Over the past few years we have given the subscribers of Footballguys.com some help in playing in office pools and other games when it comes to following the NFL. 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 we added 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 |
Alex Miglio | 8-1 | GB | NO | SEA | INDY | ATL | NYJ | AZ | STL | NE | CAR | |||||||
Dave Larkin | 8-1 | DAL | NO | NE | ATL | GB | MIN | AZ | STL | CIN | PIT | |||||||
Jeff Haseley | 8-1 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | ATL | NYJ | AZ | STL | CIN | DEN | |||||||
Aaron Rudnicki | 7-2 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | NYG | DEN | AZ | STL | NO | CIN | |||||||
Jason Wood | 7-2 | GB | NO | INDY | SD | NYG | NYJ | ATL | AZ | NO | NO | |||||||
Chris Feery | 7-2 | DEN | NO | INDY | SEA | NYG | NE | AZ | ATL | CIN | GB | |||||||
James Brimacombe | 7-2 | GB | INDY | NE | INDY | DEN | SEA | AZ | STL | CIN | CAR | |||||||
Andy Hicks | 7-2 | DEN | INDY | NE | SEA | KC | GB | AZ | STL | CIN | BAL | |||||||
Justin Bonnema | 7-2 | NYJ | MIA | NYG | INDY | BAL | PHI | STL | NO | CIN | BAL | |||||||
Dan Hindery | 6-3 | NE | BAL | HOU | SEA | KC | NYJ | AZ | STL | NO | GB | |||||||
Steve Buzzard | 6-3 | DAL | MIA | NE | SEA | GB | NYJ | AZ | ATL | NO | CIN | |||||||
Jeff Pasquino | 6-3 | DAL | INDY | NE | GB | ATL | SEA | AZ | STL | NO | CIN | |||||||
Maurile Tremblay | 6-3 | SEA | NE | CAR | CIN | AZ | TEN | MIN | STL | ATL | PIT | |||||||
Andrew Garda | 6-3 | MIA | AZ | CIN | BUF | BAL | HOU | ATL | CAR | NO | GB | |||||||
Mark Wimer | 6-3 | GB | TEN | NE | OAK | NYG | NYJ | ATL | AZ | DEN | OAK | |||||||
Steve Holloway | 6-3 | MIA | INDY | SEA | BUF | ATL | NE | STL | AZ | SD | CIN | |||||||
Bear Heiser | 6-3 | MIN | BAL | SEA | SD | GB | CIN | MIA | STL | NO | X | |||||||
John Lee | 6-3 | NYJ | NO | CAR | INDY | BAL | GB | STL | HOU | NO | DEN | |||||||
William Grant | 6-3 | DAL | MIA | SEA | DEN | BAL | NYJ | STL | ATL | CIN | GB | |||||||
Clayton Gray | 6-3 | GB | NO | NE | AZ | ATL | DET | SD | STL | CIN | CAR | |||||||
Justin Howe | 6-3 | CIN | BAL | CAR | SD | KC | TEN | WASH | STL | MIN | PIT | |||||||
Matt Bitonti | 5-4 | NYJ | MIA | SEA | OAK | GB | CIN | BUF | AZ | NO | PHI | |||||||
Ari Ingel | 5-4 | JAX | BAL | SEA | INDY | KC | DEN | SD | DET | NE | CIN |
DISCUSSION
Week 9 was another collective disaster with both the Saints (9 teams) plus Atlanta (1), Denver (1) and San Diego (1) contributing 12 more losses to the staff. That disrupted the rankings as only three staff members have an 8-1 record for the season. Nearly everyone else sits at 7-2 or 6-3 for the season, so there is still plenty of chance for anyone to win this as it has been a very tough year to pick winners every week. So what was the takeaway with the Saints loss? Anything to be learned here? How about avoiding new coaches which could motivate teams and players. I think I will add that to the list for next year as another landmine warning. The choices will start to become much harder as we enter mid-November, so this will be a fun standings table to watch.
The picks this week are all over the map, as we have nine different selections. The most popular were the Bengals (5) and Packers (4), who are both big favorites and those on the staff who still had Cincinnati or Green Bay were all over these picks for sure. Next came Carolina and Pittsburgh with three choices each. Denver and Baltimore each received two votes, and I think both of those are shakier selections as the Broncos face a divisional foe in Kansas City and I am personally calling for the Jaguars to beat the Ravens. Philadelphia, Oakland and New Orleans round out the picks for Week 10, so this is going to be another interesting week.
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 finally had the chance to use my preseason plan again, as Cincinnati is a big favorite against Houston. Looking back I wish I had used the Bengals last week, but that would have made Week 10 more challenging.
Good luck this weekend!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.