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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 |
Dave Larkin | 11-1 | DAL | NO | NE | ATL | GB | MIN | AZ | STL | CIN | PIT | SEA | KC | CHI | ||||
Alex Miglio | 10-2 | GB | NO | SEA | INDY | ATL | NYJ | AZ | STL | NE | CAR | PHI | HOU | CIN | ||||
Jeff Haseley | 9-3 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | ATL | NYJ | AZ | STL | CIN | DEN | PHI | KC | NE | ||||
Aaron Rudnicki | 9-3 | GB | NO | SEA | SD | NYG | DEN | SEA | STL | NO | CIN | CAR | AZ | CHI | ||||
Chris Feery | 9-3 | DEN | NO | INDY | SEA | NYG | NE | AZ | ATL | CIN | GB | CAR | KC | CHI | ||||
Justin Bonnema | 9-3 | NYJ | MIA | NYG | INDY | BAL | PHI | STL | NO | CIN | BAL | SEA | KC | WASH | ||||
Clayton Gray | 9-3 | GB | NO | NE | AZ | ATL | DET | SD | STL | CIN | CAR | SEA | KC | WASH | ||||
Justin Howe | 9-3 | CIN | BAL | CAR | SD | KC | TEN | WASH | STL | MIN | PIT | SEA | AZ | NE | ||||
James Brimacombe | 8-4 | GB | INDY | NE | INDY | DEN | SEA | AZ | STL | CIN | CAR | PHI | JAX | PIT | ||||
Jason Wood | 8-4 | GB | NO | INDY | SD | NYG | NYJ | ATL | AZ | NO | NO | DAL | JAX | CIN | ||||
Andy Hicks | 8-4 | DEN | INDY | NE | SEA | KC | GB | AZ | STL | CIN | BAL | PHI | NYJ | CAR | ||||
Bear Heiser | 8-4 | MIN | BAL | SEA | SD | GB | CIN | MIA | STL | NO | BUF | ATL | DET | AZ | ||||
Jeff Pasquino | 8-4 | DAL | INDY | NE | GB | ATL | SEA | AZ | STL | NO | CIN | CAR | KC | CHI | ||||
Andrew Garda | 8-4 | MIA | AZ | CIN | BUF | BAL | HOU | ATL | CAR | NO | GB | JAX | SEA | DEN | ||||
Mark Wimer | 8-4 | GB | TEN | NE | OAK | NYG | NYJ | ATL | AZ | DEN | OAK | CAR | HOU | WASH | ||||
John Lee | 8-4 | NYJ | NO | CAR | INDY | BAL | GB | STL | HOU | NO | DEN | SEA | CIN | CHI | ||||
William Grant | 8-4 | DAL | MIA | SEA | DEN | BAL | NYJ | STL | ATL | CIN | GB | CAR | AZ | CHI | ||||
Maurile Tremblay | 7-5 | SEA | NE | CAR | CIN | AZ | TEN | MIN | STL | ATL | PIT | NYJ | TB | DEN | ||||
Steve Buzzard | 7-5 | DAL | MIA | NE | SEA | GB | NYJ | AZ | ATL | NO | CIN | CAR | JAX | CHI | ||||
Steve Holloway | 7-5 | MIA | INDY | SEA | BUF | ATL | NE | STL | AZ | SD | CIN | CAR | JAX | PIT | ||||
Dan Hindery | 7-5 | NE | BAL | HOU | SEA | KC | NYJ | AZ | STL | NO | GB | ATL | CIN | MIA | ||||
Ari Ingel | 7-5 | JAX | BAL | SEA | INDY | KC | DEN | SD | DET | NE | CIN | CAR | AZ | MIA | ||||
Matt Bitonti | 5-7 | NYJ | MIA | SEA | OAK | GB | CIN | BUF | AZ | NO | PHI | ATL | JAX | PIT |
DISCUSSION
Another rough week for the staff with six more losses for the group, led by the Jaguars at home and Tampa Bay's loss to the Colts. That makes the standings even tighter as we head into the final weeks of the contest. Teams are getting harder to choose and there are fewer good picks left, so this could go any number of ways. What lies ahead for the next several weeks? That's the question, isn't it.
The picks this week are interesting in that most of the bigger favorites have already been chosen by the staff. That leaves some very tough choices left on the board. The Chicago Bears led the group this week with seven picks, followed by Pittsburgh and Washington with three each. Four teams (Cincinnati, New England, Miami and Denver) were selected twice while Carolina and Arizona were unique selections. In all, nine different teams were among the 23 choices. No doubt that 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: It has been a rough season for this pool, and I have just about given up on my preseason picks at this point. Right now I am much more likely to follow Las Vegas and take the biggest favorite I have left to try and salvage a respectable season-long result. I have looked at the final five weeks, and I think I know my choices the rest of the year, but this week is tough. Most of the teams I want to use are in tight contests and the big favorites are exhausted, which leaves me to hope that Vegas is right on the Bears being a big favorite at home. I am definitely worried about this pick.
Good luck this weekend!
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.