# SDMB NFL Pick 'em and Survival leagues **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 8, 2007, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860 "2007-08-08T14:34:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/81 "2007-09-17T16:32:35Z")
I really, really suck. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/82 "2007-09-17T17:06:58Z")
Heh…so, even though my straight-up picks were only so-so, my confidence points were all in the right places, giving me a decent score so far. Now, I’m in a for-pay confidence pool, and at the moment, I’m in the lead. Problem is, if I pick correctly tonight, I lose. See, I’ve got a one-point lead over the guy in second place, and he has three more confidence points assigned to Philly than I do. Now, since every single person in the pool picked Philly over Washington, I need to be wrong in order to win. So… **GO REDSKINS!!** ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/83 "2007-09-17T20:54:32Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston] See, I’ve got a one-point lead over the guy in second place, and he has three more confidence points assigned to Philly than I do. Now, since every single person in the pool picked Philly over Washington, I need to be wrong in order to win. So… **GO REDSKINS!!** [/QUOTE] Doesn’t that kind of stick in your craw? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/84 "2007-09-17T22:09:07Z")
I always pick the wrong times to be a homer. I originally picked Cleveland to win - and not that I automatically do that, I honestly thought this would be a game where either they completely gave up on the season and packed it in, or they would bounce back from the suck and surprise people. But I decided here (and in my fantasy leagues, sitting Edwards and Lewis) not to be a homer, and it bit me. On the plus side, I was the only person to pick Cleveland against the spread. In case you guys were wondering, on the scoring screen it lists Total Pts and Group Pts. Total points are the unadjusted point totals of everyone’s pick for every game of the year. Group Pts are the points that are adjusted by the drop worst week option. So if you had 3 scores - 12, 10, and 6, your total score would be 28, and your group score would be 22. Right now it’s a dramatic difference because we only have 2 weeks of scores, so half of them are dropped. In the straight up league only “I like to do well” correctly picked Houston, and no one got Cin or NO right (what’s up with NO?). In the confidence league, only “my dog picked these” got Houston. It’s interesting to see how widespread the confidence picks on that game were, from 1 all the way to 16. Pick of the week was Shibb’s 14 confidence points on the Giants 😛 - Lots of people lost a lot of points on the Cinci game, no one picked TB. In the spread league, only Varlos got TB. In the Survival league, my Jacksonville pick didn’t backfire, but it was close. On the front page of the survival league, they list the most and least popular picks, both correct and incorrect, for the previous week and not surprisingly: “Most Popular Incorrect Pick Jacksonville” Jacksonville is brutal in survival football and I’m glad to have them over and done with. I would like to give a homer gloat over the 3 of you who picked Cinci. We could’ve lost 4 more people with Denver over Oakland - I didn’t see it, but I heard Oakland got screwed out of a win. Survival has been pretty brutal this year for us - last year we only lost, IIRC, 2 people over the first few weeks. In the event that we get a winner before the season is over, we can reset the survival league and start over. I’ll announce it on this thread if it happens. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/85 "2007-09-17T22:56:17Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] I would like to give a homer gloat over the 3 of you who picked Cinci. We could’ve lost 4 more people with Denver over Oakland - I didn’t see it, but I heard Oakland got screwed out of a win. [/QUOTE] I wouldn’t say screwed out. Calling a time out like Shanahan did is perfectly legal and Janikowski was close to going 2 for 2 at that distance. That game should never have made it to overtime. I wish I knew what the heck is going on with Elam. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/86 "2007-09-18T04:35:09Z")
What really killed me in Confidence this week was putting 10 on StL over SF (SF looked really bad at home against Arz last week) 11 on Sea over Arz (Arz looked really bad against SF last week) 16 on Cin over Cle (whereas most people who had more total points this week put less than 10 on this game). Ugh! ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/87 "2007-09-18T16:08:36Z")
Man, \*\*\*THAT \*\* \* week sucked. I’ll switch my brain on next week. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/88 "2007-09-18T17:20:24Z")
Looking ahead, Week 3 looks pretty tough. I guess this is really the tough “transition” part of the season when teams tend to prove whether they are any better or worse this year than their records might indicate from the previous year. I have very little confidence in Week 3. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/89 "2007-09-18T18:15:01Z")
[QUOTE=ShibbOleth] Doesn’t that kind of stick in your craw? [/QUOTE] Can’t speak for **Hal** , but when it’s Cowboys - Redskins or Eagles - Redskins, I always root for the meteor first, then the Redskins (unless a Redskin loss is of greater benefit to the _ **GIANTS** _). Cowboys - Eagles, I root for the meteor no matter what the implications. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/90 "2007-09-18T19:33:49Z")
Top 3 scores this week: Straight up: 11 **Deep Fried Demons** , Omni’s Crystal Balls 10 Hal’s Rabid Ferrets, SeñorBeef’s Pain Train, Stuffy’s picks, Kid\_A, I like to do well, Court Jesters, Blindfolded guesses(EsoEnigma) Confidence: 102 **Deep Fried Demons** 98 Hal’s Rabid Ferrets 97 SenorBeef’s magic cheesecake Spread: 10 **SenorBeef’s 0 trans fat picks** 8 Omni’s Crystal Balls, Varlos the DVOA Pimp Top 3 overall scores, disregarding the dropped week: Straight up: 23 Omni’s Crystal Balls 22 meek reeks, Hal’s Rabid Ferrets, I like to do well, Deep Fried Demons Confidence: 212 Hal’s Rabid Ferrets 208 Varlos – Makin’ It Rain 201 Deep Fried Demons Spread: 18 SenorBeef’s 0 trans fat picks 16 Hal’s Rabid Ferrets, Omni’s Crystal Balls And survival eliminations: Cin vs Cle: Southern Yankees, No Use For a Name, soulmurk’s Guess-O-Matic 4000 NO vs TB: garygnu, Mullinator No pick: Team of Scientists, NurseCarmen Edit: I went ahead and bolded winners regardless of whether there’s a tie or not, just to highlight greatness. Nice week, deep fried. Which reminds me, I miss deep fried foods. My friends and I used to get a deep frier going for football games, and then just deep fry every random thing we wanted - candy bars, fruits, pastries, whatever. ---
**Author:** ![\_Deep\_F\_ied](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/7cd45c/32.png) [@\_Deep\_F\_ied](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Deep_F_ied)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/91 "2007-09-18T21:14:00Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] Which reminds me, I miss deep fried foods. My friends and I used to get a deep frier going for football games, and then just deep fry every random thing we wanted - candy bars, fruits, pastries, whatever. [/QUOTE] w00t!! Thanks! I was hoping to do even better but Indy and Cincy put an end to that. What the hell is going on with my Saints? I keep picking them because I picked them to win everytime last year and they had their best year ever, so now I feel it will be bad joojoo if I don’t. Damn… Deep fried food kick ass. When you get your fryer up and running **SenorBeef** I suggest calamari with a tempura batter. season lightly with salt, pepper and tobasco. YUMM! ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/92 "2007-09-18T22:27:57Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] I wouldn’t say screwed out. Calling a time out like Shanahan did is perfectly legal and Janikowski was close to going 2 for 2 at that distance. That game should never have made it to overtime. I wish I knew what the heck is going on with Elam. [/QUOTE] Not to be flip, but “what’s going on with Elam” is that he’s getting old. I think he’s the only starter that was on the original Super Bowl winning team, now that Smith is injured. Of course, Morton Anderson just signed a deal with the Falcons, and he’s 48, so what do I know? ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/93 "2007-09-19T16:26:08Z")
[QUOTE=ShibbOleth] Doesn’t that kind of stick in your craw? [/QUOTE] Yeah, it does, but sticking the prize money in my wallet made up for it. [QUOTE=D\_Odds] Can’t speak for **Hal** , but when it’s Cowboys - Redskins or Eagles - Redskins, I always root for the meteor first, then the Redskins (unless a Redskin loss is of greater benefit to the _ **GIANTS** _). Cowboys - Eagles, I root for the meteor no matter what the implications. [/QUOTE] Rooting order: 1 - Meteor 2 - Redskins 3 - Cowboys 4 - My mother to be eaten by rabid lemurs 5 - Eagles _However_, things can be changed around, depending on circumstance. Fer’instance – I was originally planning on “rooting” for the Eagles, as I didn’t want the Redskins to be 2-0. There were two factors that changed this, though. One, so what if the Redskins are 2-0? They’re the fricking _Redskins_…they’re still going to end up 4th in the division. And two, the Giants started out 0-2, and it’s lonely at the bottom. I live smack in the middle of loud-mouth Eagle-fan territory, and no way in hell do I want them to have a W on their side if my team is blanked. So for this week, I loudly and proudly say: **GO LIONS!!** ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/94 "2007-09-20T05:01:28Z")
So, this week, in survival, do I take the biggest lock of the year in New England? Or… dare I pick the Browns? Oakland is the only team they’ve been able to beat up for the last few years, but it could be a trap game. Oakland is going to be pissed and determined after last week. But the Browns do simply out-talent them (how often can you say that?). But, pathetically, the Browns haven’t won 2 games in a row since 2003… That’s the funny thing - this league might end in week 7, or something, in which case taking all of these bad teams early on for the long term benefit won’t matter, or it may last until week 15 where using up bad teams early leaves me a decent team when everyone left is forced to pick a bad team. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/95 "2007-09-23T05:04:35Z")
Reminder: Court Jesters Dob Varlos – Makin’ It Rain ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/96 "2007-09-24T05:22:16Z")
I’m liking this week this far, particularly in Straight up Pick’em. Can’t believe there were 3 pushes in the Spread league. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/97 "2007-09-24T21:26:41Z")
[QUOTE=ShibbOleth] I’m liking this week this far, particularly in Straight up Pick’em. Can’t believe there were 3 pushes in the Spread league. [/QUOTE] 4 now. Amazing. Makes it hard for anyone to have a good looking weekly score when there’s 4 games that no one could’ve won. We had our first survival week without an elimination. Good job. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/98 "2007-09-24T21:35:22Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] We had our first survival week without an elimination. Good job. [/QUOTE] No, I picked Denver over Jax. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/99 "2007-09-24T22:03:18Z")
Ah, woops. I thought it put new eliminations in red letters. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860/100 "2007-09-25T06:02:05Z")
Damn, I had a good week. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-nfl-pick-em-and-survival-leagues/414860.md?page=6)