Eliminator Pool: Week 18

Jeff Pasquino's Eliminator Pool: Week 18 Jeff Pasquino Published 01/03/2018

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 pre-season articles, 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).

FINAL PICK SUMMARY

Here are the picks from the final week of the regular season:

Staff Member Record Wk01 Wk02 Wk03 Wk04 Wk05 Wk06 Wk07 Wk08 Wk09 Wk10 Wk11 Wk12 Wk13 Wk14 Wk15 Wk16 Wk17
Bear Heiser 15-2 BUF AZ MIA SEA IND WAS TEN CIN NO DET KC OAK LAC DAL MIN NE PIT
Justin Howe 15-2 LAR OAK MIA SEA PIT HOU BUF CIN NO NE DET PHI GB LAC MIN BAL TEN
Jason Wood 14-3 BUF BAL PIT SEA MIN HOU DAL CIN NO DET KC OAK LAC GB ATL LAR WAS
Matt Bitonti 14-3 HOU OAK NE KC PHI ATL DAL CIN NO LAR DET PIT LAC GB MIN CAR SEA
James Brimacombe 14-3 BUF OAK NE SEA PIT HOU DAL PHI NO LAR KC ATL LAC CIN MIN BAL DET
John Mamula 14-3 PIT OAK NE SEA PHI ATL TEN NO HOU LAR KC CIN JAC LAC MIN BAL DET
Justin Bonnema 14-3 BUF SEA MIA AZ PIT HOU TEN CIN PHI DET KC CAR GB DAL NO BAL MIN
Andrew Garda 14-3 BUF AZ MIA DAL MIN CAR TEN ATL JAC DET LAC CIN NE GB BAL LAR PIT
Mark Wimer 13-4 BUF OAK MIA JAC MIN DEN TEN PHI LAR DET PIT NE LAC DAL ATL KC BAL
Ari Ingel 13-4 LAR OAK PHI GB DET DEN TEN NO JAC DET KC NE LAC CIN MIN BAL PIT
Dave Larkin 13-4 BUF BAL GB SEA PIT ATL CAR MIN PHI DET NO NE LAC CIN DEN KC INDY
Alessandro Miglio 13-4 ATL SEA GB NE IND DEN CAR PHI NO DET PIT CIN LAC HOU BAL WAS TEN
Chris Feery 13-4 HOU OAK NE SEA PIT ATL MIN PHI NO DET KC WAS LAC BUF BAL CAR INDY
Jeff Pasquino 12-5 PIT OAK GB ATL MIN HOU DAL PHI SEA LAR JAC KC LAC NE NO CAR BAL
Jeff Haseley 12-5 HOU SEA GB AZ PHI DEN DAL CIN NO DET KC PIT LAC NE MIN CAR BAL
Devin Knotts 12-5 BUF SEA LAR GB PIT KC TEN MIN HOU DET JAC WAS LAC NE NO CHI BAL
Andy Hicks 12-5 DEN SEA NE GB PIT ATL MIN CIN HOU DET NO PHI LAC LAR BAL CAR KC
Stephen Holloway 12-5 BUF OAK PIT SEA PHI ATL TEN MIN HOU DET JAC BAL LAC CIN NO NE PIT
William Grant 12-5 ATL OAK GB NE PIT WAS PHI MIN HOU LAR KC CIN LAC DAL NO BAL SEA
Aaron Rudnicki 11-6 BUF OAK GB NE PIT DEN MIN PHI HOU DET KC CIN LAC DAL NO BAL WAS

DISCUSSION

The final week of the regular season made it quite interesting.  Half of the staff suffered losses, thanks to the crazy finish between Cincinnati and Baltimore.  Disappointing finishes from Washington and Seattle also added to the loss total, and it even shook up the final standings at the top of the list.  Four staffers entered Week 16 with hopes of coming out on top, but only Bear Heiser and Justin Howe were able to get a victory.  Bear was bolstered by saving Pittsburgh for the final matchup with the Browns (which was still a close call) and Justin got through with his call of Tennessee in a must-win situation.  Congrats to both for a great finish.

Season long winners:  Bear Heiser and Justin Howe

I want to thank you all for sticking around with us for another exciting season and contest.  Best of luck to you in any playoff contests and we will see you again in the fall.  Happy New Year! 

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

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