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 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 proud to bring you the combination of the two. The Footballguys.com Staff Against the Spread Pool Challenge. Multiple staff members (16) 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.  

Note that the links above are for 2012 articles.  Please see the Week 4 2013 Page at Footballguys.com for the 2013 Week 4 updates.

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS

Here are the results from last week:

Matt Bitonti finished atop the table in Week 3, getting 11 games correct, the best week by any Footballguys’ staff member so far this year.   Three others had 10 picks correct. Five games cost the staff as a whole dearly, starting with Houston’s loss at Baltimore that resulted in 11 wrong picks for the staff in Week 3.  Atlanta’s loss to Miami also proved to be costly, with 11 more incorrect picks for the 16 staff members.. Five others had nine picks correct.  Buffalo’s loss to the Jets provided the third 11-loss selection for the staff.  Green Bay and the Giants also produced a big loser, costing the staff 10 picks each.    As a whole, the staff was below .500 by one pick (127-129 on the week), showing just how hard this contest really is.

For the young season, seven members of the 16-man group have a winning record, while an eighth is exactly 24-24 against the spread.   Not a bad performance overall, but the group is still below .500 as a collective, with a total record of 369-399.

THIS WEEK'S PICKS

Here are the picks for this week:

CONSENSUS WINNERS

Getting consensus picks amongst a group of 16 is still proving hard to find once again in Week 4, but we are getting closer.  Two teams received 14 of 16 picks (Indianapolis and Cincinnati), as the smart play appears to be to fade Jacksonville yet again.  Kansas City and Seattle each received 12 picks, while four other contests had 11 staff members favoring one side (Dallas, Washington, Denver, New Orleans).  The staff was split right down the middle on the Pittsburg h / Minnesota, New York Jets / Tennessee and the New England / Atlanta contests.  It should be very interesting to see how it plays out.

ODDS AND ENDS

It's still quite early in the season, and the picks are due by Wednesday night. Most of the staff would agree that picking this weekend's games on Wednesday night is very difficult because you don't have much information about injuries and practice. If your league allows you to pick the later games separate from the rest, take advantage of it and make your Sunday and Monday picks as close to the weekend as possible.

A reminder that these picks are against the Las Vegas lines – so getting above 50% is respectable, above 53% gets you into the “profitable zone” (accounting for the Las Vegas house odds of taking 10% of every losing wager) – and anything above 60% is outstanding.  That may sound easy enough, but it is much, much harder that it might seem.

Good luck this weekend!