Before we get to our first football contest of 2019, let’s close the loop on some other contests we hosted last year.
First off, I’d like to kick off this post by celebrating greatness.
Every season for eight seasons, I have hosted an NFL over/under contest where readers choose ten teams and decide whether those teams will win either over or under the amount of games Las Vegas has predicted.
Never before has one participant gone a perfect ten-for-ten. Once, the mighty Ravenous went nine-for-nine, finishing with 54 out of a possible 55 points. That year, Ravenous missed only his one-pointer. This year, one reader went a perfect ten-for-ten.
Ronbets… take a well-deserved bow.
Here are your standings for this year’s NFL over/under contest! Bets, I believe you’ve already won a t-shirt but if you haven’t, by all means, send me your particulars and I’ll send you out some swag to wear to your local sportsbook with pride. Ten for ten is no small feat. Here’s hoping you threw some real money down on your hunches for us out in the desert. Thank you, sir, for setting a new standard for excellence in the contest.
Ronbets – 55
SportsChump – 43
Captain White Belt – 35
Ravenous – 37
BNRmoose – 32
KP – 27
Hank – 26
Heavy D – 19
J-Dub – 19
SportsAttitudes – 15
Capn Tree – 4
Now onto our 2018 weekly pick ‘em contest. We’ve already congratulated KP for polishing us all off with a week left to play. He is running home with $50 of my own money. (He gets to keep the $50 he ponied up for the contest.)
In case you were interested, here are the final standings from that madness:
KP: 30
Dr. Laura: 14
Captain White Belt: 13
D$: 8
Kid Sheraton: 6
Hank: 6
Nathan: 5
SportsChump: -6
J Dub: -6
BNRmoose: -10
Sauze Bauze: -19
BCole: -20
Fibbs: -23
Deacon Blues: -25
Now, on to the contest at hand.
I asked you all to pick me five consecutive winners, no point spreads, beginning with the opening round of the NFL playoffs, the national championship game and onto the remaining playoff rounds, figuring it would be difficult.
Little did I know how difficult it would be.
18 people entered. Thanks to the Texans, Seahawks and Bears, eight people never even made it to their second pick. Thanks to Clemson, only one remains. That person is Quiggy, a SportsChump newbie.
Initially, I was going to give the prize to the person who could pick five consecutive games, figuring not a single one of us would be able to do so, which is a paradox in and of itself. There to fore, in theory, no one would win the prize. Since Quiggy was the only one to pick TWO consecutive games, I’m calling the contest a wrap and proclaiming him the winner, however, in the spirit of the contest, he has agreed to continue picking as the rest of us watch on with bated breath. Please enter your picks below.
I debated long and hard over to whether to offer him the prize but if you’ve been with us for any extended period of time, you all also know SportsChump has a loving heart. Besides, eliminator pools generally end when only one person is left.
The point here was to prove how difficult it is to pick that many games in a row correctly. I think we all did just that. Well, everyone but Quiggy.
Please do tell us who ya’ got this weekend. That way we all know who to bet on.
Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs, Saturday 4:35pm
Dallas Cowboys at Los Angeles Rams, Saturday 8:15 pm
Los Angeles Chargers at New England Patriots, Sunday 1:05 pm
Philadelphia Eagles at New Orleans Saints, Sunday 4:40 pm
It also bears mention that Quiggy hosts his own blog (confounded bloggers!) called The Midnite Drive-In wherein he apparently must watch a lot of Clemson game film. Feel free to pay him a visit.
E-mail me your particulars, sir, and I’ll send off the goodies as soon as possible.
Thanks to all again for participating and stay tuned for the next contest coming to an independent website near you…. And Quiggy, keep pickin’.
Hmmm. I’d like to thank the Academy and my co-stars… Oops, wrong acceptance speech.
OK, I’m repeating myself here from the other thread (although not verbatim, since i can’t remember the exact wording): I think the easiest of the four games is the Saints over the Eagles. But since the Eagles made me eat humble pie last week, (as well as 6 others who actually DID pick the Bears…) after saying that the Bears was the easiest pick, I could be in for another slice of humble pie. At any rate, I hate taking the easy way out. And I refuse to pick the Cowboys, even though I think they’ll probably win. I loathe the Cowboys and refuse to put myself in a position to root for them to win. (Yes, a Texas native who hates the Cowboys and there are more of us than you think…)
My pick this round is another upset. I’m picking the Chargers over the Patriots. Setting up a potential AFC West showdown for the title. What can I say, I like living close to the edge. Else why would I have picked Clemson?
BTW, except for the Chargers I lost all of the other games so maybe betting wads of cash is not entirely a good idea…
Impressive, Quigmire, going with an upset.
If I had to choose one team to win this weekend, it’d probably be the Rams. I know they’ve cooled off of late and that the Cowboys are a different team with Cooper but I think the Rams should be able to handle things.
Which, again, is why I’m out of the contest already.
Actually, the right play is probably just picking the Saints to win from here on out.
Chargers Rivers overcoming his Brady curse would be the biggest news and tallest odds while the Rams seem like the closest to a semi-sure thing.
WTF, let’s throw caution to the winds, hoist the genoa, all aboard the Chargers ship as they sail into oblivion trying to overcome their 0-7 playoff albatross against ageless Brady and cunning Bellicheat.
Since I didn’t make it to the 2nd round (though I should have received partial credit for predicting how the Bears would potentially lose), I wasn’t able to record my Clemson bet. But I was all in (including actual wager) on the Tigers. If you watched every down of the first 2 playoff games, you would have seen Clemson playing at a higher level than Bama, especially on defense. But, to avoid Chump’s mocking me for sour grapes, I’ll move to this week, and I’m going to bet with my eyes, just as I did for the NT game.
What a Cinderella year for The Kid – Mr. Mahomes. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the young man far outperform any reasonable expectations in his first NFL starting season, as he became only the 2nd player in NFL history to throw for 50 touchdowns and at least 5,000 yards while leading the league’s highest scoring offense. He has it all – pocket awareness, quickness, vision, big arm, and poise. He will have an incredible career if he stays healthy. Hard to bet against all of that.
Remember Andrew Luck? He was so good as a redshirt sophomore that he was projected to be the top overall pick in the 2011 draft. But he returned to Stanford and finished 2nd in Heisman votes for the 2nd straight year (Cam Newton, RG3). That year he broke John Elway’s touchdown record; won Pac 12 Offensive POY; won the Maxwell and Walter Camp Awards; and motivated the Colts to suck for him. He became the #1 overall pick and lead his new team to 3 straight postseasons. Last year Luck was placed on IR, and after shaking off some rust, he finished the 2018 regular season with his highest ever professional completion percentage.
Mahomes and Luck combined for 89 touchdown passes this season – the most ever in a playoff matchup. Which leads us to expect a shootout (Vegas is currently profiting at 57), but I see this going in a different direction. Before Chump gets upset at me for predicting in the wrong category, it’s important to know that the amount of scoring affects my pick. Here’s the reason – it’s going to be very, very cold; the Chiefs have been forced to attempt to be more balanced since the loss of Hunt; Indy has become run strong; KC’s defense has been much better at home; and Indy will be the best defense the Chiefs have faced with the possible exception of the Chargers (loss). The Seahawks brought a much improved defense to their matchup a few weeks ago to deliver a consecutive loss. See a trend? Here’s an important one – KC was 10-0 against non-playoff teams, but only 2-4 against postseason participants. Here’s another one – Luck and the Colts are 10-1 in their last 11, and really should have been 11-0.
Las week, Luck faced a ferocious pass rush on the road, and he left unscathed. That’s right, the vaunted duo of Clowney and Watt registered ZERO sacks. The Colts lead the league in protecting their star. Speaking of stars, my alma mater gave one to the Colts in the form of Marlon Mack. Mack Attack is showing off, just as he did in college, albeit in his own humble way. Last week, against DVOA’s best rush defense, Mack and Co. trucked for over 200 yards! Guess where KC ranks in DVOA rush defense…that’s right, last. Mama, there goes that man!
Back to my eye test that I used to value Clemson over Alabama. Indy’s defense looked so good last week against Watson & Co. They looked fast, hungry, organized, vicious. Last year The Kid watched from the sidelines as his team gave up a comfortable first half lead for an early exit. This year he will have an opportunity to make a difference, and if he does, that’s a wrap on the MVP. But I am going to take a Cinderella team over the Cinderella QB. Colts in easy fashion.
Saints
I missed most of my 5’s this season, don’t know why I thought I’d do better in a one pick scenario lol
Congratulations to MVP Mahomes
Tree…
I wonder what it is about the Patriots that allows so many of us to write them off…. only to find out how wrong we always are about them.
Captain White Belt almost ran out of internet with that last comment.
At least he was wrong. Rather wordily so.
Yea, Donny C.
Like I said, the wise play is probably taking the Saints from here on out.
That’s why I threw in the college game to mix things up. I figured picking games would be considerably easier after opening weekend.
Should’ve gone with KC. I still stand behind my thought that Chargers had a good thing going, but I forgot that the Patriots made a deal with the devil some years back and everything seems to go their way at home. Hope the deal with the devil doesn’t include away games, though.
If I had had more confidence in the Rams I would have gone that route, but they hadn’t been playing up to snuff in the last few weeks of December, in my opinion. But if I were passing on to the next round I think I’d pick them against the Saints, since the Saints barely came out of their game against Philly. Besides, the Rams have a guy on their roster who graduated from my hometown (of only 1200 people), so I’m kind of hoping for it.
Chumpy,
Yeah who knew the Chargers were going to leave the starting O line in San Diego? Not to leave the D off the hook either since the only thing that they could stop was themselves. Brady chewed them up and spat them out. Rivers also earned another Loser card by missing everyone badly when the chips were on the line. Near zero clutch throws. With disgust I must give props to the Pat’s D line charging with blitzes the whole first half and Rivers could do nothing but try to stand up again to start another losing play.
Best stat: Halftime Chargers 5 first downs; Pats 5 TD’s.
What 2nd half?
Yea, Quigs, that’s why I said I liked the Rams the best out of the weekend.
Sure, they’re susceptible to the run but it’s also the Cowboys and we can always expect them to underachieve. I just thought the Rams were the far better team.
I also believe we have the four best teams left in the playoffs.
Should be a great Sunday coming up and a solid Super Bowl.
Tree…
Rivers doesn’t seem like a big drinker to me… but after that game, facing the reality that he is now 0-8 career against Brady in the playoffs, I’d think a stiff and solid bourbon would be in order.
Chris, throwing a challenge flag on my results in the over/under. I believe my 10 and 6 point teams “came through,” so my actual total is 31. Now, if you confirm this, I trust that means I don’t lose a time-out? As for Ronbets, that is a “drop the mic” situation for sure. I truly admire anyone who can go perfect in that arena. Well done.
Whoops!
Looks like you’re right, Burnsy. Didn’t complete that spreadsheet.
I am SO gonna have to fire my fact checker.
Sorry for the faux pas (he says as Ronbets sits back and laughs at the rest of us)
I knew I hadda good year, but not perfect. Besides, if I don’t win, I don’t eat and the old lady walks. Thanks for the kudos.
Nasty, Bets. Just nasty.
I may need to pay Alessi a visit just to pay my respects.