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.
Note that the links above are for 2012 articles. Please see the Week 13 2013 Page at Footballguys.com for the 2013 Week 13 updates.
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 so far:
| Staffer | Record | Wk01 | Wk02 | Wk03 | Wk04 | Wk05 | Wk06 | Wk07 | Wk08 | Wk09 | Wk10 | Wk11 | Wk12 | Wk13 | Wk14 | Wk15 | Wk16 | Wk17 |
| James Brimacombe | 10-2 | NE | GB | SEA | IND | ATL | SF | SD | KC | DAL | TEN | PHI | NO | CAR | ||||
| Matt Bitonti | 10-2 | INDY | OAK | SEA | NO | ATL | DEN | GB | SF | DAL | TEN | NYG | CAR | NE | ||||
| Will Grant | 10-2 | INDY | NE | MIN | NO | STL | SF | KC | GB | DAL | TEN | SEA | CAR | BUF | ||||
| Steve Holloway | 10-2 | INDY | NE | MIN | TEN | ATL | SEA | GB | KC | DAL | NYG | CHI | CAR | SF | ||||
| Heath Cummings | 9-3 | NE | CIN | SEA | IND | STL | SF | NYG | NO | DAL | TEN | HOU | DET | CAR | ||||
| Aaron Rudnicki | 9-3 | INDY | ATL | SEA | NO | STL | DEN | GB | SF | DAL | TEN | HOU | DET | CLE | ||||
| Adam Harstad | 9-3 | TB | CIN | SEA | IND | STL | DEN | SD | SF | DAL | TEN | AZ | HOU | CLE | ||||
| Jeff Haseley | 9-3 | INDY | PHI | NO | TEN | STL | CIN | MIA | CAR | DAL | NYG | HOU | BAL | NE | ||||
| Andy Hicks | 9-3 | TB | GB | SEA | IND | ATL | DEN | KC | SF | DAL | TEN | AZ | NO | NE | ||||
| Maurile Tremblay | 9-3 | TB | PHI | SEA | IND | DEN | SF | GB | NO | DAL | TEN | AZ | CAR | NE | ||||
| Greg Russell | 8-4 | INDY | NE | SEA | DEN | STL | SF | GB | KC | NO | TEN | DET | HOU | CAR | ||||
| Mark Wimer | 8-4 | NE | PHI | SEA | AZ | STL | DAL | KC | SF | GB | TEN | NYJ | DET | CAR | ||||
| Jeff Pasquino | 7-5 | INDY | PHI | SEA | DEN | ATL | CHI | GB | SF | DAL | TEN | HOU | DET | NE | ||||
| Ryan Hester | 7-5 | PIT | PHI | DEN | NO | STL | SEA | MIA | SF | DAL | TEN | NYG | HOU | CLE | ||||
| Jason Wood | 6-6 | TB | NO | MIN | CIN | ATL | SF | MIA | SEA | TEN | IND | AZ | PIT | NE |
DISCUSSION
Last week was pretty eventful, with seven overall losses for the staff. Houston lost again, costing the staff three picks, while Tampa Bay’s upset of Detroit gave the staff the other four losses. That makes the playing field much more even now with a change at the top of the standings as both Heath Cummings and Aaron Rudnicki have suffered three losses in a row. Now there are four new names atop the leaderboard, all at 10-2 on the season. Selections only get tougher as the season progresses, so this could get very interesting. There are not many clear favorites this week aside from Dallas, Carolina and San Francisco, all teams that have been used quite a bit already, so this could be another week full of different picks.
With entries in, I was correct that the picks are all over the place this week once again. New England actually led the way with six entries, which is not that surprising considering that the Patriots are a touchdown favorite against Houston, who keeps finding new ways to lose games. Granted the game is a road contest for New England, but the Patriots do need to keep winning to stay in the second seed spot in the AFC playoff race, so it looks like a solid pick. Carolina is next with four selections, followed closely by the Browns with three as they host Jacksonville – which feels like a possible upset to me. Steve Holloway went out on his own with his 49ers pick, but then again most everyone else had used San Francisco already – but St. Louis was very good against the 49ers last year (one win, one tie). Last but not least is Will Grant, who also had a unique pick in selecting Buffalo over Atlanta with the game in Toronto. Without question the standings could change quite a bit by Sunday night.
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 – This week I went the Patriots on the road at Houston. Seemed like a safe call with New England favored by a touchdown against the Texans who have lost nine games in a row. Originally, way back in the preseason I had earmarked Dallas for this week, but I had already used the Cowboys and the Patriots were the next best option. I skipped San Francisco due to a divisional rivalry game and that the Rams beat the 49ers once last year and tied in the other contest.
Good luck this weekend!