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We are proud to bring you the return of the Footballguys.com Staff Confidence Pool Challenge. 22 Staff members will pick the winner of each NFL game, and rank each choice from most confident (16 points) to least (1 point). As a tie-breaker, the person who is closest to the total points scored on 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 Confidence pool Champion. Picks and ranks are due on Wednesday, so any late-breaking news may not be reflected in the choices. Also please note that no point spread is taken into account with these picks – it is a straight up pick of which NFL team will win this week. See the other confidence pools for picks against the spread (ATS) or Survivor / Eliminator style.

WEEK 3 RESULTS

Missed it by that much. Andy Hicks took a shot and put 1 confidence point on the Dallas Cowboys this week. The Cowboys looked like they might win the game, but eventually the Falcons pulled it out. Hicks hit every other pick correctly last week and finished with an impressive 135 points out of 136. Aaron Rudnicki missed two games for a total of six confidence points to finish second with 130. A BIG difference from last week's top score of just 95. 

There were still a couple upsets this week, most prominent being the Eagles and the Raiders. But those combined losses by the Jets and the Browns cost the field just 227 toal confidence points vs. the 1700 that we lost last week. Maurile took some big risks this week and they didn't payoff as well as last week, and he finished on the opposite end of the weekly standings. 

OVERALL RANKINGS

With Maurile's tough week, he tumbled from the top spot down to 6th. Jason Wood had a solid week with 125 points and moved from 3rd to first in the overall standings. Larkin remained in second and Bitonti moved up into 3rd with a solid week as well. 

Bear had another rough week, and slid a little farther behind the overall pack. 

THIS WEEK'S PICKS

Here are the picks for this week.

HEAVY FAVORITES

There are several teams that are favored by a touchdown or more, so it's not a surprise to see the confidence pool picks follow with some high ranked teams. Green Bay, Seattle, Arizona and Indianapolis were all chosen by everyone in the field, and all three have over 230 confidence points wagered on them. San Diego and Denver were also unanimous choices by the entire board. The Falcons, Bengals, Bills, Raiders and Panthers were all heavily favoed by the field as well. 

DUAL SUPPORT

There are a couple games that have a lot of question marks due to injury, and the board didn't really show confidence in either team. Tonight's game between Baltimore and Pittsburgh split he field pretty well and the were only 76 total confidence points wagered on the night. It is the least confident match of the week. Dallas vs. New Orleans was another low-confidence match of the week, with only 91 total confidence points allocated to a game that could feature 2 backup QBS. 

ODDS AND ENDS

With the Patriots and Titans on a bye week, the top score is only 120 points. As we move deeper into the season, we'll see that number shrink down, making it harder for people to move up or down the board. 

Bear missed the deadline to get his picks in this week, but his totals will be included in the final results next week. 

Good luck this weekend!

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