Note - Jason Wood did not provide selections for Week 17.
Week 17 was pretty ugly for the staff, except for a few staffers that had strong weeks. John Mamula, Keith Roberts and Matt Bitonti finished at 11-5 on the week, but only Jeff Haseley (with 9) joined them with a winning record. Both John and Keith put down a total score of 44 for SF-LAR, so they finished tied for the week. Overall the staff suffered a lot of losses and possibly their worst week of the year (Week 17 is tough), going 161-175 (47.9%). Despite a rough week, the staff finished at 2,913-2,703 for a 51.9% winning percentage, which is a good result for mid-week picks for a larger group, but it was just shy of beating the Las Vegas winning standard (where you need to beat 11-10 each week, or 52.4%).
FINAL STANDINGS
Here are the results for all of our staffers who entered picks for this season:
Staff Member | Correct Picks | Win % |
Matt Bitonti | 147 | 57.42% |
Bear Heiser | 142 | 55.47% |
Mark Wimer | 141 | 55.08% |
Phil Alexander | 139 | 54.3% |
John Mamula | 138 | 53.91% |
Dave Larkin | 138 | 53.91% |
Andrew Garda | 137 | 53.52% |
Danny Tuccitto | 136 | 53.13% |
Justin Bonnema | 135 | 52.73% |
William Grant | 135 | 52.73% |
Jason Wood | 126 | 52.50% |
Alessandro Miglio | 133 | 51.95% |
Aaron Rudnicki | 133 | 51.95% |
Keith Roberts | 132 | 51.56% |
Jeff Pasquino | 132 | 51.56% |
James Brimacombe | 132 | 51.56% |
Devin Knotts | 130 | 50.78% |
Jeff Haseley | 129 | 50.39% |
Chris Feery | 126 | 49.22% |
Stephen Holloway | 124 | 48.44% |
Andy Hicks | 115 | 44.92% |
Justin Howe | 113 | 46.31% |
Matt Bitonti rounded out his strong season by going 11-5 in Week 17, wrapping up a near wire-to-wire run with his 147 correct picks on the year. Matt finished five games ahead of Bear Heiser and six above Mark Wimer, running away with the title in 2017. Eleven staffers had strong results, exceeding the Las Vegas standard of 52.4% for the season (highlighted in green in Table 2). Seven other staffers had a winning record on the year (highlighted in yellow), showing that the staff seems to know a thing or two about the NFL.
Season Winner: Matt Bitonti
I hope that you enjoyed following along with the staff and our pool throughout the season. Best of luck to you in any playoff contests, and we will see you again in the fall.
Happy New Year!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com