Eliminator Pool: Week 13

Photo: Kyle Terada, USA Today Sports

Over the past few years, we have given the subscribers of Footballguys.com the Staff Confidence Pool Challenge, where numerous staffers try and pick the winners each week with a confidence ranking, and Dave Larkin’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 once again this year Footballguys is proud to bring you the combination of the two - the Footballguys' staff "Against the Spread Pool Challenge". Multiple staff members (19) will pick the winner of each NFL game against the Las Vegas line. 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 Against the Spread Champion. Picks and ranks are due on Wednesday, so any late-breaking news may not be reflected in the choices.

Please note, that this contest should NOT be viewed as direct sports wagering advice, especially later in the season. Since the staff is trying to beat one another, picks may be made to go against the grain in an attempt to try and catch up in the standings. This example of game theory is more in tune towards playing a contest such as this - so again, do not use these picks as direct advice towards which games to pick each and every week. Rather, use these picks to see the top choices each week, especially by the staff members towards the top of the standings.

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

The staff was close to a perfect week with a dominant win by Cleveland over the hapless Miami Dolphins, a road victory for Seattle in windy Philadelphia and a winning field goal on the final play by Wil Lutz to give the Saints a win over Carolina, but Detroit's stumble in Washington kept two staffers (Will Grant, Justin Howe) from securing another correct pick. Those two losses shook up the standings, especially at the top as now only four staffers - Dave Larkin, Jeff Haseley, Sean Settle, and Andy Hicks - have just one loss this season. Justin falls back one place to join five other staffers with two losses, and all of them have a good shot to win the league this year. Five weeks left, so let's talk some turkey and take a look at the Week 13 picks.

THIS WEEK'S PICK SUMMARY

Here are the picks for this week: