Photo: Imagn Images

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.

Jeff Pasquino has provided some insight into this kind of contest with two preseason articles. The first one that describes this kind of contest along with some advice on how to pick a team each week:

Survivor Pool Strategy

The second article is rather interesting, which describes Jeff’s preseason plan to get all the way through 17 weeks. Will it work? We are about to find out.

I Will Survive

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).

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS

NFL Week 10 was a tough one for the staff, as 7 of 16 staff picks wound up being losers for the week, including the first loss of the season for Devin Knotts. Devin went with the Eagles, who fell apart against Dallas and that cost Devin, Jeff Haseley and Ari Engel in Week 10. Four unique picks tripped up the rest of the staff with an upset loss for New England (Bear Heiser), Atlanta (Justin Howe), the New York Jets (Will Grant) and San Francisco (Matt Bitonti). That was the toughest week for the staff since both Week 1 (Saints) and Week 3 (Minnesota and Jacksonville). Five staffers are now tied at 9-1 for the season, and Week 11 looks like a tough one.

THIS WEEK'S PICK SUMMARY

Here are the picks for this week:

DISCUSSION

The picks are in for Week 11, and if you needed any more proof that we are both getting deeper into the regular season AND that Week 11 is a tough (and weird) week, look no further. Exactly half (8 of 16) of the staff decided that the best choice for this week for a team that has to win for them is the 2-7 Arizona Cardinals. Yes, you read that right. The team that has only two wins all year - both over the 49ers - is the top choice for Week 11. The reasons are complicated, but first start with the fact that after 10 weeks, many of the good teams have already been chosen. Over half of the staff have already used the New Orleans Saints (who are tied for the second choice), and the mercurial Eagles are visiting the Big Easy this week. Anything can happen on any given Sunday, but New Orleans is the only team favored by more than a full touchdown by Las Vegas on this tough slate. What makes this such a tough week are a number of factors - six teams are on a bye, and most of the 13 matchups are between similar caliber teams - either bad vs. bad, average vs. average or elite vs. elite with the Rams hosting the Chiefs. That left a lot of the staff looking at the lesser of many evils, and the hope of stealing a win here by going against the hapless raiders on the road in Arizona. Tied for second with two picks for this week with New Orleans is Carolina (at Detriot) and Baltimore (hosting the Bengals). Baltimore is a tougher pick this week with uncertainty over who will start at quarterback while taking a good Panthers squad on the road is also no sure thing. Two unique picks round out the selections for Week 11 with Andrew Garda using the Steelers on the road in Jacksonville while Dave Larkin sided with the Falcons at home over the Cowboys. There is little doubt that the results for Week 11 will be very interesting once the games end on Monday.

Please note a few things: We will be doing these picks every week, win or lose, to keep it entertaining all season long. Normally a Survivor/Eliminator pool would end once all but one player lost once, but to provide our subscribers with more perspectives, everyone will pick every week even if they lose. That said, we will still try and honor the spirit of an Eliminator / Survivor Pool, trying to win every week and not re-use any teams during the year.

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: Going back to my preseason plan, it was very clear that Week 11 was the landmine of all landmines. Ironically, going all the way back to Week 1, my choice of the Saints instead of Baltimore comes back to haunt me again, as I would love to take New Orleans at home against a decimated Philadelphia team. The Saints are the biggest favorite of the week, and I fully expect all six of the staffers that still have New Orleans available to go in that direction. That left me with not many choices this week, but my first instinct started to tell me to go with Baltimore to bring it full circle. The Ravens are coming off of their bye week and they get a Bengals team minus A.J. Green that is struggling on offense and defense and is nowhere near the same team that beat Baltimore back in Week 2. However, Joe Flacco is questionable and the last thing I need is to make a pick on a team that might be starting Lamar Jackson for his first ever start, or Robert Griffin III III gets the call. I am also starting to love the idea of fading Oakland as much as I can the rest of the way, which would lead me to the Ravens next week (hosting the Raiders) - and also pushes me towards taking the Cardinals at home against Oakland. What could possibly go wrong?

The Pick: Arizona Cardinals

Good luck this weekend!

Questions, suggestions, and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com

Follow @JeffPasquino