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Fidelity isn't a feeling...it's a choice. "Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always." - Albert Schweitzer ____________________________________________ Me: BW - Him: 200+ # tumor removed 7/09 One AMAZING DS - 34

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1 comment posted: Monday, January 28th, 2019

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Conference Recap Super Bowl!

As 3kids30years alluded to on our previous post, boy oh boy, we sure know how to pick 'em.

Once again the Patriots will be playing in the Super Bowl and will have on their hands the LA Rams who hopefully will give them a better run for their money than the Chiefs did in the Conference game.

Given our less than stellar picks last week, the standings remain the same, with overit62 remaining in first place with 27 points, Yours Truly has second locked up with 24 and 3kids30years is in third place with 21 points.

Sunday's game is worth a whopping 24 points to the winner, so everyone still legitimately has a shot at the post season title.

Ain't that something?

So, warm up those appetizers, cool off those brewskis and get ready to see whether Brady becomes the oldest Super Bowl Champion QB or if the Rams can take that stat away from him.

Super Bowl 53

Sunday, February 3rd

5:30 PM CT

New England vs. LA Rams

Good luck, peeps.

Have fun!

The Commish

2 comments posted: Monday, January 28th, 2019

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Divisional Round Recap; Conference Games

Well hello, small group of hearty prognosticators!

I am having incredibly bad Photobucket issues tonight (I'm cheap and refuse to buy a membership ), and rather than risk my computer to malware and the like, I'm going to just complete the Pigskin Picks pool Divisional Round update via a plain, old, photoless post. Hope you don't mind.

Besides, as it tends to go in the playoff rounds, a winner COULD be decided next week if he/she mathematically eliminates one or the other or both.

The Divisional race was a beauty, with the three of us all nailing 3/4 correct picks, and given who we all chose, it was obvious we are a tiny pack of Patriots haters.

We all tied with 18 points, but when it came down to the tie-breaker (which was 34), Yours Truly technically came in first with a 42 point tie-breaker chosen, followed by overit62 and 3kids30years, both with 45 point tie-breakers.

When it comes to the overall standings, overit62 is in first place with 27 points overall, Yours Truly is currently in second with 24, while 3kids30years is just three points back with 21 for third place.

Hats off and congrats to the final four teams - the Rams, Saints, Patriots and Chiefs - as they put it all on the line on Sunday for their respective Conference titles and punch their tickets to Atlanta.

Happy picking, y'all. Both games are on Sunday, so get your picks in by noonish, please.

N.F.L. Conference Championship Games

Sunday, January 20th

2:05 PM CT

L.A. Rams at New Orleans

5:40 PM CT

New England at Kansas City - Tie-Breaker Game

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

5 comments posted: Monday, January 14th, 2019

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Wildcard Recap; Divisional Games

And then there were eight. The whittling of the teams vying for the Lombardi trophy commenced on Wildcard Weekend, with some wild games and even crazier finishes to take us to the final teams that will take their grit to the Divisional round this weekend. I’m gonna let the funnies speak for themselves, because they truly do illustrate what happened.

Let’s hear it for Grandpa Rivers!

I truly feel for J.J. The kid pours his heart out and always comes thisclose to the trophy.

I can’t help it. I’m obsessed with Bird Box memes.

Way to go, Troy Aikman’s favorite team!

We have just three players who are putting their prognostication skills to the test in this round – trust me, there is room for more! – and with three points for each correct pick, we have a runaway leader and a newbie at that. Let’s hear it for Overit62 who picked 3 out of the 4 games correctly and jumped to the lead with 9 points. Yours Truly managed to pick half of them right for second, while Regular Season 2018 winner 3kid30years took third place.

Just a reminder, your picks are due for the Divisional Playoff round by 11AM CT Saturday or Sunday and each correct pick is worth 6 points, so polish up those crystal balls, players!

Divisional Playoffs

Saturday, January 12th

2:35 PM CT

Indianapolis at Kansas City

6:15 PM CT

Dallas at L.A. Rams

Sunday, January 13th

12:05 PM CT

L.A. Chargers at New England

3:40 PM CT

Philadelphia at New Orleans – Tie-Breaker Game

ETA: Don't forget - post your picks on this thread!

Good luck, everyone!

Have fun

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 5:45 AM, January 10th (Thursday)]

5 comments posted: Thursday, January 10th, 2019

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Playoffs to the Super Bowl Challenge

Here we go fellow prognosticators, another chance to showcase your Swami-like pickin’ abilities to choose the winning teams in our “Playoffs to the Super Bowl” round of the 2018-19 S.I. NFL Pigskin Picks competition. Or, if you missed out on the regular season game, now’s your chance to jump in!

IMPORTANT NOTE: We will be assigning different values to each playoff game so we will NOT be doing an online pool. Instead, you will make your picks on the weekly thread that will be started for each round of the playoffs. You MUST make your picks by the assigned pick deadline in order for them to count. Posts to threads are date/time stamped, so please be fair to the other players and get your picks posted to the thread on time.

There are three playoff rounds leading to the Super Bowl. This weekend (January 5th and 6th) are the Wild Card rounds. Next weekend, (January 12th and 13th) are the Divisional Playoffs, and finally, on Sunday, January 20th, the Conference Championships are played to determine the final two teams vying for the Lombardi trophy in the Super Bowl, which will be played on Sunday, February 3rd.

Here’s how this challenge will work:

1. There are four games being played this weekend (see schedule below) in the Wild Card round. Choosing the winner of each of these games will be worth 3 points.

2. The four games for the Divisional Playoffs will be worth 6 points each.

3. The two games being for the Conference Championships will be worth 12 points.

4. The Pro Bowl will be played on Sunday, January 27th. Like everyone else, we won’t care about that game.

5. There will be a tie-breaker for each round of playoffs and the Super Bowl game. Choose the tie-breaker closest to the actual total score without going over for it to help elevate you in the standings. The tie-breaker game will be the last game played over each weekend and on Super Bowl Sunday.

6. Correctly choosing the winner of the Super Bowl will be worth 24 points.

7. The player with the highest total points throughout the Playoffs – Super Bowl will be crowned the winner of the S.I. Post-Season NFL Pigskin Picks Pool.

If you are interested in playing, please reply to this thread with the teams you think will win for the Wild Card weekend games along with your guess at the total final score (closest to without going over) to be used as the tie-breakers where indicated. If you have any questions, please PM me.

Important notes for this week’s round:

• Your picks are due by 11AM CT on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

• If you post your pick then elect to change it prior to the 11 AM CT deadline, please start another post with your new choice. Please do not edit your original post.

WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, January 5th

3:35 PM CT

Indianapolis at Houston

7:15 PM CT

Seattle at Dallas

Sunday, January 6th

12:05 PM CT

L.A. Chargers at Baltimore

3:40 PM CT

Philadelphia at Chicago – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have fun everyone, and good luck!

The Commish

4 comments posted: Thursday, January 3rd, 2019

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - We Crown Our 2018 Champion!

Well, prognosticators, here we are with the weekly recap you’ve all been waiting for – when we crown our champion for the 2018 season. Needless to say, it was a tussle for the ages, with two of our players – barcher and 3kids30years – consistently exchanging top honors week after week. There were a handful of nibblers at their feet as well, but these two held steady as our numbers 1 and 2 until the last week, when one of those nibblers – T.S. – came into play. Before we see those final stats, let’s take a look at how things landed in Week 17.

First, missing from our bunch o’pickers this final week was barcher who really showed incredible consistency in his picks all season long. We missed you this week, and here’s hoping all is well with you, our friend.

The aforementioned T.S. took top honors for the week with a strong 12/16 correct picks and an on-the-money tie-breaker pick of 50 points. FollowtheRiver and Manningup26 also had 12 correct picks to take second and third place. Your’s Truly ended up with 10/16 for fourth place, while 3kids30years ended the week with 9 correct picks.

In the overall duel, it is my pleasure to announce the winner of the 2018 S.I. Pigskin Picks contest, so put your hands together y’all and let’s hear it for 3kids30years, who ended the season just a single point over the second place winner with 162 correct picks for the season. Coming in second place was T.S., with barcher taking third with 157. These top players did a heck of a job keeping the game fun and competitive.

So without further ado, let’s give 3kids30years the accolades of our little band of prognosticators and congratulate her on her fine Championship performance!

Once again it has been my pleasure to help you all engage your inner football fantasies, supporting your own team while making the season a fantastic one, so thanks to all of you for participating this year!

BUT WAIT...THERE’S MORE...I’ll be posting information later this week about the Playoffs to the Super Bowl pool for those of you still interested in testing your swami skills, and for those of you who would like to jump into the fun.

Thanks again, all.

The Commish

2 comments posted: Tuesday, January 1st, 2019

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 16 Results; Week 17 Games

Some of our prognosticator’s Christmas wishes were granted, some were not as Week 16 in the NFL came to a close, and with it and just like that, we are just a week away from the regular season being over.

With the chance to play in January and beyond in front of the best teams and with those not-so-great trying to become spoiler makers, there was plenty of excitement to go around. As expected, the Chiefs, Patriots, Saints and Rams all clinched first round byes as first and second seeds in their respective divisions. As usual, the fun is in the Wild Card berths which are somewhat set, yet with Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Philly poised to do some knocking out of teams with mathematical options so insane it makes my hair hurt thinking about them. As I still have a holiday blurred brain right now, I’m just gonna wait until this week’s games are done to give you the complete picture with our next recap. For those of you playing at home, here’s how things look as of today:

Here are a couple of seasonal funnies for y’all:

With all the marbles at stake, grabbing as many picks this past week and next is going to be critical for those players vying to be named our Champion. Our two leaders who have been flip-flopping the lead for weeks now didn’t disappoint with each of them grabbing an impressive 12/16 points. Only one prevailed with a savvy tie-breaker, so let’s hear it for 3kids30years for taking top honors this week.

Way to go, 3kids30years! Woot! Woot!

Her nemesis, barcher, landed in second place, while three players – FollowtheRiver, Manningup26 and T.S., managed to get 11/16 correct points for third through fifth place. Yours Truly ended up in sixth place with 10 while scared&stronger ended up in the Elway spot with 8 points. Among those prognosticators who foresaw upsets the others didn’t include barcher who saw Oakland beating my Broncos, and my nervous pick of Philly over Houston came through in nail-biter fashion.

With our two top players consistently hitting close to if not the same points per week, the small four point lead that separates them still stands, with barcher at 157 correct picks for the year against 3kids30years with 153. Will barcher be able to hold onto his lead and claim this year’s honors? Or will there be some upsets that our prognosticators weren’t able to see that like Tennessee, Pittsburgh or Philly hope to become the spoiler(s)? Tune in next week as we crown our Champion in great style, but for now, here are the overall standings with just 16 points left for the getting.

We are back to a full Sunday of games mostly equally sprinkled between noon and 3:25 PM starts, so feel free to take Thursday through Saturday to hone your prognostication juices and get as many of those points as possible!

Week 17 Games

Sunday, December 30, 2018

NOON CT

Dallas at N.Y. Giants

New Orleans at Carolina

Atlanta at Tampa Bay

Detroit at Green Bay

Jacksonville at Houston

N.Y. Jets at New England

Miami at Buffalo

3:25 PM CT

San Francisco at L.A. Rams

Philadelphia at Washington

Chicago at Minnesota

Arizona at Seattle

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh

Cleveland at Baltimore

Oakland at Kansas City

L.A. Charges at Denver

Indianapolis at Tennessee - Tie-Breaker Game

Good luck, everyone!

Have fun!

The Commish

1 comment posted: Thursday, December 27th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 15 Results; Week 16 Games

Some picker’s Santa’s lists were satisfied Sunday, others – not so much. After some disappointing losses in the back half of the season, Philly ended up having to go with their championship making backup QB after Carson Wentz went out with a season-ending torn ACL to pull out a last minute win against the Rams and once again Foles didn’t disappoint. Not bad for someone who has been warming the bench for three months. Indy spanked the Cowboys and shut them out, putting them on a nervous see-saw to keeping their Wild Card spot. The Chargers beat the Chiefs by one, leveling their win loss records to 11-3, while the Texans managed to pull out a win against the Jets (which would have REALLY been embarrassing) to get back on the winning train while the Vikings demolished the Dolphins…and the Patriots took another loss on the chin as the Steelers FINALLY put one in the W column.

We are down to the wire here, folks with just two weeks of the regular season left.

Here’s how the playoffs are shaking out. Did your team land solidly or is it teetering toward elimination (like mine did)?

Is your team in, on life support or is it going hunting?

Speaking of the playoffs, I’ll announce soon how we run the playoff pool for those players interested in continuing on and for those who want to jump into the fun!

Here we go again!

It would have been VERY interesting to see Jerry Jones’s blood pressure levels throughout this game.

We have a new leader this week, with T.S. scoring 11/16 correct picks in an upset week to take the honors for our weekly winner.

Way to go, T.S.! Woot!

Coming in second place (surprisingly) was Yours Truly with 10 correct, followed by scared&stronger and FollowtheRiver each with 9 correct. With 8 right picks, 3kids30years took fifth place, sportsfan came in sixth and barcher garnered the Elway spot. Manningup26 finished the week with 6 correct picks.

In the overall standings, barcher maintains his ever present 4-point lead over 3kids30years, and with his strong win this week, T.S. is biting at their heels in third place. In fourth overall, sportsfan is just 10 back, while Yours Truly landed in fifth. Rounding out the leaderboard in sixth is scared&stronger, Manningup26 is in seventh and FollowtheRiver is in eighth.

We bid farewell for the season to Thursday night games, but be mindful to get your picks in ahead of Saturday’s duels beginning at 3:30 PM Central.

Week 16 Games

Saturday, December 22, 2018

3:30 PM CT

Washington at Tennessee

7:20 PM CT

Baltimore at L.A. Chargers

Sunday, December 23, 2018

NOON CT

Jacksonville at Miami

Houston at Philadelphia

Minnesota at Detroit

Tampa Bay at Dallas

Green Bay at N.Y. Jets

N.Y. Giants at Indianapolis

Cincinnati at Cleveland

Atlanta at Carolina

Buffalo at New England

3:05 PM CT

Chicago at San Francisco

L.A. Rams at Arizona

3:25 PM CT

Pittsburgh at New Orleans

Kansas City at Seattle

Monday, December 24, 2018

7:15 PM CT

Denver at Oakland – Tie-Breaker Game

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

0 comment posted: Wednesday, December 19th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 14 Recap; Week 15 Games

A little bit of fun crazy in Week 14 with the Patriots losing to Miami – way to go, scared&stronger for being the only prognosticator to get that one! Woo Hoo! – and Chicago taking out the Rams for big upsets of the week.

The Pack is Back (at least for this week) as is Randall Cobb after Coach McCarthy was sent packing…much to Chucky’s chagrin, Amari Cooper had another BIG day on Sunday, including a game winning TD in OT for the Cowboys…the Steelers woes continued, this time losing to Oakland when Chris Boswell slipped which lead to a blocked kick. Speaking of kicks, how about Brett Maher’s 62-yarder, just adding to the nice Sunday which happened in Dallas?

Meanwhile Baker Mayfield continues to make something out of the Browns year with a win over the Panthers, Yours Truly being the only player who didn’t take Cleveland. .

We’re down to the wire, folks. Here’s a few funnies for the week and the playoff picture as of Week 14.

Can someone remind me how much Chucky is getting paid to run this team?

I can’t be the only one who had high hopes for Philly this year.

Here’s where the playoff picture stands after this week, with the expected front runners grabbing the 1st and 2nd seeds in their respective divisions. We’ve got us a good pile of spoilers seeded thus far for the Wild Card round and even more teams in the hunt to upset the playoff picture even more. THIS is when football gets fun, folks!

The duking between 3kids30years and barcher continues, with both players along with sportsfan getting 9/16 correct in a week that saw its share of upsets. However, 3kids30years had a craftier closer-to-the-pin-without-going-over tie-breaker pick between the three, so she's our weekly winner!

Way to go, 3kids30years! Woo Hoo!!!

In third place, we have scared&stronger who along with T.S. was able to hit half the picks right, while Yours Truly and FollowtheRiver managed 7 picks. Manningup2 finished out the week with 6 correct picks.

This has been one of the closest S.I. Pigskin Pick seasons ever, with barcher holding onto first place overall with 3kids30years a mere 4 points behind hm. Within striking distance is sportsfan and T.S., and depending on how accurate everyone finishes out the season, this could be anyone’s game.

As we inch to the playoffs, schedules change, so here is your big reminder that we have some SATURDAY games this week! As I have advised over the years, it may be best to get your picks in for Saturday when you make your Thursday pick to avoid losing any ground in this very tight race!

Week 15 Games

Thursday, December 13, 2018

7:20 PM CT

L.A. Chargers at Kansas City

Saturday, December 15, 2018

3:30 PM CT

Houston at N.Y. Jets

7:20 PM CT

Cleveland at Denver

Sunday, December 16, 2018

NOON CT

Miami at Minnesota

Oakland at Cincinnati

Tennessee at N.Y. Giants

Washington at Jacksonville

Dallas at Indianapolis

Tampa Bay at Baltimore

Detroit at Buffalo

Arizona at Atlanta

Green Bay at Chicago

3:05 PM CT

Seattle at San Francisco

3:25 PM CT

New England at Pittsburgh

7:20 PM CT

Philadelphia at L.A. Rams

Monday, December 17, 2018

7:15 PM CT

New Orleans at Carolina – Tie-Breaker Game

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

0 comment posted: Wednesday, December 12th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 13 Results; Week 14 Games

Five words of advice for all of my beloved Prognostication Peeps:

Do. Not. Move. In. December.

My exhaustion is tired.

They delivered the wrong dryer. My furniture arrived at 11:30 PM on Saturday night.

My calves stopped working 72 hours ago.

I cannot find my underwear. Or my Glucosamine.

Not to mention, no time for football this weekend.

About all I can muster is news that you all already know, the standings and next week’s schedule.

I pledge to be back in full form next week. The playoffs are coming. More coaches are going to get fired. Washington may lose another QB with a broken leg. So much great stuff.

Thanks for understanding.

Not too many people get fired via the media. Then again...

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Way to go sportsfan for winning the week! Woo Hoo!

Oh, and barcher is still in the lead.

Next week’s games. Tick, tock – this season will be gone in a snap.

Week 14 Games

Thursday, December 6, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Jacksonville at Tennessee

Sunday, December 9, 2018

NOON CT

Indianapolis at Houston

Carolina at Cleveland

New England at Miami

N.Y. Giants at Washington

N.Y. Jets at Buffalo

Baltimore at Kansas City

New Orleans at Tampa Bay

Atlanta at Green Bay

3:05 PM

Denver at San Francisco

Cincinnati at L.A Chargers

3:25 PM

Pittsburgh at Oakland

Detroit at Arizona

Philadelphia at Dallas

7:20 PM CT

L.A. Rams at Chicago

Monday, December 10, 2018

7:15 PM CT

Minnesota at Seattle – Tie-Breaker Game

Good luck, everyone

Have fun!

The Commish

4 comments posted: Tuesday, December 4th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 12 Recap; Week 13 Games

Well folks, we are down to less than a handful of games left to determine which teams are heading to the playoffs and which teams are headed to the beaches. Week 12 proved to be an interesting week with the usual questionable refereeing, wins by those teams that have been consistently doing it all season, and losses by the usual suspects.

It was a medley of madness...if you were like me, you might have decided to take the Lions over da Bears on Thursday seeing Chicago had just played about 72 or so hours earlier and their starting QB was down for the count. Nope. The Bears pulled that one out thanks to back up QB Chase Daniel who started his first game since 2014. You’ve got to give Houston props for turning around their season and winning their 7th game in a row while Seattle has won their last four. Philip Rivers outdid the league and set a record for completing 25 passes – in a row – on Sunday. Here’s some shocking news – Cleveland is now only 1.5 games out of the AFC’s final Wild Card spot. Onward, shall we?

This was me the minute Big Ben threw that last minute INT. (I promise I'll stop if Denver starts losing again).

A-Rod’s had a rough week. First FOO issues and then what’s become the usual Packer implosion.

If anything, they’re consistent.

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This stat seems surreal. Then again it doesn't.

Turkey Day caught a couple of our players taking their own personal bye day which gave the rest of us (well, not me because I suck this year) some breathing room and the chance to move up in the rankings. Looks like 3kids30years took total advantage of this and came in first with a closer to the pin tie-breaker to take Week 12 honors.

Way to go, 3kids30years! Woo Hoo!

Sharing those 12 correct picks was Manningup26 for second place, followed by a gaggle of players who nailed 11 games to include T.S., FollowtheRiver and scared&stronger. Yours Truly managed to squeak out 10 correct to grab the sixth spot, barcher – who finally awoke after his big meal nap – took the Elway spot with 7 correct, followed by sportsfan (another napper) who had 8 correct picks.

Despite not getting the first three games in, barcher was able to stay in the lead overall with 117 points against his toughest competitor, 3kid30years with a lead now lessened to just 4 points between them. T.S. is now in third, while sportsfan took fourth place overall. Two players, Yours Truly and Manningup26 finished the week with 103 overall, while FollowtheRIver is thisclose to breaking the 100 point mark.

Wow. Week 13 is upon us…just a few weeks left for the regular season before we move onto the playoffs. Every point counts here, peeps – so no napping this week, ‘k?

Week 13 Games

Thursday, November 29, 2018

7:20 PM CT

New Orleans at Dallas

Sunday, December 2, 2018

NOON CT

Denver at Cincinnati

Chicago at N.Y. Giants

Carolina at Tampa Bay

Cleveland at Houston

L.A. Rams at Detroit

Buffalo at Miami

Indianapolis at Jacksonville

Baltimore at Atlanta

Arizona at Green Bay

3:05 PM CT

N.Y. Jets at Tennessee

Kansas City at Oakland

3:25 PM CT

San Francisco Seattle

Minnesota at New England

7:20 PM CT

L.A. Chargers at Pittsburgh

Monday, December 3, 2018

7:15 PM CT

Washington at Philadelphia – Tie Breaker Game

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 4:43 AM, November 28th (Wednesday)]

1 comment posted: Tuesday, November 27th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 11 Results; Week 12 Games

What a crazy week we were given in Week 11 – which was the exact number of games that were won or lost by 4 or fewer points. Hard to make picks with such little give, amirite? For me at least, most of my picks went the wrong direction.

In a cruel twist of fate, 33 years to the day of the infamous Joe Theisman leg injury, fellow Redskin Alex Smith suffered the same horrific leg injury at the hands of the Texans on Sunday’s game ending his season and quite possibly his career. Not having seen the film on it (nor do I want to), I don’t know if it was AS bad as Theisman’s, but really, does the level of bad even matter when it’s that gruesome?

How ‘bout that Monday night game? Ho-Le-Cow! Did we just witness a Super Bowl warmup? Those poor Vegas odds makers didn’t come close to nailing that over/under.

I have to admit I didn’t watch a lick of it but it surely was the talk of the water cooler today and I now deeply regret not giving it some of my time. One has to feel sorry for the Chiefs, who set an NFL record for scoring 50 points in a game while still losing. That and a gaggle of other records were reached, among them, it being the highest rated Monday night game in history.

Speaking of those upsets, I need to throw a little Swami Swagger out to three players for being the only prognosticators to take Indy over Tennessee (barcher), Denver over the Chargers (ME! ) and Philly over New Orleans (sportsfan).

Managing the pool gives me some rights, so here is a photo of me celebrating the Broncos W!

Ahhhh, football. You win some – BIG – and then you lose some – also BIG.

Just cuz it’s my homeland, gotta tell ya, the Mike vs. Aaron duel is picking up heat big time.

Yet another MNF stat:

It was a rough week indeed for all of our players, with lots of teams on byes with all dem dare upsets. Still, one player (yes, him again), managed to edge out T.S. with a wee bit larger tie-breaker – and the highest guess of us all – to win another week. Let’s hear it for barcher who had 6 correct picks.

Way to go, barcher! Woot! Woot!

T.S. was no slouch coming in second, to be just above four players who managed to get five picks each correct to include Yours Truly, 3kids30years, sportsfan and scared&stronger. FollowtheRiver ended up with 4 correct picks.

His win in a whacky week means barcher still has command of the overall lead, just a wee bit ahead of 3kids30years. T.S. and sportsfan each have 98 total correct picks, while Yours Truly and scared&stronger have 93. FollowtheRiver has 85 points in the battle. Take hear, y’all – there is still a good deal of football left and a lot of Any Given Sundays.

Turkey day means more than just overeating, it means an overabundance of football!

Keep in mind that all of those games on Thursday have to start earlier than normal to get them all in and this would not be the week to miss your Thursday picks. The good news is that only two teams are on bye weeks, Kansas City and the Rams, with a well-deserved week off after that Monday night cra-cra.

Set your alarm clocks, folks and get those picks in on time!

Week 12 Games

Thursday, November 22, 2018

11:30 AM CT

Chicago at Detroit

3:30 PM CT

Washington at Dallas

7:20 PM CT

Atlanta at New Orleans

Sunday, November 25, 2018

NOON CT

Cleveland at Cincinnati

Seattle at Carolina

San Francisco at Tampa Bay

Oakland at Baltimore

N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia

New England at N.Y. Jets

Jacksonville at Buffalo

3:05 PM

Arizona at L.A. Chargers

3:25 PM

Miami at Indianapolis

Pittsburgh at Denver

7:20 PM CT

Green Bay at Minnesota

Monday, November 26, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Tennessee at Houston – Tie-Breaker Game

Bye weeks: Kansas City, LA Rams

Here’s wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and may all your prognostication dreams come true!

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 6:52 AM, November 21st (Wednesday)]

1 comment posted: Tuesday, November 20th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 10 Results; Week 11 Games

Let’s talk upsets, shall we? One might be inclined to say that the Titans upset of the Patriots was the biggest of Week 10 if not the season. Just slightly more embarrassing than the loss was the shuttle pass Edelman threw to Brady who promptly fell to the ground after grabbing it. Sorry, Pat’s fans but there are some serious LOL’s there. Oh, wait – let me correct myself, perhaps the Browns beating the Falcons – who went into the game with a three-game win streak – should take upset of the week. Dem damn Brownies…I debate each week about taking them and am usually too afraid to pull the trigger. Me thinks I have to just go with my gut for the rest of the season. Who’s with me?

Speaking of upsets, let’s take a little time to highlight some of our own players whose prognostication skills outdid others by riskily picking some gutsy upsets. HATS OFF to two of our players, T.S. and FollowtheRiver who CLEARLY saw the Browns/Falcons game going Cleveland’s way. But truthfully folks, the tip of the hat of the season goes to scared&stronger who was the only one in our little bunch who saw the mighty Patriots falling to the Titans. Now THAT is some Skillful Swami Swagger! Way to go, scared&stronger. Nicely done!

Sorry, folks. Who can resist a crying Brady meme? Certainly not me!

I love how the other players on the bench are “Meh. Whatever, dude.”

Flashback to Mason Crosby’s Worst Week Ever...

Coming in first in Week 10 is T.S. who managed a brilliant Tie-Breaker guess to take first place out of the clutches of Manningup26 as both players went 10/14.

Way to go, T.S.! Woot!

Third place went to barcher with 9/14, sharing that pick total with sportsfan who ended up in fourth. Three players had 8 correct picks to include Followthe River, Yours Truly and scared&stronger. Looks like 3kids30years had a tough week, getting 7 points for the week (I’m guessing there was some additional upset wishful thinking going on there).

Continuing his reign, barcher took over first place overall again and broke the 100 point ceiling, averaging just over 10 correct picks a week thus far. That’s outstanding, my friend! No one should be counting out 3kids30years (I smell a comeback in Week 11), who travels just behind with 96 overall. Third place goes to sportsfan with 93, fourth place holds our friend T.S. with 92, while Yours Truly, scared&stronger and FollowtheRiver

We have our first Mexico City game this season when the Chiefs meet the Rams (now THAT should be a good game!) on Sunday night. The bye week ranks grow by another team, meaning we have one less pick available with just 13 overall as we grabble for points. Practice safe prognostication, my friends!

Week 11

Thursday, Nov 15, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Green Bay at Seattle

Sunday, Nov 18, 2018

NOON CT

Carolina at Detroit

Cincinnati at Baltimore

Dallas at Atlanta

Houston at Washington

Pittsburgh at Jacksonville

Tampa Bay at N.Y. Giants

Tennessee at Indianapolis

3:05 PM CT

Denver at L.A. Chargers

Oakland at Arizona

3:25 PM CT

Philadelphia at New Orleans

7:20 PM CT

Minnesota at Chicago

Monday, Nov 19, 2018

7:15 PM CT

Kansas City at L.A. Rams – Tie-Breaker Game – playing in Mexico!

Bye Weeks: Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami, New England, NY Jets, San Francisco

Good luck, everyone

Have fun!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 7:03 PM, November 13th (Tuesday)]

2 comments posted: Tuesday, November 13th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 9 Recap; Week 10 Games

Week Nine saw the first coaching casualty with the firing of the Browns Hue Jackson (no surprise there) while his former team gave the Chiefs a run for their money, finishing the contest with a respectable three TD’s. While the Falcons gained their third win in a row during a sudden hot surge, other teams were not so lucky, counting among them the Bills who were decimated by the Bears, the Ravens who had a total meltdown scoring just one TD in four attempts to the end zone, and the Battle of the Goats ending with Brady schooling Rodgers in a penalty-ridden (the ridiculous, silly and downright stupid kind) contest.

It’s rare that a player released plays the very next week against his former team, but that’s exactly what happened with newly released Bronco Demaryius Thomas. After beating the Broncos in the last ticks, Thomas threw more than just a little shade against his former team with his “We like to win over here” not so kind words. Posting as a fan: As a die-hard Broncos fan, I expected more out of DT. Sigh.

Here are the chuckles of the week:

Yep. They lost again last night.

You just have to be so happy for Drew. Stellar dude, on and off the field.

The Raiders have officially removed the Browns as worst team, at least this year.

Couldn’t help myself.

Apparently barcher lent his crystal ball to scared&stronger this week and she took full advantage of it, capturing an incredible 12/14 correct picks to earn the honors of our Weekly Winner.

Way to go, scared&stronger! Woot, woot!!!

I’m as shocked as all of you that due to my clever closer to the pin without going over tie-breaker, that I finally broke above fifth place to take second place with 10/14 along with a couple of my buddies – FollowtheRiver and Manningup26, who took third and fourth, respectfully. Three players got 9 picks correct to include 3kids30years, barcher and T.S. for fifth thorough seventh place, while sportsfan got ‘em half right with 7 correct for the week.

Even though he didn’t have the best of weeks, barcher is still holding onto first place overall with 93 correct picks for the season, leaving him with just a 4-point lead over 3kids30years. This is becoming a tight race, folks! In third overall is sportsfan with 84 overall, while T.S. landed in fourth with 82. Manningup26 has fifth all to himself with 81, scared&stronger and Yours Truly landed in sixth and seventh place with 80 (I suppose we actually tied for sixth :laugh, while FollowtheRiver has 73 overall.

Don’t be discouraged, fellow prognosticators! Like the saying goes, “There’s a LOT of football left!”

There’s a coupla good matchups this week, though looking at the schedule we’re either going to have blow-outs or upsets. Which side of the fence will you be picking from?

Week 10

Thursday, Nov 8, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Carolina at Pittsburgh

Sunday, Nov 11, 2018

NOON CT

Arizona at Kansas City

Buffalo at N.Y. Jets

Jacksonville at Indianapolis

New England at Tennessee

New Orleans at Cincinnati

Washington at Tampa Bay

Atlanta at Cleveland

Detroit at Chicago

3:05 PM CT

L.A. Chargers at Oakland

3:25 PM CT

Miami at Green Bay

Seattle at L.A. Rams

7:20 PM CT

Dallas at Philadelphia

Monday, Nov 12, 2018

7:15 PM CT

N.Y. Giants at San Francisco – Tie-Breaker Game

Bye Weeks: Baltimore, Denver, Houston, Minnesota

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

1 comment posted: Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 8 Recap; Week 9 Games

Week Eight ended around the league with the season’s first head coach firing and a fairly hot NFL trade deadline with more than one seasoned player sent packing. The Browns parted ways with both head coach Hue Jackson as well as offensive coordinator Todd Haley. No surprises there. When you go rouge, you go packing, as the Pack parted ways with Ty Montgomery sending him to Houston. Denver dealt away long-time Bronco Demaryius Thomas, Golden Tate left Detroit, Amari Cooper was the only Raider dealt and the Browns got rid of their 2019 7th round pick by ditching Josh Gordon. And that was all before lunch. Here’s hoping all that wheeling and dealing pays off for the teams on both ends of the deals.

Besides some fake man parts hitting the field during the Pats vs Bills game, here are some other Ha Ha’s (in honor of yet another trade)…

Baseball finally be done.

Sooooo close.

The Raiders. Snort.

Don’t even bother tomorrow night. This kid just won Halloween.

Let’s take a look amongst our players to see who pulled off some accurate prognosticating, shall we?

With an awesome, near perfect 13 out of 14 correct picks, leading off the week with a great comeback is 3kids30years. Outstanding effort, 3kids, and OH. SO. CLOSE!!!

Way to go! Woot, woot!!!

From there, six – count ‘em, six – players were able to get 11/14 correct to take the second through seventh spots. Let’s hear it for Yours Truly, barcher, FollowtheRiver, sportsfan, Manningup26, and T.S. With a not at all shabby 10/14, scared&stronger rounds at the pool to finish in eighth place.

Our friend barcher’s lead is down to just 4 points given 3kids30years strong week, and it’s neck and neck between these two. In third place overall is sportsfan, with T.S. landing in fourth. Taking fifth place this week, we have Manningup26, while Yours Truly landed in sixth overall. Finishing up the week in seventh and eighth, we have scared&stronger and FollowtheRiver.

Thankfully, we all get a reprieve from those early Sunday morning London games this week, and with six teams on their bye weeks, there are only 13 points for the gettin’. Go get ‘em, Tigers!

Week 9

Thursday, Nov 1, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Oakland at San Francisco

Sunday, Nov 4, 2018

NOON CT

Chicago at Buffalo

Pittsburgh at Baltimore

Atlanta at Washington

Detroit at Minnesota

Kansas City at Cleveland

N.Y. Jets at Miami

Tampa Bay at Carolina

3:05 PM CT

Houston at Denver

L.A. Chargers at Seattle

3:25 PM CT

L.A. Rams at New Orleans

It’s the GOAT match at 7:20PM CT

Green Bay at New England

Monday, Nov 5, 2018

7:15 PM CT

Tennessee at Dallas – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Arizona, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, NY Giants, Philadelphia

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

3 comments posted: Tuesday, October 30th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 7 Recap; Week 8 Games

Happy Tuesday, folks. I’ve got 33 staff evaluations due tomorrow and managing budgets due by the end of the week (‘Tis the season), so this week I can only muster a player’s update. I’ll be back in full form next week.

Another interesting week with one BIG upset we all lost (gee, thanks Eagles). Players using extraordinary Swami skills proved to be the ones garnering the most wins starting off with our friend barcher whose roll in picking continues to be incredibly strong. I personally would like to know what brand of crystal ball he purchased pre-season cuz this dude is smokin’.

Coming in first again, this week with 12/14 correct, barcher takes Week 7 honors right out of the hands of scared&stronger.

Way to go, barcher! Woo Hoo!!!

With 11, scared&stronger has second place alone, while two players to include Yours Truly and T.S. managed 10 correct picks for third and forth, respectively. Two players managed 9 correct, sportsfan and Manningup26, while FollowtheRiver and 3kids30years ended the week with 8 correct.

As we head into the back half of the season, barcher’s lead has grown to a 6-point gap over 3kids30years. Proof that every correct pick makes a difference. In third this week is sportsfan with 66, while T.S. takes fourth overall with 62 points. Manninup26 has the slight edge over Yours Truly with 60 to 59, while scared&stronger takes the Elway spot with 58 and FollowtheRiver ended the with 52 overall.

We have yet another game being played in London this week, when the Eagles take on the Jags. The game is at 9:30 AM CT, so be sure to get that pick in on time (5 minutes before game time).

Week 8

Thursday, Oct 25, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Miami at Houston

Sunday, Oct 28, 2018

8:30 AM – GAME BEING PLAYED IN LONDON

Philadelphia “at” Jacksonville

NOON CT

Baltimore at Carolina

Cleveland at Pittsburgh

Denver at Kansas City

N.Y. Jets at Chicago

Seattle at Detroit

Tampa Bay at Cincinnati

Washington at N.Y. Giants

3:05 PM CT

Indianapolis at Oakland

3:25 PM CT

Green Bay at L.A. Rams

San Francisco at Arizona

7:20 PM CT

New Orleans at Minnesota

Monday, Oct 29, 2018

7:15 PM CT

New England at Buffalo – Tie-Breaker Game

Bye Weeks: Atlanta, Dallas, LA Chargers, Tennessee

See y’all next week. Happy picking!

Have fun!

The Commmish

1 comment posted: Tuesday, October 23rd, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 6 Recap; Week 7 Games

Week Six brought us some exciting games and wild finishes. The Rams now remain the last undefeated team this season by handing my Broncos their 4th straight loss. It’s ok…we’re rebuilding. Again. Sigh.

Hey – the Chiefs finally lost (barely) to New England who blew a 24-9 halftime lead to come back to give Brady his 200th win.

The Ravens beat up and then blanked the Titans with an 11 sack performance, nearly breaking the NFL record of 12 set waaaayyy back in 1966.

Conor McGregor showed up at Jerry’s House and gave the Cowboys just enough Mojo to rout the Jags.

And just last night, Rodgers yet again confirmed to all of mankind that he is indeed Superman, putting together an unbelievable 4th quarter 81 yard drive with just over a minute left to win on the toes Mason Crosby as he soundly redeemed himself.

You know it’s bad when the fans start a countdown clock for your departure.

He played against Brady. We get this.

Not only did they lose to him, but Brock had a career—high 380 yard game.

Onto our players…picks either got nailed or blown up this week, and the player whose prognostication was pert near perfect is our friend barcher who scored an amazing 13/15 correct picks!

Woo Hoo! Way to go, barcher!

Three players hit 10 correct picks to take the second through the fourth spots to include 3kids30years, T.S. and sportsfan. Coming in fifth this week with 9 correct was scared&stronger, Manningup26 nailed 8 correct games for sixth, while Yours Truly grabbed the Elway spot with 6 correct. FollowtheRiver ended the week with 4.

With his strong weekly win, barcher takes over the YTD standings, gaining a two-point lead over 3kids30years who landed in second. In third, sportsfan has a five-point lead over T.S. in fourth, with Manningup26 just one tick behind. Yours Truly landed in sixth, followed by scared&stronger and FollowtheRiver.

As we enter Week 7, we’ll have four teams off on bye weeks which means our picking will have to be spot on to gain any ground on our fierce top players. Oh, and we have us an early London game on Sunday, folks – make sure to get your Tennessee “at” L.A. Chargers picks in on time!

Week 7

Thursday, Oct 18, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Denver at Arizona

Sunday, Oct 21, 2018

9:30 AM CT *Being played in London

Tennessee at L.A. Chargers

NOON CT

Buffalo at Indianapolis

Carolina at Philadelphia

Cleveland at Tampa Bay

Detroit at Miami

Houston at Jacksonville

Minnesota at N.Y. Jets

New England at Chicago

3:05 PM CT

New Orleans at Baltimore

3:25 PM CT

Dallas at Washington

L.A. Rams at San Francisco

7:20 PM CT

Cincinnati at Kansas City

Monday, Oct 22, 2018

7:15 PM CT

N.Y. Giants at Atlanta - Tie-Breaker Game

Bye Weeks: Green Bay, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Seattle

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

:smile

The Commish

4 comments posted: Tuesday, October 16th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 5 Results; Week 6 Games

Enquiring minds want to know…

...How does one even begin to console (or explain) Mason Crosby? Even changing his kicking shoe didn’t help.

...How many 100 yard plus games will Adam Thielen have this year? (Side bets, anyone?)

...How nuts are Raiders fans right now? Their 10 year / $100M coach is 1-4, doesn’t call an almost guaranteed TD by handing Beast Mode the ball on the one yard line, and now they’re on their way (probably at this very minute) to play in London.

Meanwhile, back in Wisconsin…

The Cowboys woes continue…now taking applications for title of America’s Team!

Although Mahomes finally had a pick – (two actually), the Chiefs are 5-0 and it IS his business.

Dude surpasses Peyton for the all-time passing yards record, receives a laminated certificate. #cmonNFL

I’m happy to report that all of our players succeeded in getting more than half of the available 15 points in week 5 with two players missing just four games each to score 11/15. Only one though was able to accurately predict a closer tie-breaker, so let’s hear it for T.S. who is our weekly winner!

Way to go, T.S.! Woo Hoo!!!

Joining T.S. with 11 is scared&stronger, with barcher and 3kids30years getting 10/15. Rounding out the week is Yours Truly along with sportsfan and Manningup26 with 9 correct picks, while FollowtheRiver ended the week with 8/15.

Holding onto first place in the overall standings is 3kids30years – but just by a hair, with barcher close behind with 48 points and sportsfan close as well with 47. Proof in the pudding that we have us a very tight race here, folks! Four points down the leaderboard is Yours Truly and Manningup26, each with 43, with T.S. in sixth overall with 42, followed by FollowtheRiver with 40 and scared&stronger with 38.

We have our first game in London, with those aforementioned Raiders taking on the Seahawks in Week Six. We’ve got us some good battles this week, folks – have a great time prognosticating!

Week 6

Thursday, Oct 11, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Philadelphia at N.Y. Giants

Sunday, Oct 14, 2018

NOON CT

Arizona at Minnesota

Carolina at Washington

Chicago at Miami

Indianapolis at N.Y. Jets

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati

Seattle at Oakland

Buffalo at Houston

L.A. Chargers at Cleveland

Tampa Bay at Atlanta

3:05 PM CT

L.A. Rams at Denver

3:25PM CT

Baltimore at Tennessee

Jacksonville at Dallas

7:20 PM CT

Kansas City at New England

Monday, Oct 15, 2018

7:15 PM CT

San Francisco at Green Bay – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Detroit, New Orleans

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

0 comment posted: Tuesday, October 9th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 4 Results; Week 5 Games

The football power axis got righted in Week Four with the Browns losing a heartbreaker thanks to some poor officiating, the Patriots finally found a team that they could beat and Fitzmagic pretty much came to a crashing end thanks to a pummeling by da Bears (not to mention Mitch Trubisky’s 6 TD’s) and his half time benching. We barely escaped three close games that could have ended in ties, Chucky finally got his first win in Oakland and Seattle’s preseason holdout, Earl Thomas, left the game in the second half with a broken leg. Apparently his middle finger on his right hand works just fine though, as he flashed a little love toward the Seattle sideline on his way off the field.

*** BREAKING NEWS *** Clay Matthews managed to NOT get a flag called for roughing the passer.

Woe is me, as gunslinger Patrick Mahomes proved to be worth all the hype and more as he took on my Broncos last night and made Elway insane with all kinds of QB jealousy.

No tie for the Pack this week.

What a difference a few weeks can make.

Indeed...what a difference time can make.

Well, look at what we have here, folks, our first weekly tie for the season between 3kids30years and barcher who each scored an incredibly impressive 12/15 to take top honors. Sorry for the typo on the ranks this week – I literally calculated them at 5 o’clock this morning.

Way to go, 3kids30years and barcher!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Our winner last week, sportsfan, took third place (actually second – you all get the drift) thanks to an accurate tie-breaker pick over Manningup26. Yours Truly and T.S. hit 9 correct picks, while FollowtheRiver and scaredandstronger had 7 and 6 picks correct, respectively. For the record, I was the only player of our little pool who picked the Broncos, so there’s that.

Winning the week gave 3kids30years a slight advantage with 39 points, flip flopping last week’s results with sportsfan to take the lead overall. Steady barcher remains in third place with 38 points while Manningup26 jumped two places to fourth overall with 34, with the rest of the gang staying put.

Hard to believe we’re already heading into the second quarter of the season! Just a reminder, picks are due five minutes before each game. Here’s this week’s lineup:

Week 5

Thursday, Oct 4, 2018

7:20 PM

Indianapolis at New England

Sunday, Oct 7, 2018

Miami at Cincinnati

Atlanta at Pittsburgh

Baltimore at Cleveland

Denver at N.Y. Jets

Green Bay at Detroit

Jacksonville at Kansas City

N.Y. Giants at Carolina

Tennessee at Buffalo

3:05 PM

Oakland at L.A. Chargers

3:25 PM

Arizona at San Francisco

L.A. Rams at Seattle

Minnesota at Philadelphia

7:20 PM

Dallas at Houston

Monday, Oct 8, 2018

7:15 PM

Washington at New Orleans - TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Chicago, Tampa Bay

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

0 comment posted: Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 3 Results; Week 4 Games

Way to go, Brownies!

It was a busy week in the N.F.L., what with the Patriots losing again (tee-hee), Garappolo going out for the season with a torn ACL, Clay Matthews being Oxi Cleaned-like laundered for doing his job and the Bills beating the heavily favored Vikings and all. But seriously, enough about all of that. This week’s update is dedicated to none other than the Cleveland Browns, who finally broke a losing streak 19 games long (ties don’t count) when they barely beat the Jets (I know, I know it was the Jets) 21-17 last Thursday night.

For perspective, the last time the Cleveland Browns won a real, regular season football game was Christmas Eve of 2016, when they beat the San Diego Chargers 20-17. Here’s what’s happened since then:

• The city of San Diego lost the Chargers to LA

• There was a 99-year solar eclipse

• The Cubs broke their 108 year World Series drought

• Harry met Meghan

• Apple became the first $1 trillion company

With the way Mayfield played, it looks like the tides have turned for the Browns. Let’s hope so, especially for all of their die-hard fans like FollowtheRiver.

Speaking of Mayfield…

Sorry, can’t resist…

Prognostication was difficult this week and with upsets abounding, there was plenty of Monday Morning QB’ing going on in my head – anyone else? After all the games were tallied, no one could touch sportsfan who nailed 11/16 correct picks and takes top honors this week as our Weekly Winner.

Way to go, sportsfan! Woo Hoo!!!

Not too far behind was 3kids30years, who guessed 9 games correctly for second place, followed by two players, barcher and scared&stronger who each guessed half of the games. T.S. led a gaggle of four players with seven right to include FollowtheRiver, Yours Truly and Manningup26 for the 5th through 8th spots, with C.F. rounding out the pool with 6 correct.

His great Week Three gives sportsfan a slight edge over the competition with 28 points, with just a three point differential separating the top five players. It is way early in the season folks and anything can happen, but a word to the wise as we start seeing Bye Weeks this week there will be less points for the gettin’!

We have a heck of a lineup of good games this week! Don’t forget – your picks are due 5 minutes before the start of each game.

Week 4

Thursday, Sep 27, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Minnesota at L.A. Rams

Sunday, Sep 30, 2018

NOON CT

Buffalo at Green Bay

Cincinnati at Atlanta

Detroit at Dallas

Houston at Indianapolis

Miami at New England

N.Y. Jets at Jacksonville

Philadelphia at Tennessee

Tampa Bay at Chicago

3:05 PM CT

Cleveland at Oakland

Seattle at Arizona

3:25 PM CT

New Orleans at N.Y. Giants

San Francisco at L.A. Chargers

7:20 PM CT

Baltimore at Pittsburgh

Monday, Oct 1, 2018

7:15 PM CT

Kansas City at Denver – Tie-Breaker Game

Bye Weeks: Carolina, Washington

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

0 comment posted: Wednesday, September 26th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 2 Results; Week 3 Games

Week Two was a rough week to be an N.F.L. kicker, given two got the boot shortly after their respective games following their inability to get the pigskin between the posts. Often. And then again. Teams typically don’t waste early round draft picks on kickers, but perhaps those times...they may be a changin’.

Surprisingly that wasn’t the most interesting shenanigans of the week – oh no, not by a long shot. That went to Vontae Davis of the Bills who decided at half time it was time to hang up his cleats. Sometimes it’s just time for some folks. Oh, and interestingly we had yet another tie, this one between the Pack and the Vikes, thanks to one of those aforementioned newly unemployed kickers.

Speaking of, here’s a couple of chuckles for y’all:

Another player having an awful day was Eli Manning, who hit the dust via sacks six times thanks to his non-existent O-line. Makes you wonder if Eli takes Vontae’s lead next week during halftime – anyone want a side bet?

We can only imagine what Week Three will have in store for us!

A bit of housekeeping (hopefully this will be the last of it) – and with thanks to 3kids30years, here’s the really easy way to change your name to your SI username. I would REALLY appreciate it those of you still playing under your real name, simply choose OPTIONS and where you see your name, change it to your SI username. Hey, if I can do it, so can you! Okie dokie?

Onto this week’s recap, shall we? But before we do that, a bit of a confession. I can’t even remember how long I’ve been doing this pool, and never in the years I’ve done it have I forgotten to include the tie-breaker into the results. Well, I can’t say that anymore as I totally blanked on it last week, forgetting to factor it into leaderboard. My sincere apologies for that miss and trust that it won’t happen again. Luckily it was only Week One!

Given all the cra-cra that abounded last week, our hats go off to 3kids30years who managed to score an impressive 11/16 correct picks to be crowned our weekly winner.

Let’s hear it for 3kids30years – WAY TO GO!!!

Three players came in with 9/16 to include FollowtheRiver, Manningup26 and sportsfan. New player barcher got half the games correct, while three players to include TS, Yours Truly and scared&stronger took the Elway spot, while CF rounded out the list.

We crown a new overall leader with FollowtheRiver, thanks to an excellent just under tie-breaker, as there are a total of three other players to include Yours Truly, 3kids30years and barcher in the first place group with 18 total points. Manningup26 came in fourth, while sportsfan took fifth. TS grabbed sixth place, scared&stronger seventh and CF landed in eighth, with just a few points separating the pack, proving it truly is anyone’s game.

Here are this week’s games. Just a reminder, don’t forget your Thursday picks (although this week’s game will more than likely be VERY forgettable).

N.F.L. Games

Week Three

Your picks are due online 5 minutes before each game.

Thursday, Sep 20, 2018

7:20 PM CT

N.Y. Jets at Cleveland

Sunday, Sep 23, 2018

NOON CT

Buffalo at Minnesota

Cincinnati at Carolina

Denver at Baltimore

Green Bay at Washington

Indianapolis at Philadelphia

New Orleans at Atlanta

N.Y. Giants at Houston

Oakland at Miami

San Francisco at Kansas City

Tennessee at Jacksonville

3:05 PM CT

L.A. Chargers at L.A. Rams

3:25 PM CT

Chicago at Arizona

Dallas at Seattle

7:20 PM

New England at Detroit

Monday, Sep 24, 2018

7:15 PM CT

Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

1 comment posted: Tuesday, September 18th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 1 Results - Week 2 Games

Lions and Packers and Bears, oh my!

We were treated to the opening of the 2018/19 NFL season with a plethora of good football – some of it nail biting, some not so much – a few new coaches (Welcome back, Chuckie), the Browns coming *thisclose* to a win, a few traded players that are shining on new teams and an obviously pain pill induced hysterical post-game interview by none other than Mr. Aaron Rodgers himself. Seriously. Google it.

Usually the favored teams prevail in the first week, but not so the case this year with the 9.5 point favorite New Orleans Saints losing to Tampa Bay AT HOME…only to be outdone by Detroit as 6.5 point favorites losing AT HOME to the Jets, even after rookie Jets QB Sam Darnold threw a Pick 6 on his first NFL career play.

Here’s a coupla funnies for y’all:

A big welcome to the new players who have decided to join our pool! We hope you enjoy the camaraderie and find this a safe place to share your football joy.

I’ll need to start the player recap with a few housekeeping items. First, as was announced last week we are utilizing an online pool for you to make and track your picks, so please do not post your picks on the pool threads. Secondly, there are a couple of you who used your “for real” names when registering for the pool. As S.I. is all about your safety and security, I won’t be using them here to post the winners, so you will find some players listed with their initials. That said, please go back into the pool and under your preferences change your first name to your S.I. user name and use SI Pigskin Picks as your last name. If you have any issues with this, please PM me.

Alrighty then, onto our list of fabulous prognosticators!

Looks like shining up my crystal ball paid off with The Commish scoring 11/16 points to open the season. Don’t worry folks, this isn’t normal and I’m sure things will right themselves. Coming in second with 10/16 is newbie barcher, followed in third place by another newbie, FollowtheRiver, with an impressive first start of 9/16. We have a 4-way tie for fourth place, with sportsfan, Manningup, and “TS” and “CF” (see above to change your player names) getting half of the games correct for 8/16. Rounding out this week’s pool is 3Kids30Years with 7 correct and scared&stronger with 6/16. All in all, we’re off to a great start, folks!

For anyone else interested in joining the fun, it’s not too late! Here is the link to signup – please follow the naming instructions carefully and it’s not a live link – copy/paste, please. We’d love to have you!

http://sipigskinpicks.football.cbssports.com/e/308f331b21e79c3503e544adb8b3bd461602b8ac1b03c947d9ac31a6d517bbd1?ttag=FFBC18__invite_new_email

Here are next week’s games so you can ponder your picks before entering them.

N.F.L. Games

Week Two

Your picks are due online 5 minutes before each game.

Thursday, Sep 13, 2018

7:20 PM CT

Baltimore at Cincinnati

Sunday, Sep 16, 2018

NOON CT

Carolina at Atlanta

Cleveland at New Orleans

Houston at Tennessee

Indianapolis at Washington

Kansas City at Pittsburgh

L.A. Chargers at Buffalo

Miami at N.Y. Jets

Minnesota at Green Bay

Philadelphia at Tampa Bay

3:05 PM CT

Arizona at L.A. Rams

Detroit at San Francisco

3:25 PM CT

Oakland at Denver

New England at Jacksonville

7:20 PM CT

N.Y. Giants at Dallas

Monday, Sep 17, 2018

7:15 PM CT

Seattle at Chicago – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

Edited to add: Just a reminder, DO NOT ENTER PICKS ON THE THREAD!

[This message edited by ajsmom at 5:14 AM, September 12th (Wednesday)]

0 comment posted: Tuesday, September 11th, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Opening Announcement - Week One Games

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL???

Guess what’s back, y’all? Yeppers, after a break to realign my inner self of that up and down, most times it’s great, sometimes it sucks life thing, this is our invitation for those of you who fancy yourselves extraordinary prognosticators of the football variety to have a place to prove your stuff.

To refresh those who have played before and to introduce the newbies, this is the formal announcement from this old S.I. Veteran of the official “S.I. N.F.L. Pigskin Picks Pool.” There will be no apologies for having Mr. Elway as our signature thread announcement, and as you will all soon see, his name and that of the Denver Broncos gets mentioned A LOT in this game. Sorry if that upsets you Chiefs and Raiders fans, but hey, I run the pool, so there’s that.

Our format is simple, it’s a confidence pool in which you will carefully chose a winner from the two teams playing in each game for each week to earn a point for a win and unfortunately, absolutely nothin’ for a loss. In the event of a weekly tie, our tie-breaker will be the Monday Night Game (MNF) being played that week. On those occasions when two MNF games are being played, one game will be assigned. Your goal is to be the picker who has the most winning games in the week. If that’s you, you will be crowned the pool’s Weekly Winner, working your way to the final week of the season to maybe, possibly, hopefully, become the “S.I. 2018-19 N.F.L. Pigskin Picker Champion!”

Along the way boisterous team support and smack talk is encouraged as long as you don’t lean into, tread on or break any S.I. site rules (or upset the Commissioner). Cuz seriously folks, we’d hate to lose you as a member of this fine community over a football game.

TELL US WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR, COMMISH!

Thanks for asking! One of the challenges of running this pool has always been the scorekeeping so in order to keep my sanity this year we will be utilizing the help of an online pool system. All you need to sign up is a valid email address. HINT: If you’re like me, you’ll open one up via Gmail or another source strictly for this pool.

The following link (the posting of which has been approved by MH) will take you to our Pool Page:

http://sipigskinpicks.football.cbssports.com/e/308f331b21e79c3503e544adb8b3bd461602b8ac1b03c947d9ac31a6d517bbd1?ttag=FFBC18__invite_new_email

On the signup page you’ll be asked for your information. IMPORTANT: For privacy purposes and to make updating the pool on SI easier, please enter your SI User name in the First Name spot and “SI Pigskin Picks” as your Last Name as I did here:

I have the pool set up to lock picks five minutes before each game is played, meaning you can make your picks on Thursday for those games and as long as you get your Sunday and Monday picks in prior to five minutes before each respective game, you’ll be good to go. HELPFUL HINT: Be mindful of the pick deadlines for those London and Mexico games.

I will post a thread here each week (by the following Wednesday at the latest) announcing our winner and the next week’s games...BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!

Once the season is over and because no one can ever have enough football, we go into the Playoff and Super Bowl rounds by continuing our pool and crowning yet another Champion. See – most everyone can win be a winner! No money is exchanged in this pool, which means at the end of the season if you do win all you get is the admiration and accolades of the nearly 67,000 members here. Finally, as this is new for everyone I’m anticipating some hiccups, so feel free to PM with any questions. If there are many of the same type, I'll start a FAQ thread if need be.

There you have it, so if you think you absolutely, positively cannot live without participating, kindly click on the above link and join the fun. To get you started on honing your Crystal Ball skills, here are the Week One games:

Thursday, Sep 6, 2018

Atlanta at Philadelphia

Sunday, Sep 9, 2018

Buffalo at Baltimore

Cincinnati at Indianapolis

Houston at New England

Jacksonville at N.Y. Giants

Pittsburgh at Cleveland

San Francisco at Minnesota

Tampa Bay at New Orleans

Tennessee at Miami

Kansas City at L.A. Chargers

Dallas at Carolina

Seattle at Denver

Washington at Arizona

Chicago at Green Bay

Monday, Sep 10, 2018

N.Y. Jets at Detroit

L.A. Rams at Oakland – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone!

AJ’s MOM

a.k.a. “The Commish”

16 comments posted: Sunday, September 2nd, 2018

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Super Bowl Recap - Champion Crowned!

We were able to bid adieu to the 2016-2017 in pretty spectacular fashion to include a nail biting finish as Super Bowl LI came to a close in the Big Game’s first ever overtime victory. Brady and Company made the necessary half time adjustments to capture their fifth Super Bowl victory and rings, while extinguishing a 25-point Falcons lead, thanks in part to an incredible Julian Edelman ping-ponged-off-a-shoe catch which set up the game winning drive.

Kudos also go to former Badger James White who became Brady’s go-to guy ending the game with three TD’s (including the gamer winner) and a 2-point conversion, landing him in the record books with some of the best receivers in the league. Though he didn't win the SB MVP award (and he should have), Brady is going to apparently gift him the new truck he was given. Mighty fine of you, Tommy Boy! With Deflategate behind them, Tom Brady accepted the Lombardi trophy on behalf of the team from the heavily booed Roger Goodell. Snort.

The entertainment off the field was great as well, although Luke Bryan ruined it for anyone having the over in National Anthem song betting, coming in a whole 5 seconds shorter than the 2:09 set as the line. Props to Lady Gaga who provided an exciting half time show, complete with Pink-like aerobatics and a bevy of back up dancers (including one who took a fabulous header) as well as other stunts. Rumor has it several teams are contacting her agent for possible play time after nailing that grab she made as she jumped off the stage at the end of her set. As most of the commercials swayed toward an S.I. banned theme, so we won’t. go. there. however, the Mr. Clean bit was one of my favorites. That and the Super Bowl babies…awwww!!!

The game had to end with additional drama with someone literally walking off with Brady’s game-worn jersey, but word at press time is that the Texas Rangers (the cop ones, not the ball players) are on the hunt. Having spent some time in the Lone Star state myself, those are dudes you don’t want to mess with.

All in all it was a pleasant day to spend a Sunday afternoon and evening with friends and family surrounded by nachos, chicken wings and brewskis wrapped around a football game.

By all appearances the players joining us for Super Bowl prognostication leaned heavily toward Atlanta, with just one lone player – lingerdog – picking the Patriots. Not only does he win the “week” with his pick, but he gets to be crowned our Super Bowl LI Champion, beating out the next competitor by a hefty 18 points!

Way to go, lingerdog! Woo Hoo!!!

Once again, y’all, it’s been a real pleasure Commishing the pool this year. With the NFL draft just weeks away, I’m sure the 2017-18 season will prove to be as exciting as this year’s was. At least we can hope so!...

...and we’re just weeks away from some dancing, courtesy of March Madness! GO BUCKY!!!

Take care, and we’ll see you on the flip side. I’ll leave the light on for ‘ya.

The Commish

6 comments posted: Tuesday, February 7th, 2017

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Conference Round Results; Super Bowl LI

Well, we got ‘em down to two left and in true Conference Round playoff fashion, with the heavy favorites beating out two contenders that quite simply fell apart. This despite this year’s conference games being touted as one of the best in recent history, what with four elite QB’s at the helm for each team. As Sunday came to a close, the Falcons will be representing the NFC in the big game, ending a Super Bowl drought that started when Atlanta lost to the Broncos in 1998 (ya’ know I had to get that in there). Losing Le’Veon Bell to injury in the first quarter surely didn’t help the Steelers, who were simply blown away by the Patriots by a 19-point spread. New England returns to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years, and is now 9-4 in AFC Championship games.

The blowouts didn't leave much to chuckle about, but here goes...

When I made my picks on Sunday, I audaciously made them then declared “Go big or go home” on my post while taking the under dogged Packers and Steelers. As you can see from the chart below, I in fact did go home, and in a BIG way!

So let’s hear it for our 2016-17 Season Champion, 3kids30years who went two fer two and came out on top with 24 coveted points to take the Conference Round right outta my prior 8 for 8 win struck greedy hands.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, 3kids30years!!!

Oh, and let's here it for all of us who really thought A-Rod was gonna RUN THE TABLE!!!

Six players had at least one of the games correct for second through eighth place, while minusone joined me in the whole “Go Big” theme and as I did, ended up with a big ‘ol fat donut hole.

Winning the weekend meant 3kids30years was able to take over the leaderboard to land at Numero Uno with 48 total points. Two players – MadeOFScars and lingerdog finished with 42, while three players – devasted30, scared&stronger and Manningup26 ended up with 39. Rounding out the list is booger bear and Yours Truly with 36 total points while minusone has 33. Don’t lose heart players, as the Super Bowl is worth a whopping 24 points and there is still some wiggle room to finish well depending on which team lands victorious in Houston.

Super Bowl LI will be played on Sunday, February 5th at 5:30 PM, CT. Your pick will be due by NOON that day...AND don’t forget you’ll need to pick a tie-breaker score.

Enjoy the game!

Super Bowl LI

Sunday, February 5th

New England vs Atlanta

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

8 comments posted: Wednesday, January 25th, 2017

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Divisional Recap; Conference Games

And then there were four...

The Divisional round started out with Atlanta bursting the bubble of Pete Carroll and gang on the heels of Matt Ryan’s potential league MVP performance, winning handily by a 16-point spread. Meanwhile the Patriots are on their way to an NFL record, sixth straight AFC Championship bid after taking down the Texans by 18 points, provided they can take out the Steelers who handed the Chiefs a loss at home after a rain-sleet-snow delayed start. The Pack continued to give their fans heart attacks and won a nail biter on the foot (feet?) of Mason Crosby after he nailed two field goal tries in the last ticks, one called off via icing, the other just inside the left goal post to claim the victory over Dallas.

The weekend’s play has set the stage for the final four to battle it out down to the final two next Sunday to claim a spot in Super Bowl LI, those four being the Packers who take on the Falcons while the Steelers visit the Patriots. We are in for a thrilling Sunday Funday…well everyone except those within ear shot of Joe Buck...Dayem that dude is irritating!

Moving onto our pickers, there were three players who nailed all four of the divisional games, gaining a total of 24 points to their totals. The lesson that must be learned here folks, is the importance of ensuring you have a tie-breaker added to your picks, as Yours Truly was granted first place given our minusone and scared&stronger didn’t post tie-breaker scores, putting them in a tie for second place. In third place this week was devasted30 who by virtue of a good tie-breaker received third place honors with the five person grouping who had three outta four correct games for a total of 18 points. Other players in this group included MadeOfScars, lostbutnotgone, lingerdog and Manningup26. Rounding out the leaderboard is 3kids30years and booger bear, both with 2/4 correct picks for a total of 12 points.

In the overall standings, Yours Truly managed to stay on top with a total of 36 points thus far, with minusone just behind in second place with 33 overall points. MadeOfScars is in third place with 30, while lingerdog took fourth, also with 30. Three players are tied at 27 points overall to include debasted30, Manningup26 and scared&stronger. In eighth place with 24 total points we have 3kids30years, with booger bear in ninth, also with 24. Taking the last spot in the competition, we have lostbutnotgone finishing with 18 points overall.

We're onto the Conference Championship round with the winners of each game moving onto the Super Bowl. Your picks will be due Sunday by 11 AM CT.

Don’t forget your tie-breakers!!!

Here’s the lineup for Sunday’s games.

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND

Sunday, January 22nd

2:05 PM CT

Green Bay at Atlanta

5:40 PM CT

Pittsburgh at New England – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have fun everyone, and good luck!

The Commish

9 comments posted: Wednesday, January 18th, 2017

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Wild Card Round Recap; Divisional Games

It’s safe to say the Wild Card round games this past weekend were more sleepers than stunners, especially when you have all the home teams winning with an average lead of just under 20 points a game. Let’s just say there wasn’t much nail biting going on.

One had to just know when Derek Carr went out on the final game of the season with a season-ending broken leg that things weren’t going to look good for the Raiders, especially when you have to toss in a third round QB as his replacement against Houston. The win moves the Texans to the next round with a game next Saturday versus New England. Seattle warmed up for their tussle next week against Atlanta by taking out Detroit handily, while the Steelers in three drives in the first quarter put up a 20-0 lead against a frigid Miami team that held up to get them to the second round against the Chiefs next Sunday. Finally, Aaron Rodgers and Co. did such a number on the Giants that Odell Beckham Jr. took out a wall in the locker room and the whole team was allegedly responsible for tearing up their departing aircraft so badly it forced a 3-hour delay to get it up and running for its next flight. Geez dudes, settle down! The Pack will take on Da Boys in Dallas next Sunday afternoon for their next step in the Super Bowl race.

I really must digress just a minute – Ho-Le-Cow! – what an NCAA Championship game! Kudos to Dabo and the Tigers on hanging in there until the (absolute) final tick on the clock to burst the Tide’s bubble.

We had a total of twelve points up for grabs this week, and 5/9 of the players in the pool hit them on the head. Yours Truly took the top spot with an accurate tie-breaker, while MadeOfScars, 3kids30years, lingerdog and booger bear (Welcome Back!) rounded out the top five spots. We had three players get 3 outta 4 picks correct for sixth through eighth place to include devasted30, minuson3 and Manningup26. Our friend scared&stronger had one pick win for the final spot to take ninth place.

Each game this coming weekend will be worth 6 points, so we have 24 live points out there, folks. To stay alive in this race, practice perfect prognostication, pickers!

Your picks will be due by Saturday and Sunday, 11 AM CT, respectively.

DIVISIONAL ROUND

Saturday, January 14th

3:35 PM CT

Seattle at Atlanta

7:15 PM CT

Houston at New England

Sunday, January 15th

12:05 PM CT

Pittsburgh at Kansas City

3:40 PM CT

Green Bay at Dallas – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have fun everyone, and good luck!

The Commish

10 comments posted: Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Playoffs to the Super Bowl Round

Here we go fellow prognosticators, another chance to showcase your Swami-like pickin’ abilities to choose the winning teams in our “Playoffs to the Super Bowl” round of the 2016-17 S.I. NFL Pigskin Picks competition. Or, if you missed out on the regular season game, now’s your chance to jump in!

There are three playoff rounds leading to the Super Bowl beginning this weekend (January 7th and 8th) with the Wild Card rounds. Next weekend, (January 14th and 15th) are the Divisional Playoffs, and finally, on Sunday, January 22nd, the Conference Championships are played to determine the final two teams vying for the Lombardi trophy in the Super Bowl, which will be played on Sunday, February 5th.

Here’s how this challenge will work:

1. There are four games being played this weekend (see schedule below) in the Wild Card round. Choosing the winner of each of these games will be worth 3 points.

2. The four games for the Divisional Playoffs will be worth 6 points each.

3. The two games being played for the Conference Championships will be worth 12 points each.

4. The Pro Bowl will be played on Sunday, January 29th. Like everyone else, we won’t care about that game and it will not factor into our game.

5. Correctly choosing the winner of the Super Bowl will be worth 24 points.

6. You will need to calculate a tie-breaker for each round of playoffs and the Super Bowl game. The-tiebreaker is the total score of the game chosen without going over. The tie-breaker game will be the last game played over each weekend and on Super Bowl Sunday.

7. The player with the highest total points throughout the Playoffs – Super Bowl will be crowned the winner of the S.I. Post-Season NFL Pigskin Picks Pool.

If you are interested in playing, please reply to this thread with the teams you think will win for the Wild Card round along with your tie-breakers where indicated.

If you have any questions, please PM me.

Important notes for this week’s round:

• Your picks are due by 11AM CT on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

• Due to how the thread time-stamps postings, if you post your pick then elect to change it prior to the 11 AM CT deadline, please start another posting.

WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, January 7th

3:35 PM CT

Oakland at Houston

7:10 PM CT

Detroit at Seattle

Sunday, January 8th

12:05 PM CT

Miami at Pittsburgh

3:40 PM CT

Giants at Green Bay – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have fun everyone, and good luck!

The Commish

9 comments posted: Wednesday, January 4th, 2017

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 17 Results; We Crown Our Champion

Some NFL teams had their Christmas wishes granted before Week 17 ended while others had to wait with baited breath and hope for other teams to either just stumble or completely implode to get their chance to take the trip to vie for the Lombardi trophy. The teams who got their work done early in the season and now sit resting on their laurels until the first week of the playoffs for the AFC include the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs and for the NFC, the top seeds include the new and improved Dallas Cowboys and the Atlanta Falcons. The NFL grants a total of twelve teams the chance to play, first by making their way through the Wild Card round, scheduled for this coming weekend. In those games we’ll see Oakland vs Houston and Miami vs Pittsburgh for the AFC, while Detroit battles Seattle and the Giants take on Green Bay in the NFC. Winners of those move onto the playoff rounds in the upcoming weeks. Congrats to all who made it and for all the other teams who made this an interesting and fun season.

Now let us lay down some congratulations to our great group of pigskin prognosticators and formally crown our 2016 Champion. Weeks ago, things really heated up with a tussle between our top handful of finishers who were switching Top Dog honors week after week. As the end of the season drew near, the battle intensified with my own prognostication being the winner just may be crowned by virtue of the tie breaker. Well…let’s see how folks did in Week 17 first.

We had four players in that top group who did a fantastic job of picking the last week of the season with 12/16 correct picks added to their coffers. Let’s hear it for 3kids30years, Chria, minusone and lingerdog! One remained on top by virtue of a savvy tie-breaker, and that would be 3kids30years.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, 3kids30years!

Rounding out the rest of the playing crew, Yours Truly and devasted30 each had 11/16 correct, while HeavyE and MadeOfScars ended with 10/16. In ninth with 9 points overall, let’s hear it for scared&stronger.

To close my premonition theory, I give you 3kids30years, who over the course of the season was the picture of prognostication consistency which helped her land in the top three an incredible sixteen times and as top dog on the leaderboard a total of six times this year, to include the most important week – Week 17. That folks, is how you win, so let’s raise our cleaned and shined up 2017 New Year champagne glasses to 3kids30years, as we crown our 2016 S.I. Pigskin Picks Champion!

Congrats also go to Chria, who was 3kids30year’s top jostling partner toward the end and ended up tying her for the championship with 167 total points over the year, yet lost the ring on the tie-breaker. As someone who knows this pain, I feel for ya, Chria. With bye weeks included, these two players managed to average almost 10 points weekly over the entire season. Now, that’s incredible!

Coming in third with 165 overall was HeavyE, while MadeOfScars took fourth place with 164. In fifth place with 163 points was devasted30, while lingerdog captured sixth place with 162. Yours Truly captured the Elway spot with 154, and minusone took eighth overall with 150. In ninth place this season, we have scared&stronger and tenth overall went to Manningup26. Let us thank all the rest of the players as well who made this a fun and interesting season.

For those of you still hankering some football fun this needn’t be good bye, as we’ll be hosting our Playoffs to the Super Bowl round of prognostication to begin this weekend. I’ll post a thread later this week with the rules and games with an invite for all to join in the fun.

Thanks for another great season, everyone.

Oh, and GO BUCKY!!! #OnWIsconsin

The Commish

5 comments posted: Monday, January 2nd, 2017

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 16 Results; Week 17 Games

Like most of you, I’ve had a rough start to the week given the news of our sweet DS’s passing. Turns out it is incredibly difficult to type while crying. Who knew?

DS and I shared many interests and one of them was football. Let me clarify that – for her that meant anything to do with football that included JJ Watt in the equation. Her fan-ship of him was as big as his wing span, or put another way, HUGE.

What made this fun for us of course was my own passion for all things Badgers and the fact that he came from a small town not too far away from my own. Then as JJ made his way to Houston as a pro (and a hell of a one at that), well – BOOM! – yet another thing we daughters of different mothers had in common.

With that began several years of exchanges on Saturday and Sunday mornings rooting on the Badgers and/or JJ and the Texans. This morphed to me doing my best to find things for her JJ collection to include her all-time favorite: JJ as a large Lego figure, bloody nose and eye black included. The joy she had in receiving that gift is a gift that I will never, ever forget.

For whatever reason, iPhone’s have a red badger paw print emoji (it’s probably another animal, but whatever) and that became our way of saying many things to one another, whether it be GO BUCKY! on Saturdays, or Get ‘em, JJ!!! on Sundays, or just a simple hello and I love you. What seemed so simple and easy to do before will now count as one of the great losses for me...sharing a game with someone met from the big hairy, scary internet that truly got me and grew to love me. And I her.

Rest in peace, my dear, sweet friend. I’ll take on cheering for JJ for you down here until we meet again up there.

Week 16 had its share of upsets, so scoring anything above a 10 was just this side of miraculous. With that, let’s hear it once again for lingerdog, who with HeavyE and Manningup26 all managed to get 11/16 games right. With a super savvy tie-breaker, lingerdog managed to come out on top for first place with just one week to go.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, lingerdog!

Coming in fourth was 3kids30years with 10, while a whole gaggle of players to include Yours Truly, Chria, minusone, scared&stronger and MadeOFScars came in with 9/16 overall, while with half right this week, devasted30 took the final spot in the top ten.

MissesJai stopped by to pick Oakland, and given the effort to do so, I thought we should recognize her winning pick.

I sensed a few weeks back that this year’s pool was going down to the wire and boy, did that premonition ever come true. Here we are, with one week to go and we have a three-way tie in total points for the Championship! Chria is now hanging on thanks to a closer-to-but-not-over tie-breaker with 3kids30years and HeavyE right behind him – actually tied for second with the same tie-breaker points.

Not to be discounted are MadeOfScars and devasted30 who are just one and three points respectively off the lead, with lingerdog down five overall. This really could be anyone’s year given how the last week’s games shake out!

With playoff spots clinched and just a few teams playing for the right to get in, you can expect those teams with locks into the playoffs will be sitting their starters – something you may want to keep in mind with your picks. Here’s the line-up for the final week of the 2016 season:

N.F.L. Games – Week 17

YOUR PICKS ARE ALL DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, JANUARY 1ST

Jacksonville at Indianapolis

Giants at Washington

Houston at Tennessee

Buffalo at Jets

Baltimore at Cincinnati

New England at Miami

Cleveland at Pittsburgh

Dallas at Philadelphia

Chicago at Minnesota

Carolina at Tampa Bay

Seattle at San Francisco

New Orleans at Atlanta

Oakland at Denver

Arizona at Rams

Kansas City at Chargers

Green Bay at Detroit – TIE BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone. Have fun, and...

The Commish

10 comments posted: Wednesday, December 28th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 15 Results; Week 16 Games

It’s that time of the season again, with a couple of coaches taking it on the chin in Week 15 while receiving their walking papers just a few weeks shy of the traditional Black Monday. Gus Bradley and the Jaguars parted ways, and what only made that day worse for him was having to take the team plane back to Jacksonville. Ouch! No surprise that Jeff Fisher is out in L.A., even though he was given a two-year extension just a few weeks ago. Given the fast descents and implosions of other teams, some of them epic, methinks this is just the beginning of the carnage we can expect this year.

Onto this week’s results. Two players were able to produce astounding 13/16 correct picks this week, with lingerdog taking first place in the race with a savvy less than 41 point tie-breaker.

Way to go, lingerdog! Woo Hoo!

...which of course left second place for lostbutnotgone. Three players managed to get 12/16 correct for third through fifth places, respectively, so hat’s off to devasted30, 3kids30years and HeavyE. A big group of players got 11/16 right for sixth through ninth, to include minusone, Manningup26, Yours Truly and MadeOfScars. Rounding out the standings we have Chria in tenth place with 10 wins, while scard&stronger came in eleventh, also with 11. WastedTime12 had a hiccup with no late picks, but managed to go 1:2 in the early games.

In the overall race to crown our champion, there are now 5 – count ‘em 5 – players still in the hunt with just one and two point spreads between them! Chria maintained his ever-so-close one-point lead for the top spot. Way to go, Chria!

Seriously, y’all, this could be a more exciting finish than The Voice!

It’s going to take some pert near perfect prognostication out of each of these pickers to decide who is the Big Cheese for the 2016/17 season!

Given the NFL and Christmas are going to collide, the games for Week 16 are going to be spread out between Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Please be sure to get your picks in on time, as given this tight race we find ourselves in, every point will count!

Week 16 Games

Thursday, December 22nd

YOUR THURSDAY PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22ND

Giants at Philadelphia

Saturday, December 24th

YOUR SATURDAY PICKS ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24TH

Washington at Chicago

Miami at Buffalo

Atlanta at Carolina

Tennessee at Jacksonville

San Diego at Cleveland

Jets at New England

Minnesota at Green Bay

Indianapolis at Oakland

San Francisco at Rams

Tampa Bay at New Orleans

Arizona at Seattle

Cincinnati at Houston

Sunday, December 25TH

YOUR SUNDAY PICKS ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25TH

Baltimore at Pittsburgh

Detroit at Dallas

Denver at Kansas City - TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck everyone, have fun...and...

The Commish

13 comments posted: Tuesday, December 20th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 14 Results; Week 15 Games

It’s beginning to look a lot like the playoffs – for some teams at least. Is your favorite in, in the hunt or thinking about the 2017 draft?

Week 14 proved to be either a great week for players or as 3kids30years posted in last week’s thread it was the...

Worst Week Ever. Ever.

It certainly was a great week for MadeOfScars, who nailed 13/16 correct picks to take this week’s honors as Pigskin Prognostication Picker-of-the-Week.

Woo Hoo!!! Way to go, MadeOfScars!

Three players had 12 correct picks to include devasted30, lostbutnotgone and lingerdog for second through fourth place, while two players had 11 correct – scared&stronger and Chria – for fifth and sixth place. WastedTime came in with 10 correct to claim the Elway spot, while Yours Truly and Manningup26 finished the week with 9 wins. HeavyE ended up with 8 correct to take the last spot in the Top Ten.

Our friend Chria picked up an extra two points this week to continue his reign at the top of the leaderboard. Will he be able to hold off MadeOfScars and the owner of the Worst. Week. Ever. Ever. - 3kids30years? Only time will tell, as we head into the final weeks of the season. Congrats to those two players who are in second and third place while devasted30 and HeavyE each sit with 132 points on the year thus far. Sixth place went to lingerdog with 126, while Yours Truly finished with 123. WastedTime, scared&stronger and minusone round out the Top Ten with 121, 120 and 118 points respectfully for eighth through tenth place.

Just because the NFL really likes messing with us, WE HAVE A SATURDAY GAME THIS WEEK! PLEASE BE SURE TO GET YOUR PICK(S) IN BY THE DEADLINES BELOW:

Thursday, December 15th

YOUR THURSDAY PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15TH

Rams at Seattle

Saturday, December 17TH

YOUR SATURDAY PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27TH

Miami at Jets

Sunday, December 18th

YOUR SUNDAY AND MONDAY PICKS ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18TH

Cleveland at Buffalo

Green Bay at Chicago

Tennessee at Kansas City

Jacksonville at Houston

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati

Philadelphia at Baltimore

Detroit at Giants

Indianapolis at Minnesota

New Orleans at Arizona

San Francisco at Atlanta

New England at Denver

Oakland at San Diego

Tampa Bay at Dallas

Monday, December 19th

Carolina at Washington – TIE BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

16 comments posted: Tuesday, December 13th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 13 Results: Week 14 Games

Hey gang! Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful football filled weekend, what with the NCAA college football Playoffs decided and all the antics associated with the pros, who could ask for anything more? I must say, I’ve become a real fan of Kevin Harlan’s calls when drunken spectators hit the field…just sayin’.

This year-end is going to be especially ca-ra-zee for me, so going forward through the holiday weeks, I’m just gonna hit you up with some funnies, the standings and the games for the remaining weeks. Life is really taking over my fun for now, but it’s all good – trust me.

Besides, no further commentary seems necessary on any of these...

Well looky here, y’all...Yours Truly finally won a week this season! Woo Hoo! Yay me!!! *cough, cough – it’s about time – cough, cough*

Quite a few of you had 11 correct – five players in fact – to grab up second through sixth places. Let’s hear it for Chria, 3kids30years, devasted30, MadeOfScars and lingerdog. Meanwhile the next biggest point getters were those with 10 correct for the Elway spot through ninth to include HeavyE, lostbutnotgone and scared&stronger. Rounding out the standings for tenth through twelve was WastedTime and Manninup26 each with 9 correct and minusone with 7 correct on the week.

On the cumulative totals thus far, Chria and 3kids30years continue to not relinquish as much as a single pick to one another, and are atop the leader board with Chria edging 3K30Y out, thanks to his choosing of a savvy one-point higher tie-breaker.

Squeeee!!!! – this is REALLY shaping up to be a battle for the Championship!

Coming in third this week overall is HeavyE with 124 points, and certainly within striking distance of the top point getters. MadeOfScars landed in fourth place with 121 points, while devasted30 is in fifth with 130. Yours Truly made a little headway though ended up tied with Co-Commish lingerdog with 114 (really folks, there is no conspiracy going on here ) for us to take sixth and seventh places, respectively.

WastedTIme landed in eighth with 111 points, minusone is in ninth with 110, scared&stronger is in tenth with 109, while rounding out the leaderboard, we have Manningup26 with 104 and lostbutnotgone who ended up with 68 for the final spot.

Tick-tock goes the clock, and there are just four more weeks of regular season play folks, so if your strategy was to come out swinging at the end there’s no time like the present to make your moves!

Here’s what’s going on for Week 14:

Thursday, December 8th

YOUR THURSDAY PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8TH

Oakland at Kansas City

Sunday, December 11th

YOUR SUNDAY AND MONDAY PICKS ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11TH

Denver at Tennessee

Cincinnati at Cleveland

Pittsburgh at Buffalo

Arizona at Miami

Washington at Philadelphia

Houston at Indianapolis

San Diego at Carolina

Minnesota at Jacksonville

Chicago at Detroit

Jets at San Francisco

Seattle at Green Bay

New Orleans at Tampa Bay

Atlanta at Rams

Dallas at Giants

Baltimore at New England – TIE BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

16 comments posted: Tuesday, December 6th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 12 Results: Week 13 Games

First, a confession. I stand corrected on there being no more bye weeks…Cleveland and Tennessee are off this week – not that too many folks will notice.

Week 12 had it all for us – a horrendously mangled QB’s finger, a kick to win at the 0:00 mark, unexpected wins by teams that have new breath, unforgiving losses by teams that can’t quite get out of their skid and/or keep winning momentum going (yes, I’m talking the Broncos), and a mystery tent in Philly that had A-Rod back in the game and pulling out an upset win. Besides the hamstring pad he started sporting after ducking in, me wonders if he wasn’t also force fed a slice of prime rib.

All of this takes us to the last breaths of the season for some teams, and hopeful January play for others. It’s the time of the year when we can start talking who may be headed to Houston in February which makes me excited and nervous all at the same time (due to those aforementioned Broncos). So, if the season would end today, here’s what it would look like:

See ya later, Browns and 49’er’s (no surprises there). Much the same to the pressure that da Bears, Jets, Jags and Rams now face to stay alive, but most surprised by the Panthers for sure, especially with both SB50 teams now struggling for a chance to repeat.

So let’s hear it for those new faces at the top of the heat – MissesJai’s Raiders and the Cowboys (not sure if any of our players are claiming them as their favorite). Seriously, these two teams fall in the “Whodathunk?” category. The Chiefs and the Redskins too for that matter – remember years ago when Andy Reid had KC just smoking? That dude seriously got his mojo back. I’m sure the weeks ahead will be filled with discussion on strength of schedule, injuries and talk of getting rid of Thursday games (YAY!), but for now, for those teams present and accounted for at the top of the mountain, let’s just bask in some “Well done” moments for them all.

Ain’t no way I’m saying anything bad about the Queen of Soul. Hellz, no.

Oakland needs this application as well.

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That moment when you’re moving so fast, you have time to high-five a teammate on the six yard line.

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Crafty head gear on the guy on the right. Or is that Kraft-y?

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This sums up Cleveland’s year perfectly.

Another thing about Week 12 and beyond as the season unfolds is picking teams becomes, well, shall we say, more predictable as teams gel and some get their stuff together and with less teams on Bye Weeks, there’s more low-lying fruit to grab. No exception here, with a big handful of suave and astute prognostication. Let’s hear it for MadeOfScars, this week’s winner with an astounding 13/16 correct picks.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, MadeOfScars!

Five of our players had 12 picks correct to take up second through sixth place, to include Manningup26, devasted30, HeavyE, Yours Truly and 3kids30years. Perennially good picker Chria had the solid tie this week with minusone with 11 wins for the Elway spot, while scared&stronger finished with 10 correct picks. WastedTime finishes this week in ninth with 9, while lingerdog had half the picks right for 8/16 and the final spot.

Well will ya lookie at this…we have a THREE WAY TIE for the Championship! Yowsa! Three players hit 114 cumulative points, and thanks to a closer tie-breaker, HeavyE takes the lead away from Chria who falls into second place, with 3kids30years falling into third. MadeOfScars landed in fourth this week with 110, devasted30 is in fifth with 109, lingerdog and minusone, each with 103 claim sixth and seventh places, while Yours Truly, scared&stronger and Manninup26 round out the standings.

So, if you’ve read this recap so far, there is one itty bitty thing I need to remind you of when posting your picks and that is if you post early games and come back to post the others, you need to start a new post. Reason being is that your edit timestamp will be shown on your post, and as all picks need to be made at the deadlines and I don’t pull the picks off the thread and into the spreadsheet until they’re all made, I can’t tell what you’ve changed. Capisce?

Here are the teams playing in lucky Week 13:

Thursday, December 1st

YOUR THURSDAY PICK IS DUE BY 5PM CT, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1ST

Dallas at Minnesota

Sunday, December 4th

YOUR SUNDAY AND MONDAY PICKS ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4TH

Denver at Jacksonville

Detroit at New Orleans

Miami at Baltimore

Rams at New England

San Francisco at Chicago

Houston at Green Bay

Philadelphia at Cincinnati

Kansas City at Atlanta

Buffalo at Oakland

Tampa Bay at San Diego

Washington at Arizona

Giants at Pittsburgh

Carolina at Seattle

Indianapolis at Jets – TIE BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Cleveland, Tennessee

Have fun, everyone! Good luck!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 11:00 AM, November 29th (Tuesday)]

18 comments posted: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 11 Results; Week 12 Games

Sorry for the late recap and standings, peeps. I don’t know what it is about short business weeks, but needless to say, I’ve been spending WAY too much of my time herding kittens and playing phone tag. How about you?

I’m just gonna hit you with some funnies and the stats as there are three games on Thanksgiving and I want you to all have enough prognostication time to get your picks in as they will be due before y’all strap on the feed bags.

...and I thought I was having a rough week...

Yup. It’s hard to even remember when the 49er’s were taking it out on everyone else.

I’m pulling for him big time tonight on Dancing with the Stars – how about you?

‘nuf said. Wind, schwind. #kickerfail

Just for you, MissesJai:

This isn’t so much commentary on the Packers as it Is a much needed Jon Hamm fix for myself. (Don’t be haters)

Onto this week’s standings. Once again former Commissioner lingerdog has managed to have an incredible week, this time losing only two games for a Swami-like 12/14 week, taking top honors this week.

Way to go, lingerdog! Woo Hoo!

Three players – HeavyE, Chria and MadeOfScars came in second through fourth with 11/14 correct, while four players to included Wasted Time, 3kids30years, minusone and scared&stronger had 10 correct to take fifth through eighth place respectively. Yours Truly, nowiknow23 and devasted30 ended up with 9 correct picks to round out the top eleven spots.

We’re still running a close overall contest, pickers, with Chria claiming first place all alone, with 103 cumulative points. A true tie for second occurred this week with 3kids30years and HeavyE both ending up with 102 points, while devasted30 claimed third place with 97. Coming in fourth was MadeOfScars, also with 97, while weekly winner lingerdog garnered fifth place with 95. In sixth through the Top Ten, we have WastedTime with 93, minus one with 92, Yours Truly with 90, scared&stronger with 89 and Manningup26 with 83.

There’s good news and bad news for Week 12. Good news first – we say buh bye to Bye Weeks and International play...bad news, there are three games being played on Thanksgiving Day, so those picks will all be due earlier than normal. Don’t miss out on three potential points, pickers!

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24TH

YOUR THURSDAY PICKS FOR ALL THREE GAMES ARE DUE NO LATER THAN 9 AM CT, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24TH.

Minnesota at Detroit

Washington at Dallas

Pittsburgh at Indianapolis

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27TH

YOUR SUNDAY AND MONDAY PICKS ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27TH

San Diego at Houston

Giants at Cleveland

Cincinnati at Baltimore

Arizona at Atlanta

Rams at New Orleans

Jacksonville at Buffalo

San Francisco at Miami

Tennessee at Chicago

Seattle at Tampa Bay

Carolina at Oakland

New England at Jets

Kansas City at Denver

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28TH

Green Bay at Philadelphia – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone – have fun!

And have an awesome Thanksgiving!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 4:27 PM, November 22nd (Tuesday)]

14 comments posted: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 10 Results; Week 11 Games

We bid adieu to Week 10 in the N.F.L. and it’s looking like it was the “Coulda Woulda Shoulda?” week of the season...

...Coulda Chiefs REALLY be 7-2?

...Shoulda teams (all of them) go to white shoes?

...Woulda take the under on Mike McCarthy’s days being numbered?

Gotta say, the aforementioned Will Parks running in a fabulously blocked field goal attempt for two shoulda been called back. Hey, I’m a die-hard Broncos fan and even I agree he went out of bounds. Still, those two extra points made all the difference in the final ticks of the game. Guess what, players? Brock Osweiler actually three TWO – COUNT ‘EM TWO! – TD’s this week as the Texans beat the Jags on the road. Makes that humongo contract look just a bit better, right Texan fans? The Vikings continue their slide after starting the season on fire, losing their fourth in a row, this time to the Redskins. The aforementioned Chiefs literally stole Carolina’s win from them with a late game steal to set-p a game winning field goal. THAT’S how you get to 7-2.

The Rams and Jets finished with a baseball 9-6 score thanks to L.A. having an accurate kicker (who provided them all their points). That game was almost as boring as Thursday night’s. Almost. The Cardinals were able to also win with a 34-yarder as time expired, allowing them to hit the .500 mark (oh yeah, they also have that tie, lest we forget), and hand San Francisco a 1-8 record. Seattle was able to reignite their infamous goal-line defense to take an almost sure victory away from Brady and Company in the Super Bowl XLIX rematch on Sunday night. Me thinks Pete Carroll is still laughing. Finally, the only Manning still playing managed to squeak one out over Cincy on a fourth-down, fourth-quarter TD to beat the Bengals by a point last night.

This said, I for one, do enjoy the yogurt he pushes.

The Patriots just made the Shoulda List. #payback

All that shakin’ up in NCAA Football this past weekend may have made the Browns dreams come true.

Onto our pickers. For the third time this season, devasted30 has ended up on top with her amazing prognostication skills, this time scoring a fabulous 10/13 correct picks to take first place.

Way to go, devasted30! Woo Hoo!

Also with 10 correct is perennial great picker 3kids30years who took second place. Coming in third this week is scared&stronger with 9, while also with nine correct, we have Chria, minusone and lostbutnotgone to round out the top five. In sixth place this week is last week’s winner lingerdog, who along with Yours Truly and Heavy E had 8 correct picks. Rounding out the Top Ten is MadeOfScars with 7 correct and Manninup26 with 6 correct picks.

In the overall standings, Chria has finally clawed his way to Top Dog tying 3kids30years with 92 points each. I’m tellin’ y’all, this is gonna be a close race to the finish!

Congrats, Chria!

Coming in third overall is HeavyE with 91 points, our weekly winner devasted30 has 88 overall for fourth place, MadeOfScars is in fifth with 86 points, while WastedTime and lingerdog each have 83 thus far for sixth and seventh places, respectfully. Coming in eighth overall is minusone with 82, while Yours Truly clings onto life in the Top Ten in ninth with 81 with scared&stronger rounding out the top finishers with 79 for tenth place.

Here’s what’s on tap for our pre-Turkey day games in Week 11:

Thursday, November 17TH

YOUR THURSDAY PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH

New Orleans at Carolina

Sunday, November 20TH

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20TH

Chicago at Giants

Arizona at Minnesota

Baltimore at Dallas

Tennessee at Indianapolis

Buffalo at Cincinnati

Pittsburgh at Cleveland

Jacksonville at Detroit

Tampa Bay at Kansas City

Miami at Rams

Philadelphia at Seattle

New England at San Francisco

Green Bay at Washington

Monday, November 21st

Houston at Oakland – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Atlanta, Denver, Jets, San Diego

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

14 comments posted: Tuesday, November 15th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 9 Results; Week 10 Games

So pickers...here we are already into Week 9 of the 2016 season – can you believe it! I’m starting to panic already that football will soon be gone and our Thursdays and Sundays becoming boring again.

Question for you all: Does anyone think the Browns will win even a single game this season? My friends Penny and Mark sure hope so…diehard Brownies that they are, sporting their brown and orange every week, all fashionable and stuff only to have to walk away with their heads held low. Well, let’s hold our breath for them, and here’s to the underdogs and those that got it done this week.

Let’s start with a nod to this week’s close games...the Chiefs over the Jags by just 5...Miami squeaking past the Jets by a mere 4, breathing new life into the Fins...the Vikings went down...again...to yet another animal named team, this time the Lions, making them the best in their division – yep, you read that right. DETROIT, baby! Kaepernick threw a mind blowing first half with 286 yards – again IN THE FIRST HALF - only to lose 41-23 at the end of the day. Me thinks if things don’t change around real quick in the land of cheese (squirrels be damned), somebody’s leaving and it ain’t gonna be Mr. Rodgers...the Bolts continue to electrify while the Broncos (and y’all know how hard this is for me to say) need to get their crap together (right, WastedTime12?}...and here's to Seattle who won their 11th straight Monday night game thanks in large part to Jimmy Graham’s two one-handed catches and some hurdling action in the open field, staving off a late coming rally from the Bills.

Onto the funnies.

Dancing With The Kickers! This move actually has a name – it’s the Rabona. Save that info for bar trivia.

Soooo close…until the end of the first quarter.

I so want to be this dude’s agent.

I really can’t say too much about his look. My mom cut mine and my siblings’ hair like this for years.

Onto this week’s standings. We have a new weekly winner in lingerdog who along with HeavyE (who came in second) and Chria (who landed in third) managed to get an outstanding 11/13 correct picks this week. His very astute weekly tie-breaker allowed him to edge out the other two and take this week’s top honors.

Congrats, lingerdog! Woo Hoo!

Coming in fourth was MadeOfScars sitting alone with 10 correct, while 3kids30years and nowiknow23 each had 9/13 for fifth and sixth, respectively. Rounding out the Top Ten was devasted30 with 8 for seventh, scared&stronger also with 8 for eighth with minusone and Manningup26 each with 7 correct to take the last two spots.

We had some pretty significant shuffling among the players for the cumulative point leader, with HeavyE and Chria tying with 83, giving the edge to HeavyE with a more accurate tie-breaker. Our steady leader 3kids30years fell by one to third place, while MadeOfScars jumped up two spots to take over fourth. In fifth place again is devasted30 with 78 points, while WastedTime dropped four spots from second to sixth overall. With his win this week, lingerdog jumped up three spots to take the Elway spot, while Yours Truly with an incredibly bad week this week, dropped to eighth overall. Rounding out the top ten in ninth and tenth places respectively are minusone with 73 and Manningup26 with 70.

We start this week’s games with a barn burner as Cleveland gets their chance to wear their color rush Orange versus the Ravens. Maybe it'll help? Who knows!

Thursday, November 10th

YOUR PICK FOR THURSDAY’S GAME IS DUE BY 5 PM CT THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH

Cleveland at Baltimore

Sunday, November 13th

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY GAMES ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13TH

Houston at Jacksonville

Kansas City at Carolina

L.A. Rams at N.Y. Jets

Atlanta at Philadelphia

Green Bay at Tennessee

Minnesota at Washington

Chicago at Tampa Bay

Denver at New Orleans

Miami at San Diego

San Francisco at Arizona

Dallas at Pittsburgh

Seattle at New England

Monday, November 14th

Cincinnati at N.Y. Giants – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Buffalo, Detroit, Indianapolis, Oakland

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

19 comments posted: Tuesday, November 8th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 8 Results: Week 9 Games

Halloween shenanigans, I tell ‘ya. All across the league.

Two tie, all tie, and in in our case all lose. AGAIN.

After the Bills took out the Brady-less Patriots in Week Four, the possible/probable/at-the-very-least-strong MVP candidate came back and not only avenged that mishap but also made Rex Ryan eat his pre-game words as he and Company handed down a 41-25 smack down. Me thinks it’s time we all stopped picking the Cardinals…just sayin'.

The Browns...OH, SO CLOSE...but no cigar...playing the Jets really was their chance. Me thinks it’s also time we all stopped picking the Colts. Grrrrr! Matt Ryan and the passive-aggressive Falcons chose aggression this week and won the slug out with Aaron Rodgers while Tony Romo must REALLY now be shaking in his boots with the Cowboys nailbiter OT win over Philly with Prescott at the helm. Finally, the award for best recap this season on the Saints vs. Seahawks game goes to FOX sports:

With it being Halloween yesterday, NFL fans all weekend sported their very best costumes. Here are some of the gems I came across:

‘nuf said.

Speaking of Romo...

Even Cam Newton got into it, dressing as the Joker. Oh wait, it’s just another Cam post-game fashion statement.

It’s hard to imagine anyone feeling more tricked than Jamie Collins right now...

Onto our pickin’s…we’ve got a brand spankin’ new weekly winner this week with HeavyE coming in first for the first time this season on a game shortened wacky upset week with an awesome 10/13 correct picks.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, Heavy E!!!

Three players played well enough to get 9/13 correct, with Chria landing in second, devasted30 in third and WastedTime in fourth place. Our pal lingerdog was the only player with 8 correct, taking fifth place for the week. Three players got the Elway number to include minusone in sixth, 3kids30years in seventh and lostbutnotgone in eighth. Rounding out the Top Ten with 6 correct was scared&stronger and Yours Truly.

In the overall standings, 3kids30years is just barely hanging onto the lead thanks to a savvy tie-breaker pick, as WastedTime takes second with both players posting 73 correct picks thus far. Chria and HeavyE have 72 points for third and fourth respectively, while devasted30 sits alone in fifth place with 70. MadeOfScars is in sixth with 69, Yours Truly landed in the Elway spot with 67, minusone is in eight with 66, JM72 took ninth with 65, and rounding out the Top Ten is lingerdog with 64 points.

As we head into the second half of the season, it’s still anyone’s game! Woo Hoo! Me loves those close ones! Oh, and Woo Hoo! – NO MORE LONDON GAMES!!!

N.F.L. Games Week 9

Thursday, November 3rd

YOUR THURSDAY PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD

Atlanta at Tampa Bay

Sunday, November 6th

YOUR SUNDAY AND MONDAY PICKS ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH

Dallas at Cleveland

Pittsburgh at Baltimore

Philadelphia at Giants

Detroit at Minnesota

Jets at Miami

Jacksonville at Kansas City

New Orleans at San Francisco

Carolina at Rams

Tennessee at San Diego

Indianapolis at Green Bay

Denver at Oakland

Monday, November 7th

Buffalo at Seattle – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Arizona, Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington, New England, Houston

Good luck, everyone! Have fun!

The Commish

18 comments posted: Tuesday, November 1st, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 7 Results: Week 8 Games

Gonna have to just give an update with just the stats this week as I’m up to my butt in alligators at work and unfortunately won’t have time to do a full-blown recap.

Let’s start with settling the whole Seattle vs. Arizona debacle.

You win.

No, you win.

No, but I’ll miss a kick if you do too.

Okie doke. XOXO

So...unfortunately pickers, just like the two teams, no one wins. It’s as if the game was never played. Which isn’t too far away from reality.

Moving on...

We have a new weekly winner this week, with JM72 taking top honors with 10/15 correct picks, thanks in large part to his Swami-like picks of Philly and San Diego.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, JM72!

Coming in second with 10 correct picks as well was WastedTime, while steady pickers Manningup26, 3kids30years, Chria and devasted30 had 9/15 for third through sixth. Three players including Yours Truly, MadeOfScars and lostbutnotgone had 8 correct for seventh through ninth places and rounding out the Top Ten was scared&stronger with 7 correct picks.

In the overall standings, 3kids30years remains Top Dog with 66 overall correct picks with JM72 now nipping at her heels in second place with just a one point gap between them. Speaking of one-point gaps, WastedTime is in third place with 64, Chria is in fourth with 63, and HeavyE is in fifth with 62...so, so close, my friends! Rounding out the Top Ten, three players to include Yours Truly, devasted30 and MadeOfScars all have 61 points for sixth through eight, while minusone is in ninth with 59 and Manningup26 in tenth with 58. This truly could be anyone’s game!

Woo Hoo!…there’s ANOTHER London game this week (said no one ever )

Hey, at least I caught it this week. Also, LOTS of teams on bye weeks, so be as accurate as you possibly can – there are only 13 picks for the picking.

Week 8 Games

Thursday, October 27TH

YOUR THURSDAY PICK IS DUE BY 5PM CT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27TH

Jacksonville at Tennessee

Sunday, October 30th – LONDON GAME

YOUR LONDON GAME PICK IS DUE BY 5:00 PM CT SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29TH

Washington “at” Cincinnati

Sunday, October 30TH

YOUR AMERICAN SOIL SUNDAY AND MONDAY PICKS ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30TH

Jets at Cleveland

Seattle at New Orleans

Arizona at Carolina

New England at Buffalo

Oakland at Tampa Bay

Kansas City at Indianapolis

Detroit at Houston

San Diego at Denver

Green Bay at Atlanta

Philadelphia at Dallas

Monday, Oct. 31

Minnesota at Chicago – TIE BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Baltimore, Miami, N.Y. Giants, Pittsburgh, L.A. Rams, San Francisco

Good luck everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

17 comments posted: Tuesday, October 25th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Fricken, Fracken London Game!

Grrr...y'all may need to fire me as Commish.

Forgot AGAIN that the N.F.L. is putting the Giants and the Rams on a plane to London.

Therefore, your first pick on Sunday is due by 8:30 AM CT Sunday. I do believe this is the last one for the season. (Can I get an AMEN???)

I will PM all players who haven't gotten the pick in yet.

My apologies.

Stoopid NFL! Stoopid Commish!

1 comment posted: Thursday, October 20th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 6 Results; Week 7 Games

Slept in a bit today. Hope you don't mind.

Unpredictability ruled in Week 6, especially given that we didn’t quite have the most stellar pickin’s for NFL watching this week. Case(s) in point: the Bears vs. the Jaguars, Tennessee vs. Cleveland and the Rams against the Lions were among the stinkers on the docket. Still there was plenty of surprise as Atlanta started the week off by taking down the Broncos on Thursday night to be followed up with the 1-4 Dolphins beating the 4-1 Steelers much to the dismay of many an S.I. Prognosticator. Brady started at home for the first time and beat the Bengals, while Kaepernick made his first start of the season and lost to the Bills. Da Bears. Da Browns. Need I say more? Sure – Arizona beat Da Jets.

Congrats to Drew Brees who once again got a 400-yard passing game under his belt (his 15th) in a win against the Panthers who have completely found themselves on the slippery slope. The Cowboys rode all over Lambeau and blew away the Pack, raising concerns among the locals that everything from Aaron Rodgers’ vegan diet to his girlfriend are behind his less than stellar-ish typical Rodgers performance YTD. What ‘evs.

Who needs some funnies???

Hmmm…there is a certain level of truth to this.

Good thing the Vikes built a bigger house to handle their new-found fans.

I’ve actually lost count on how many times I’ve used this meme over the years.

It’s got to be pretty darn nerve-wracking being Tony Romo these days.

Moving onto our players, cheers please for lostbutnotgone who posted a stellar week, with 12/15 correct to capture this week’s honors as Top Dog.

Way to go, lostbutnotgone! Woo Hoo!

Three players managed to get 10/15 correct to include Manningup26, devasted30, and JM72 for second through fourth. MadeOfScars and HeavyE got 9 correct to take fifth and sixth places, while Chria, nowiknow23 and minusone each had 8 correct for seventh through ninth places. Coming in tenth for the final Top Ten spot was scared&stronger with 7 correct picks.

In the overall standings, let’s hear it for 3kids30years who has been at the top of the heap for three consecutive weeks, with a two point lead over second place.

Way to go, 3K30Y!!!

After two weeks in second place, WastedTime dropped to fifth, replaced in second by HeavyE. JM72 jumped 3 spots to take over third while MadeOfScars also jumped 3 spots to take over 6th. Yours Truly hit the skids on the heels of my bad week, tumbling to 7th over. It’s all good. Elway’s my favorite Bronco. Jumping to 8th place from 11th was devasted30, while minusone slipped one spot to 9th overall, while staying in the tenth place was scared&stronger.

Easy to see, isn’t it peeps how any given week can make ‘ya or break ‘ya. Still it’s anyone’s game as there is a LOT of football left!!!

Here’s this week’s schedule of N.F.L. shenanigans:

Week 7 Games

Thursday, October 20th

YOUR PICK IS DUE BY 5PM CT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20TH

Chicago at Green Bay

Sunday, October 23rd

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY’S GAMES ARE DUE BY 11AM CT ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23RD

N.Y. Giants at L.A. Rams

Washington at Detroit

Minnesota at Philadelphia

Cleveland at Cincinnati

Indianapolis at Tennessee

Baltimore at N.Y. Jets

Oakland at Jacksonville

New Orleans at Kansas City

Buffalo at Miami

San Diego at Atlanta

Tampa Bay at San Francisco

New England at Pittsburgh

Seattle at Arizona

Monday, Oct. 24

Houston at Denver – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Carolina, Dallas

Good luck, everyone.

Have fun!

The Commish

19 comments posted: Tuesday, October 18th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 5 Results: Week 6 Games

Several players have found out the hard way, (including Yours Truly), that there’s a reason why I always remind y’all to practice safe prognostication. Not picking between teams ends up being as bad as not getting a pick in, and unfortunately points were left on the table. For the record, and even though they wore those horrendous bumble bee uniforms, I would have taken Pittsburgh. My only deeper regret is actually taking Detroit to win – which they did – only to have that pick 86’ed by my missing Pittsburgh. Don’t forget! Double check your picks!

It’s just Week Five in the NFL, yet Marc Trestman became the first coaching casualty of the season after being ousted by the Ravens after just 21 months in Baltimore as their Offensive Coordinator. Gee, that was quick...me wonders if it’s not a Cutler Osmosis thing with the guy. The preseason trade which sent Brock Osweiler to Houston makes John Elway look more brilliant with each passing game, (then again, Paxton Lynch wasn’t exactly channeling his best impression of Peyton Manning on Sunday). In their defense, the Texans were playing JJ Watt-less against Minnesota. Meanwhile up the road in Dallas, Team Elliott-Prescott may have the Cowboys ship finally(?) righted.

On the Left Coast, this gem of a quote came from Philip Rivers: "You can't make this stuff up. You think, 'Is there any other way we can find a way to do this?'”, referring to yet another Charger implosion, this time losing a game on a botched snap in the final ticks of the game. Here’s another gem, this time from thespian Gronk himself on Tommy’s return to the sideline: "Tom always brings the ampness to the table." I TOTALLY have to use the word “ampness” in real life sometime. Finally, here’s to both the Panthers and the Bucs for bringing some class to “Color Block Thursday” with their tasteful duds and for Tampa Bay squeaking it out at the very end, offering a Week Five ending upset. Here’s a special shout-out to scared&stronger and WastedTime who were the only two players to pick the Bucs for the upset.

By all appearances, Odell Beckham and the Giant’s kicking net have kissed and made up.

It’s SOOOOO hard to not pick on the Browns... I know, I know, I shouldn’t be kicking them when they’re down.

Am I the only one that just loves Eli’s p-oed face?

Brady’s baaaacccckkkk...y’all better watch out!

So THIS is what it looked like to Brock on Sunday. Now I get it!

The small picking field thanks to a healthy bye week made each point all that more important (ok, ok, enough about double checking picks), and last year’s champ lingerdog schooled us all with a fantastic 11/14 correct picks.

Way to go, lingerdog! Woo Hoo!!!

Coming in second with 10 correct was minusone, while scared&stronger claimed the last spot in the top three with 9 correct. Four players had 8 correct to take fourth through seventh places, to include HeavyE, Yours Truly, Chria and MadeOfScars. Rounding out the Top Ten with 7 correct picks was WastedTime, devasted30 and JM72.

The race for the title got tighter yet 3kids30years managed to hang onto first place with 50 overall points, with just eight points separating the Top Ten, proving that this indeed is anyone’s game on any given Sunday (or Thursday or later in the season, Saturday). Keep it happening, 3k30y!

The Broncos come back quickly to play again Thursday without the services of head coach Kubiak who has been sidelined for a week while he deals with intense migraine issues. Here’s a heap of good ol’ fashioned S.I. MOJO to Kub that it’s nothing serious and he’s back in the saddle soon.

WEEK 6 GAMES

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13TH

YOUR PICK IS DUE BY 5:00 PM CT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13TH

Denver at San Diego

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16TH

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY GAMES ARE DUE BY 11:00 AM CT SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16TH

Rams at Detroit

San Francisco at Buffalo

Jacksonville at Chicago

Cleveland at Tennessee

Philadelphia at Washington

Baltimore at Giants

Carolina at New Orleans

Pittsburgh at Miami

Cincinnati at New England

Kansas City at Oakland

Atlanta at Seattle

Dallas at Green Bay

Indianapolis at Houston

MONDAY, OCTOBER 17TH

Jets at Arizona – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Minnesota, Tampa Bay

Good luck, everyone!

Have fun!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 6:25 AM, October 11th (Tuesday)]

25 comments posted: Tuesday, October 11th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 4 Results: Week 5 Games

Insomnia. Insomnia is the reason the update is already posted.

Thanks again for your understanding and grace with your comments and PM’s regarding the London game mistake.

Majority rules: Everyone’s a winner!!! Commishing can be tough sometimes!

Week Four turned out to be a week of spoilers doing their very best to ruin dreams of winning games for players and the hopes of our pickers, the biggest being a shut-out of the Patriots (their first since 2006) by the Bills. The Lions played the Bears, so would that really be a spoiler either way? Nonetheless, the Bears pulled that one out. The Browns had a good shot against the Redskins, but Kirk Cousins spoiled their day, leaving Cleveland as the only team without a win yet this season. Those feisty Raiders spoiled Baltimore’s shot at a perfect 4-0 opening to the season by squeaking out a 29-27 win in the final ticks of the game. Matt Ryan threw for 503 yards and four touchdowns — yes, you read that correctly, and yes, Matt Ryan was involved – with 300 yards alone going to Julio Jones to put the ! in their game against Carolina spoiling yet another Sunday for Cam. No one really gave the L.A. Rams much preseason creed, yet they went on to hand Arizona yet another surprising loss and climbed to 3-1 overall, while dem der Vikings rolled to a 4-0 start in the NFL’s most pimped out home field advantage.

Speaking of that London game...

If he doesn’t pass concussion protocol this week, Cam will be able to take some time to reflect.

Y’all know me and my penchant for picking on Tannehill.

Whelp...they kinda do...

Onto our players…Week 4 turned out to be a good week indeed for 3kids30years who had a good weekend indeed, going 12/15 to take the weekly honors.

Way to go, 3kids30years! Woo Hoo!

Second through sixth place was split with a whole gaggle of pickers (4 to be exact) who came out with 11/15 picks to include: Manninup26, Chria, lingerdog, WastedTime and JM72. Rounding out the Top Ten were MadeOfScars, lostbutnotgone and devasted30 with 9/15, while scared&stronger topped a group of four players with 8/15 correct to take tenth place.

Her win in Week 4 allowed 3kids30years to take a 4-point lead overall, claiming the frontrunner honors just ahead of WastedTime with 40, while Chria, sportsfan, Yours Truly, HeavyE and JM72 all finished with 38 points. MadeOfScars claimed the Elway spot, devasted30 took eighth, minusone is in ninth while our ill Empress, nowiknow23 fell to tenth. Glad you’re better, NIK!

There are two teams on bye this week, so pick carefully, peeps as there are even less points out there to grab!

Week 5 Games

Thursday, October 6th

YOUR PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6th

Arizona at San Francisco

Sunday, October 9th

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY GAMES ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9TH

Washington at Baltimore

Tennessee at Miami

Houston at Minnesota

Chicago at Indianapolis

Jets at Pittsburgh

Philadelphia at Detroit

New England at Cleveland

Atlanta at Denver

San Diego at Oakland

Buffalo at Rams

Cincinnati at Dallas

Giants at Green Bay

Monday, October 10th

Tampa Bay at Carolina – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Bye Weeks: Jacksonville, Kansas City, New Orleans, Seattle

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

29 comments posted: Tuesday, October 4th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks- Week 3 Results: Week 4 Games

ETA: Don't get used to this early posting of results...I have an action packed day and this was the only time I could fit this in.

If your favorite team’s name or city starts with a “C”, chances are you didn’t have a very good football weekend. Cleveland and Chicago fell to 0–3, while Cincy and the Cards ended up with 1-2 starts and Carolina’s woes continued with the Cats going 1-2 given Cam’s three interceptions on the day.

Teams with P’s fared much better, with Philadelphia proving to be the shock and awe team of the season thus far, shellacking their crosstown Steeler opponents 34-3. The Patriots continue to defy Roger Goodall by winning again for a 3-0 perfect start, though it looks like their QB problems have gotten worse as they wait out the injury report on their number three man Jacoby Brissett’s jacked up thumb. Then we had the Pack Coming Back from an embarrassment last week to upend the Lions thanks to A Rod’s four first half TD’s. My Sunday? At a Packer Party (with my Broncos on a lone TV ), with Jell-O Shots for every Packer TD. Thank you, Aaron!!!

Such fun, right? But not nearly as much fun as watching this spectacle thanks to Odell Beckham losing it after Eli’s game-losing INT:

Seriously, what are the odds of THAT happening?

Speaking of Eli...

Can we give our Browns fans some hugs, please?

I, for one, look forward to Cam’s post game presser duds:

Still...Belichick never seems to break a sweat while his QB world spins outta control. I’m guessing those hoodies have wicking lining in them.

So, I hear NIK has a cat up for adoption.

I have a coworker who claims he doesn’t bet on football until at least week four or even five because he believes that teams aren’t sure how they are playing yet, there’s too many adrenalin fueled injuries and on and on. I’m beginning to think he may have some valid arguments. What I like about these early weeks is they can in some ways become the big(s) equalizer here in our pool, moving peeps around and up and down the leaderboard, giving everyone a taste of victory, and others the gym shoes smell of defeat.

This week was no exception as we see a new player take the lead with 11/16 correct picks.

Let's hear it for devasted30. Way to go!!!

Nice picking there!

Coming in second was trash talking JM72 with 10 correct to lead the gaggle of 10-pick pickers. In this group we also find HeavyE, 3kids30 years and Skibunny. Those players in the remaining Top Ten managed to get 9 games correct, and leading the way in this group was MadeOfScars, followed by Yours Truly, Chria, sportsfan and scared&stronger.

The overall standings also saw some shufflin’ with Steady Betty Skibunny taking back first place with a total of 33 cumulative points with NIK’s cat coming in second with 33 as well - that’s an average of 11 right each week for all you math whizzes – which equals some darn good pickin’! 3kids30years is now in third place with 32 correct, while HeavyE, Yours Truly and sportsfan all have 30 thus far. Rounding out the top ten are WastedTime with 29, while three players ended up with 27 points – JM72, MadeOfScars and minusone for the final three Top Ten spots.

It’s looking like a real dog fight as we head into Bye Weeks, and my advice on that is with less teams to pick, you’re picking has to be exceptional with these heavy hitting players we have this season!

Week 4 Games

Thursday, September 29th

YOUR PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29th

Miami at Cincinnati

Sunday, October 2nd

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY GAMES ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2nd

Indianapolis at Jacksonville

Buffalo at New England

Seattle at Jets

Detroit at Chicago

Carolina at Atlanta

Oakland at Baltimore

Tennessee at Houston

Cleveland at Washington

Denver at Tampa Bay

Rams at Arizona

New Orleans at San Diego

Dallas at San Francisco

Kansas City at Pittsburgh

Monday, October 3rd

Giants at Minnesota – Tie-Breaker Game

Bye Weeks: Green Bay, Philadelphia

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 7:56 AM, September 27th (Tuesday)]

35 comments posted: Tuesday, September 27th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks- Week 2 Results: Week 3 Games

Week Two proved to be an injury-plagued series of games with a plethora of players among them, Adrian Peterson, Danny Woodhead, Arian Foster, DeMarcus Ware and Jimmy Garoppolo biting the dust resulting with some being out just a few weeks to a month and unfortunately as things progress, longer for others. It still was a fun week, what with besides all that tendon snapping, we got to see Pete Carroll be himself and throw an epic sideline tandem (besides being fined heavily for OTA infractions – poor dude has had himself a bad week), a Packer score the first ever TD in the Viking’s new $1.1 B home and the Browns actually leading a game handily only to end up losing it in the end. Shocked readers on that one, please find your seats to the left.

As to our pen of pigskin prognosticators, well, we REALLY had us a show, but more on that in a bit.

In case you missed it, here is proof of that aforementioned Browns lead:

Besides being on the sideline for the Michigan State Notre Dame game, Tom Brady was getting ready to go in for Garoppolo.

This one’s for you, MissesJai. We miss you. Besides, who can resist yet another MJ Crying meme?

I can’t think of too many things sucking worse than having Sam Bradford beat you as a traded-in-backup-QB.

You know it’s been a crazy week when one player completely annihilates the others and scores a near perfect picking record leaving just about everyone else in her dust. Let’s hear it for nowiknow23, “a.k.a. NIK”, forever known as The Empress for bringing out a big ‘ol can of whoopass and laying down an incredible 15/16 correct picks, catapulting herself not only into the lead this week, but our overall leader as well. Way to go, NIK!

NORMALLY, picks in the 10-8 range are considered pretty good, and that’s where the rest of us fell, with sportsfan commanding second with 11 correct, while Yours Truly, 2kids20years and last week’s winner Skibunny had 10/16 picked right. Rounding out the top ten were those with 9/16 to include HeavyE, Chria, minusone, WastedTime and MadeOfScars.

Just for you, NIK:

NIK’s two good weeks give her sole ownership of the top of the heap overall with an incredible 26 points in just two weeks of play. Skibunny slipped into second with 23, while third place belongs to 3kids30years with 22. Four players to include minusone, AJ’s MOM, sportsfan and WastedTime have 21 correct picks thus far, and rounding out the top ten are HeavyE in eight with 20 while Chria and MadeOfScars both have 18 for ninth and tenth places, respectively.

We’ve got some good match-ups on tap for Week Three, but if you’re like me, you’re gonna be sharpening your pencils in the hopes of catching NIK.

Practice Safe Prognostication, Peeps!

Week 3 Games

Thursday, September 22nd

YOUR PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22nd

Houston at New England

Sunday, September 25th

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY GAMES ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH

Minnesota at Carolina

Detroit at Green Bay

Baltimore at Jacksonville

Arizona at Buffalo

Oakland at Tennessee

Cleveland at Miami

Washington at Giants

Denver at Cincinnati

San Francisco at Seattle

Rams at Tampa Bay

Jets at Kansas City

San Diego at Indianapolis

Pittsburgh at Philadelphia

Chicago at Dallas

Monday, September 26th

Atlanta at New Orleans – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

27 comments posted: Tuesday, September 20th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks- Week 1 Results: Week 2 Games

#amirite?

So it dawned on me that the recaps in years past were kinda long, not just for you all to read but for me to write (that was a shameless plea for sympathy)...yeah, I didn’t think that would work. That and as I watched my Broncos take out the Panthers yet again (when you’re Commish you can REALLY pump your favorite team ), it occurred to me that perhaps less recap of games you all have watched with just a few points here and there, some funnies and more time spent on how this skillful bunch of prognosticators worked their magic would be a better approach to our pool.

With that all in mind...here ya go!

The start of the NFL season saw one elite QB sitting out a 4-game suspension and another finding himself out for the season before it even started. We witnessed a couple of newly minted QB’s having fun and game-winning success, some defensive lines were awesome, some not so, and the same for offensive playmakers. Then there were the refs. And that twerking episode. Oy vey. But the very best was the drunk running all amuck Levi’s Stadium last night. Do yourselves all a favor and Google Kevin Harlan’s play calling on that. A. Guaranteed. Gut. Buster.

All in all, it was a great way to open the season to give us fans all something to either cheer about or hope for as the season continues.

Here’s a coupla’ of those funnies I mentioned:

Wishing these three some get well MOJO:

I actually saw this happen live. For a minute I thought I had been served some stale Summer Shandy and was hallucinating.

If you think these helmets are bad, prepare yourselves for “NFL Color Rush Thursdays” which start this week.

Onto our pickers. One of the best things in running this pool is meeting new people and seeing the newbies rise to the top of the heap right away. I was not disappointed this year at all, with three – count ‘em – three new members posting excellent picking prowess with landing in the Top Ten. Let’s hear it for those newbies!

Topping the leaderboard out of the gate is Skibunny who had a fabulous week with only missing three games by going against the curve by not only taking Detroit (she got ya, JM72) but also San Francisco for the big upsets of the day, ending up with 13/16 picked correctly. Way to go, Skibunny!

Three players ended up with 12/16 correct to take 2nd – 4th places, with congratulations in order for WastedTime, minusone (another newbie) and 3kids30years. Those with 11/16 include nowiknow23, Yours Truly, HeavyE and JM72 (yet another good pickin’ newbie!) for 5th – 8th places, while sportsfan and scared&stronger both with 9/16 grabbed the 9th and 10th place spots in the coveted Top Ten. I warned y’all about the importance of an accurate tie-breaker point choice, **cough, cough ** says the person who had a 42 on a 28 point game , so as we go forward keep that in mind as those in the top picked those tie-breakers really, really well. Pert near clairvoyant in fact!

Here’s the whole group of all of you’s standings after Week One:

Edited to add: **WHOA – COMMISH IS MAKING A CHANGE ALREADY!!! **

As I worked through putting the info for the pool spreadsheet it became painfully obvious that with the teams with initials in front of their city names there’s gonna be trouble down the road. For this reason I’m electing to use team names JUST for the following three teams: N.Y. Jets, N.Y. Giants and L.A. Rams. Which makes it even more important that you copy and paste your picks into the thread properly.

Thanks for abiding by all the rules folks, as it surely made it much easier given the big pool of players we have this year. Trust me, it’s VERY much appreciated.

Here we go with this week’s games, with pick deadlines noted. Just a reminder, don’t forget your tie-breaker for Monday’s game.

Week Two Games

Thursday, September 15th

YOUR PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH

Jets at Buffalo

Sunday, September 18th

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY GAMES ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18TH

New Orleans at Giants

Kansas City at Houston

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh

Dallas at Washington

Miami at New England

Tennessee at Detroit

Baltimore at Cleveland

San Francisco at Carolina

Tampa Bay at Arizona

Seattle at Rams

Indianapolis at Denver

Jacksonville at San Diego

Atlanta at Oakland

Green Bay at Minnesota

Monday, September, 19th

Philadelphia at Chicago – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have fun, peeps!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 8:03 PM, September 13th (Tuesday)]

23 comments posted: Tuesday, September 13th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks- Week One Games

How ‘bout 'dem Badgers?

Sometimes redemption comes in the form of a football game. Seeing F’n G is an infidelity-free zone and I REALLY like MH and DS and treasure my membership here, I can’t expound, but suffice to say, I haven’t stopped smiling all weekend.

OK...onto the task at hand. Welcome to this season’s S.I. N.F.L. Pigskin Picks pool, where your skill, nerves and determination will surely be tested, but isn’t that what football is all about?

HOW WE PLAY

This will be a confidence pool – you simply need to pick the teams you feel confidently will win. If the team for each game you pick wins, you get a point; if the team you pick loses, you get nadda-nuttin’-zilch, so it’s very important you practice save (and correct) prognostication.

Once you make your picks, you simply have to list them on the weekly thread. In the event of a tie between players in total games picked correctly for the week, the tie-breaker will be the Monday Night Football (MNF) game where you will need to guess the total of the final score. The tied player closest to the final MNF score without going over will be that week’s winner. In case of a tie within a tie with the MNF score, we’ll have one of MH and DS’s fur babies point to a user name onscreen to determine the ultimate winner. We’ve never had to use this tactic, but if life has taught me anything over the course of my membership here, it’s “never say never”, especially when SUPER adorable Pomeranians are involved.

There are two exceptions for the MNF games in terms of the tie-breaker: On Week 1, there are two MNF games being played, so the tie-breaking game will be the last game being played, in this case it is the L.A. Rams at San Francisco game (BTW, welcome back to football, L.A.). Once MNF ends, we’ll just use the last game played on that final Sunday.

The player with the most correct picks at the end of the regular season wins the illustrious title of “S.I. – Pigskin Picks Champion!” That’s it – just a title and accolades from your fellow players. No money, no autographed footballs, no Super Bowl tickets, no JJ Watt jerseys – just bragging rights for a whole off-season.

After the season, those players interested in continuing through the playoffs and onto the Super Bowl will be entered into another pool. Should you win that round, again, you win nothing – just another title. If you’re into titles, great. If you need cash, try your luck in the Powerball drawing.

Updates with the winners and information on the next week's games will be posted each week on a new thread sometime on Tuesday, but as there are Thursday games, my advice is to think ahead each week to at least know who you’ll be taking on Thursday.

PICK DEADLINES:

Your picks for the week will be due no later than Game Day at 11 a.m. CT. to include the Thursday night and (when played) the Thanksgiving Day games. You may enter all your picks for the week then or just for the game being played on Thursday night or Turkey Day. Picks for the Sunday and MNF games will be due at 11 a.m. CT on Sunday morning. Don’t worry about remembering all of this as I’ll post pick deadlines each week.

The season starts on Thursday, September 8th, when the SUPER BOWL CHAMPION DENVER BRONCOS play the rubber match against the Carolina Panthers.

HOW TO POST PICKS:

Simply copy the games listed as below and then paste them into your reply thread. Then you must edit the information down to JUST the teams you are picking to win...(veteran players, please help the newbies)then I take the information you provide and copy/paste it into a mega-sized Excel spreadsheet which needs to have the order of the games match. Given this, please refrain from using any of the awesome features here, such as the bold or italic features as the less editing I have to do, the better.

Next to the tie-breaker game (which will always be clearly noted), place your guess as to the total score of that game. To help you figure that out, research – *cough, cough*/earmuff the children/don’t Google this at work – the over/under for each game which can be freakishly accurate at times.

REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF – (BOLDED TO SHOW ITS IMPORTANCE):

In fairness to all players (and to help keep my sanity), it is each player’s responsibility to ensure that they have a team selected for each game and/or clearly indicate who their winning pick will be. If changes are made, they must be made by the deadline indicated for each week on your original posting - SUPER IMPORTANT HERE - OR THE PICK WILL NOT COUNT. The edited post time stamp will determine whether or not a pick is in on time.

I will do my best to “catch” picks that are not listed but I am merely a human wrapped in Broncos gear for the season, so in the end, it is up to each player to review the number of teams they have picked to ensure they match the total number of games being played in a given week.

Finally, we really want you to enjoy the next seventeen and change weeks, so sit back, have fun making your picks and let’s get ready for some genuine smack talking!

Here we go!

Week One Games

Thursday, September 8th

YOUR PICK IS DUE BY 5 PM CT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH

Carolina at Denver

Sunday, September 11th

YOUR PICKS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY GAMES ARE DUE BY 11 AM CT, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH

Buffalo at Baltimore

Green Bay at Jacksonville

San Diego at Kansas City

Oakland at New Orleans

Chicago at Houston

Cleveland at Philadelphia

Minnesota at Tennessee

Tampa Bay at Atlanta

Cincinnati at N.Y. Jets

Miami at Seattle

N.Y. Giants at Dallas

Detroit at Indianapolis

New England at Arizona

Monday, September 12th

Pittsburgh at Washington

L.A. Rams at San Francisco – TIE BREAKER GAME

Have fun, peeps!

The Commish

32 comments posted: Monday, September 5th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Are You Ready For Some Football?

Before any more franchise QB’s go down, how about we all go about testing our prognostication skills in our annual S.I. Pigskin Picks Football pool? Sound good?

First and foremost, a big THANK YOU to fellow Commission lingerdog for taking the reins last season, giving me the chance to take a well needed breather and allowing me the time needed to bite my nails week after week as my Broncos made their way through the regular season onto becoming SB50 Champs. (Oh, come on now, you KNEW I had to get that in somehow!) Commish lingerdog did an outstanding job and hopefully will come back as a player this year – but to that, fair warning y’all – he’s an EXCEPTIONAL picker!

For any newbies out there, this is the formal announcement of the (??)th/rd year that S.I. offers up the chance for all of you Couch QB’s to pit your football smarts (and lucky guesses) against your fellow members’ in what we like to call the “S.I. N.F.L. Pigskin Picks Pool.”

This post lays out the beginnings of how our little game works: it’s a confidence pool format in which you will carefully chose a winner from the two teams playing in each game for each week to earn a point for a win and a stale donut, a BIG FAT ZERO, nope, nada, nothin’ for a loss. I then employ the services of an elaborate Excel program (a.k.a. “The Ginormous Spreadsheet”) to compile the data on a weekly basis to determine our winner – that being the picker who has the most winners in the week. If that’s you, you will be crowned the pool’s Weekly Winner, working your way to the final week of the season to maybe, possibly, hopefully, become the “S.I. 2016-17 N.F.L. Pigskin Picker Champion!”

Along the way we strongly encourage team support and smack talk to keep things lively as long as you don’t lean into, tread on or break any S.I. site rules...cuz it ain't worth losing your membership over a football game.

If we’re all playing well and getting along nicely, we go into the Playoff and Super Bowl rounds and crown yet another Champion for that pool. Woo Hoo!!! Lookie that, peeps – numerous chances to win! The fun never seems to end!

No money is exchanged in this pool, which means at the end of the season if you do end up winning, all you'll get is the admiration and accolades of the nearly 60,000 members here…which, come to think of it...if they all sent me just a $1.00...just kidding, MH & DS!

So if you think you absolutely, positively cannot live without participating, kindly reply to this thread as to your interest and I’ll be back soon with the full blown rules, Week One's games schedule and other important information.

Jump on in – the water’s FUN!!!

AJ’s MOM

a.k.a. “The Commish”

12 comments posted: Thursday, September 1st, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Super Bowl 50 Recap

Sorry for the delay in crafting this update and finale to our pool, but I literally just got my feet back on the ground with the Broncos win over the Panthers on Sunday night. I had a very bad case of OMAHALLELUJAH! for the past three days, with my symptoms just recently subsiding. That, and my brain has finally rinsed itself from the Coldplay / Beyoncé / Bruno Mars halftime show. Given that, hopefully y’all will forgive my less than stellar effort on this recap.

As we all know, defense wins games, and the Orange Crush V2.0 did all they could to defend that theory to its max, holding the Panthers to just 194 yards and a scrawny 4.2 yards per carry, while sacking the usually slick and slippery Cam Newton seven times on the way to their 24-10 victory. Von Miller and the D-line took care of any worry that Peyton would be forced to win the game with his arm, posting his MVP winning performance by logging 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles, one of which was scooped up for the opening touchdown. From then on out, penalties, a critical missed field goal, sloppy play and some questionable calls by the refs (what’s new, right?) prevailed, making made the contest more of a nail biter than it needed to be.

Nonetheless, Super Bowl 50 is in the record books, and will probably be The Sheriff’s Last Rodeo (once he’s done drinking all that Budweiser) but certainly not Cam Newton’s. I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the hilarious memes out there in the interwebz on everything from Eli’s sour face as Denver scored their dagger touchdown to Cam’s crying on the field, so I’ll spare you any repeats. For this fan, it was an A-MAAA-ZING game and a great win for Broncos fans.

Those players correctly choosing Denver as the winner to garner 24 big points in the final round included Yours Truly, Manningup26 and Tornnfrayed. As to crowning our champion, luckily for me with the Broncos prevailing and lingerdog going to the other side (shocking, I know), I was able to snatch victory away from the season winning commissioner to claim the title for the Playoffs to the Super Bowl pool.

Yay, me!

So with that, I’ll bid you all a fond farewell to another wonderful N.F.L. season.

Y’all have fun watching PGA golf and MLB this summer.

The Commish

2 comments posted: Wednesday, February 10th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Conference Games Recap - SB 50

And then there were two. We’ve whittled down all the first downs, offensive penalties, defensive TD’s, goal post hits and misses, rabid fans and torn ACL’s of the 2015 NFL season to the last two teams standing – the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers.

Both teams faced off on Sunday against foes fighting just as hard (well, at least one of them was) to have the chance to be crowned the champions of Super Bowl 50 come February 7th. In the early tussle, Denver prevailed (by just a hair) against the usually dominant Patriots to win the AFC Championship Title. Gotta admit, the second kicker Stephen Gostkowski’s PAT was just-a-bit-outside, I internally hugged myself super hard. (Remember, y’all, I’m a Broncos fan. Legit. Legit as in having gone to Elway’s HOF induction). My spidey senses just knew that one point could come back to bite them, and it did on a failed two-point conversion attempt later on. Manning wasn’t exactly stellar but his performance outdid rival Brady and along with two TD’s from former Badger Owen Daniels (ok, I’m done high-fiving my favorite teams), Denver stuck it out to end the game two-up on the perennial favorites and steal the chance to play in February.

The afternoon game had a lot less excitement as the Carolina Panthers steam rolled the Arizona Cardinals by a healthy margin – in fact, by pert near 50 points healthy – to win the NFC Championship Title. Cam Newton was virtually unstoppable gaining two passing TD’s and two scores rushing. It was clearly not Carson Palmer’s day as he registered just one touchdown while putting up four interceptions and losing two fumbles. He just could not get his stuff together and the Panthers took complete advantage of his lack of performance. Well that and they’re blazing offensive line. Now we all have come to somewhat expect this kind of roller coaster output of Palmer, but to see Larry Fitzgerald rip up the Packers the previous week only to play as if he had just gotten into the league in the one game that REALLY mattered was actually heartbreaking. He finished the game with just four catches and 30 yards – YES – 30 YARDS – along with a couple of drops. My heart breaks for him because of all the players on the field save Peyton Manning this past weekend, he was certainly my pick to get to the Big Dance.

As to our prognosticators, three players were able to nail the Denver upset along with the sure pick of Carolina to sweetly add 24 total points to their tallies. Of the three, scared&stronger had the closet to the pin best tie-breaker pick of 48 against a combined total score of 68 in that Carolina can of whoop-ass game. Yours Truly game in second while sportsfan took third place honors for the weekend.

In the overall standings with just one little game left to play, the tie-breaker played a big role with Yours Truly and sportsfan tying as of close of business Sunday night with 57 points each. Next in line in third place overall is devasted30, while lingerdog and Tornnfrayed sit at 39 points each. This is the first time in recent history that I remember our pool actually needing to go into the Super Bowl to crown a champ, so depending on who picks who (and you know who I’ll be taking ), we’re going to be strapping ourselves in for a thrilling ride to the finish.

In case you haven’t heard, Super Bowl 50 will be played on Sunday, February 7th at Levi’s Stadium (home of the 49’ers). Hopefully those field problems will be cured well in advance. Early lines have the Panthers taking it all, but one never really knows until that last whistle is blown.

Your picks with a tie-breaker will be due no later than 11AM Sunday.

Super Bowl 50

Sunday, February 7th

5:40 PM CT

Carolina vs. Denver

May the best team (and SI Prognosticator) win!

Good luck, everyone!

The Commish

7 comments posted: Wednesday, January 27th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Divisional Recap - Conference Title Games

Dreams were made and hopes dashed over the weekend as the NFL whittled down the field to the final four teams vying for the Lombardi trophy in the Divisional playoffs. Not surprising, all the favorites playing on their home turf emerged victorious though not without some controversy, field heroics and an unusual OT coin toss.

The Patriots earned their fifth right to a Conference title and will face Denver once again for the AFC title by knocking off the Chiefs, busting the Chief’s 11-game winning streak. Having Gronk and Julian Edelman in the lineup surely helped Brady get his grove back and enabled Bill Belichick the right to claim his 10th conference title game appearance tying Tom Landry for most all-time.

Saturday’s second game proved to be a real nail biter as the Packers took on Arizona in the desert in the weekend’s only OT game, thanks to another late 4th quarter Hail Mary pass by Aaron Rodgers. Coin tossing hilarity ensued as the ref tossing the coin failed to get it to actually flip, proving there’s a first time for everything. The victory for the Pack was snatched away by themselves when they somehow left Larry Fitzgerald WIDE OPEN, allowing the future HOF’er to twist and shout his way 75 yards to set up his eventual game winning TD. As of press time, somehow Dom Capers still has his job in Green Bay.

Meanwhile in Carolina, the cats managed to build a 31-0 lead against the Seahawks before they rallied to within a TD as Russell Wilson threw for three touchdowns, two to Jermaine Kearse. Alas, ‘twas not to be for the Hawks as the clock ran out on their playoff hopes, despite executing a rarely played fake punt and a 31-of-48 tries for 366 yards (and those three TD’s) performance by Mr. Wilson, most of it gained in the ill-fated fourth quarter comeback attempt.

Last but not least, the Broncos took care of business at Mile High, ousting Pittsburgh and forcing the Patriots to play in yet another Manning vs. Brady rematch in high altitude. The win by Manning and Co. came despite the Broncos receiving core dropping seven passes in the blustery wind conditions. Wind so strong, that Bronco kicker Brandon McManus joked after hitting his fifth field goal that he just kept aiming “at the guy holding the beer in the top left corner.” That’s my kind of kicker!

Four of our players managed to nail all four games correctly for the coveted 24 points. Congrats to devasted30, who thanks to her great picks and sly tie-breaker guess walks away with the picking prize for the week. Second place went to newly insurgent lingerdog, while sportsfan - last week's winner - took third, while Yours Truly grabbed fourth. Three players to include Manningup26, 3kids30years and Tornnfrayed picked 3 out of 4 games correctly for fifth through seventh place honors. Rounding out the standings, isthismynewlife went 3-4 while scared&stronger got two outta four.

The race to crowing our champion continues to be tight with three players tied with 33 total points thus far to include weekly winner devasted30, sportsfan and Yours Truly. With 27 points earned, lingerdog, 3kids30years and Tornnfrayed are right behind the leaders, while Manningup26 is just behind them. Again rounding out the standings are isthismynewlife and scared&stronger.

The final week of playoff games for their respective Conference Titles will all take place next Sunday, January 24th, with the winners from each game heading to #SB50. These should be some good ones folks, with huge bragging rights on the line not to mention that big game. Your picks will be due by 11AM CT on Sunday.

CONFERENCE TITLE GAMES

Sunday, January 24th

2:05PM CT

New England at Denver

5:40 PM CT

Arizona at Carolina – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 8:11 AM, January 20th (Wednesday)]

12 comments posted: Monday, January 18th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Wild Card Recap - Divisional Round Games

In the year of Justin Bieber’s birth, a.k.a. 1994, the Kansas City Chiefs won a game in the NFL Playoffs. While the Beebs has moved on to become one of the most talented (scratch that) annoying entertainers on the planet, the Chiefs have struggled to get into January play, that is until Saturday, when they goose egged the Texans by bringing out a commanding 30-0 can of whoop ass…once again fueling the debate that JJ Watt needs to be on a better team. If anyone deserves a legitimate kick at the playoffs, it’s him, who had he not had to leave the game due to a groin injury, probably could have scored a defensive TD to save face. Get ‘em next year, JJ.

The first real shoot-out of the playoffs took place in Cincinnati where the bad blood between the Bengals and Steelers reached epic proportions ending with a football field littered with beer cans after it was littered with referee laundry as the Bengals once again imploded in the playoffs. Despite a near heroic comeback by ex-Bama QB AJ McCarron, the penalty laden game proved to be the key reason Cincy has once again played themselves out of contention.

Seattle traveled to the great north taking on negative game time temps and the Vikings in one of the coldest playoff games in NFL history. Legend has it beer turned into slushies, which when you really think about it is really quite ingenious. Thanks, Mother Nature! While it looked like the Vikings were going to pull it off on their home frozen turf on the foot of Blair Walsh and zero end zone trips by the Hawks going into the fourth, Russell Wilson did was Russell does best and began plugging away to go up by one with just 102 clicks on the clock. Enter Mr. Walsh to do what he had done all day – and this time for a short 27 yarder. Alas, it was not to be as he pulled a shankapotomous that not only lost the Vikes the game, but has resulted in him and his family receiving death threats. REALLY, people? Blame the darn hold, would you?

It’s no secret the Packers have been playing blah, blah, blah ball all season, so when they opened their game Sunday night against Washington in their first four drives going punt, safety, punt, punt, no one was all that surprised. In fact, I was pretty happy as I had 5 in the pool and certainly a safety would have greatly helped my cause (alas, in the end, it didn’t). All week Aaron Rodgers vowed to take the game in the air, and he did just that with a couple of TD tosses when combined with a once again efficient running game, enabled the Pack to silence the Redskins and send them (and most certainly RG3) packing. Pun intended.

Our pack of prognosticators employed very astute pickin’, with six out of the nine players tying for first place with awesomeness known as 3 outta 4 correct picks. Leading everyone with a spot-on tie-breaker of 87 was sportsfan. Nicely played, sportsfan nicely played. For those who gambled and didn’t fare quite as well, don’t despair as we increase points per game with each level of playoff.

This week the winners of the Wild Card games face off with those teams who have had the luxury of a week off in the Divisional Round. Picking each correct winner will award players 6 points for each correct pick.

As a reminder, picks are due no later than 11 a.m. CT Saturday and Sunday.

Divisional Round

Saturday, January 16th

3:35 PM CT

Kansas City at New England

7:15 PM CT

Green Bay at Arizona – TIE-BREAKER

Sunday, January 17th

12:05 PM CT

Seattle at Carolina

3:40 PM CT

Pittsburgh at Denver – TIE-BREAKER

Good luck everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

Whoops...had GB playing Cincy...as if.

[This message edited by ajsmom at 11:55 AM, January 13th (Wednesday)]

10 comments posted: Tuesday, January 12th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Wild Card Games

Here we go fellow prognosticators, another chance to showcase your Swami-like pickin’ abilities to choose the winning teams in our Playoffs to the Super Bowl round of the 2015-16 S.I. NFL Pigskin Picks competition. Or, if you missed out on the regular season fun, now’s your chance to jump in!

Here’s how this challenge will work:

1. There are four games being played this weekend (see schedule below) in the Wild Card round. Choosing the winner of each of these games will be worth 3 points. There will be two tie-breaker games – one each day – that must be chosen. The total of the tie-breakers will determine our winners.

2. There will be four games being played the weekend of January 16th & 17th for the Divisional Playoffs. Choosing the winner of each of these games will be worth 6 points. There will be two tie-breaker games – one each day – that must be chosen. The total of the tie-breakers will determine our winners.

3. There will be two games being played on Sunday, January 24th for the Conference Championships to whittle the field down to the final two teams. Choosing the winner of each of these games will be worth 12 points. The late game (Time/Teams TBD) will be the tie breaker.

4. In case you’re interested, the Pro Bowl will be played on Sunday, January 31st. Like everyone else, we won’t care about that game.

5. The Super Bowl will be played on Sunday, February 7th. Correctly choosing the winner and the tie-breaker closest to without going over for the Big Game will be worth 24 points.

6. The player with the highest total points throughout the Playoffs – Super Bowl will be crowned the winner of the S.I. Post-Season NFL Picks Pool.

If you are interested in playing, please reply to this thread with the teams you think will win for the Wild Card weekend games along with your tie-breakers where indicated. If you have any questions, please PM me.

Important notes for this week’s round:

• Your picks are due by 11AM CT on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

• If you post your pick then elect to change it prior to the 11 AM CT deadline, update your thread and then PM me right away with your changes.

WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, January 9th

3:35 PM CT

Kansas City at Houston

7:15 PM CT

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Sunday, January 10th

12:05 PM CT

Seattle at Minnesota

3:40 PM CT

Green Bay at Washington – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have fun everyone, and good luck!

Your Post-Season Commish

10 comments posted: Monday, January 4th, 2016

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - We Crown Our Champion!

After 17 weeks of insane sideline catches, battered QB’s, a brawl or twelve here and there and seemingly never ending injuries by the players, the 2015-16 NFL season came to a close last night with some bold prognostication by our winner to pull off an upset in the same manner as Miami showed ‘dem Patriots who’s da boss.

Relying mostly on the underdogs in Week 17 (except Cleveland cuz he knows better) our winner showed that patience and going for broke was indeed the strategy to grab the crown our of Yours Truly’s tightly grasped fingers.

Let’s hear it for our Comissioner lingerdog, who managed to not only tie me for total points on the last game of the regular season, but thanks to a very savvy tie-breaker pick (and a virtual No Show by The Pack), emerged victorious as our 2015-16 S.I. N.F.L. Pigskin Picks Champion.

Woo Hoo – way to go, lingerdog!!!

Our champ was also this week’s winner, with a stellar 13/16 correct picks. Again…Woo Hoo!!!!

Coming in third overall for the season was scared&stronger with 152 correct picks, while devasted30 ended up just a bit behind with 151 and a fourth place finish. Meanwhile, 3kids30years and Isthismynewlife came in with very respectful fifth and sixth place finishes with 146 and 138 correct throughout the season. Veterans Jrazz and MissesJai tied at the end with 136 for seventh, while Manningup26 took eighth with 134 points. After a few weeks of non-picks, taking ninth this year was Ascendant with 97, while The Empress rounded out our players with 85 total correct picks overall.

Those were our winners while the winning teams vying for continuation of play advanced to the first week of playoff games and the right to play in next weekend’s Wild Card games. Kansas City will face off versus Houston while Pittsburgh and those previously unbeaten Bengals vie for the right to move on in the AFC. The NFC games will feature Seattle battling Washington in the early tussle, while Green Bay does all it can to save face versus those pesky rival Vikings in the afternoon game. Winners of each of these games go on to face divisional rivals the following weekend.

Enjoy some funnies about the week’s biggest winners and losers:

If you haven’t quite satisfied your NFL craving and the desire for some fun hasn’t ended yet, please join us for our Playoffs to the Super Bowl pool with a new thread which will be posted today. Think of it as your chance to really show your stuff or for redemption for picks that were thisclose to getting it done.

Thanks for a wonderful season, and good luck to all those teams still in the hunt for the Lombardi trophy!

The (Back-up) Commish

7 comments posted: Monday, January 4th, 2016

The "Just Sayin'" Thread. A Place to Place Your Random Thoughts.

Act Three of the "Just sayin'" thread.

Carry on, my friends.

Just sayin'.

AJ's MOM

413 comments posted: Monday, August 17th, 2015

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Our Playoffs to Super Bowl Champion!

I’d love to give you a thorough recap on yesterday’s Super Bowl, but I’ve been dead since I was 10.

Not sure about the rest of you, but I didn’t turn the big game on until pert near player announcements (my favorite – of course – “Russell Wilson. From a whole pack of Badgers”), so my pre-game hype zone was in the negative numbers. Having spent the day cleaning, cooking and making travel arrangements for the Houston GTG, the game was going to be my reward for a hard day’s work well done, and besides, the Blind Side was on another channel.

Still, I was hoping for a good game and it did indeed deliver, with an ending only those gambling on the Patriots could have written. It’s too bad that Pete Carroll decided to channel Mike McCarthy to walk away ring-less after having it in the tips of team’s fingers. I consider myself in the “kinda know football” crowd, but beegeebees, RUN THE DAMN BALL, especially when you have someone with Sequoia’s as thighs.

All in all, it was a pretty entertaining way to spend an evening, from the e-l-o-n-g-a-t-e-d National Anthem to the Katy Perry “WTH was that?” halftime show to most of the commercials, favorites to be debated at least throughout the day until everyone forgets what they were trying to sell. Now, onto the important stuff – who won the pool?

Our prognosticators were definitely going toward Seattle to repeat, as six out of nine players chose the Hawks only to be undone by Mr. Carroll. Three players had the brilliance to pick the Patriots, and gain 24 points each for their efforts. Coming in first thanks to her savvy tie-breaker points pick was our season’s champion, purplejacket4. Second place is owned by MadeOfScars who came *thisclose* to taking over first place, with a one point differential in the tie-breaker, while third place went to booger bear. The rest of us players earned our donut for jumping on Seattle’s bandwagon.

By choosing so effectively, purplejacket4 has claimed victory once again, not only in the regular season, but also in the capper, and is hereby crowned “S.I. Pigskin Picks – Super Bowl Pickin’ Champion” of the 2014-15 season!

Woo Hoo – way to go, doc!

Here’s hoping you were using your telepathic picking skills to make some money in Vegas!

The tie-breaker really came into play big-time, as the same three players who took the Super Bowl picking honors finished with the same places in the overall race, with MadeOfScars coming in second, while booger bear took third place. Though she led most of the way in the post-season, devasted30, having taken Seattle ended up in fourth place overall, with Chria in fifth and ray-ray in sixth. STB Commish lingerdog took the Elway spot, while Yours Truly took eighth, Manningup26 and sportsfan tied for ninth, with LAFA, WastedTime12 and scared&stronger rounding out the standings.

So there you have it. Super Bowl XLIX is in the books and it’s only six months and some change before we get to start this whole thing all over.

Thanks again for the honor of being your Commish these past few years. It’s really been a great ride and I look forward to joining y’all as a player next year!

The Commish

5 comments posted: Monday, February 2nd, 2015

N. F. L. Bad Lip Reading 2015

One of my favorite post-season treats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTRmyXX6ipU&sns=em

Enjoy!

AJ's MOM

Lego play date. Snort.

7 comments posted: Thursday, January 22nd, 2015

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Conference Recap - Super Bowl X L I X

So, I received this photo from AJ via text right after the Packer’s game on Sunday:

Yup. Sums it up rather well, I’d say.

What started out as an unexpected upset turned into a demolition fueled by one team’s will surpassing the other team’s staying power. There’s a saying in football that one never lets a good QB – especially a really good QB (even one having a very bad day) get too much time on the clock as the game winds down. While being infused with turnovers and an all too quiet 12th man, the Seahawks looked like they were going to fold into the sunset and let the Packers punch the NFC ticket into the Big Dance. Not so fast, folks. Trailing 19-7 with just about 4 minutes left on the clock, Russell Wilson was finally able to do what he was expected to do all day, and threw the ball without trouble to get the Hawks within 5 with just over 2 minutes left in the game. It’s then when calamity ensued, as the onside kick boinked off Packer Brandon Bostick’s head, with Chris Matthews recovering it at the 50 yard line. This engaged the remaining Seahawk fans (angry that they had to yell even louder to replace those that left the game early) as they witnessed Beast Mode, golden spikes and all, power thigh his way to a 24-yard TD run. Wilson’s 2 point conversion gave the Hawks the slight lead until Rodger took over and managed to get the Pack back into the game with the fifth of Mason Crosby’s accurate field goals to force the OT – an OT which lasted all of 3:19, with Wilson connecting with Jermaine Kearse for a 35-yard TD and the win. Yeah, and don’t even get me started on Mike McCarthy.

Then there was the late game, where Luck didn’t beat a Brady that night (yeah, I stole that), in fact, Brady routed the youngster with a three TD, 23 outta 35 for 226 yards and one pick performance against Luck’s 12 for 33, 126 yards and two picks amounting to a very unwinnable playoff performance, making him 0-4 against the Patriots. LaGarrette Blount took to manhandling the Colts, running up 148 yards with three TD’s on 30 carries, as the game became a sleeper early on, and a 31-7 route by the middle of the third quarter. You know it’s been a long day when the back-up QB on the opposing team comes in during a freakin’ Conference Championship game. Snort.

While the Deflate-Gate investigation continues, here’s what Gronk had to say about it:

With 24 points on the line, a whopping five players correctly picked Seattle and New England to play in Super Bowl XLIX (x licks? – really?), getting the perfect 24 out of 24 percentage added to their totals. One player did the best in terms of calculating the tie-breaker, so our winner for the Conference Round is none other than LAFA.

Woo Hoo!!! Way to go, LAFA!!!

Taking second place was devasted 30, Chria ended up in third, ray-ray took fourth and purplejacket4 took fifth. With half right, thanks either to the Packers or the Colts, were six of our players to include Yours Truly in sixth, sportsfan in seventh, lingerdog in eighth, booger bear in ninth, Manninup26 in tenth and MadeOfScars in eleventh. WastedTime12 went for the underdogs all the way and unfortunately ended up with the big fat donut hole.

Usually we call this pool at this juncture as one player has by now run away with it, but this year because our prognostication is so damn good, we’re going to have to wait for the Super Bowl to crown our winner.

With 51 points our leader is devasted30, with Chria and ray-ray, both with 42, taking second and third places, respectively. In fourth place is Yours Truly with 36, while Future Commish lingerdog leads the pack with 39 for fifth place. In sixth place is booger bear, MadeOfScars is in seventh with our regular-season Champion purplejacket4 in eight place. With 33 thus far, sportsfan ended up in ninth, with Manninup26 in tenth. This week’s winner, LAFA, is in eleventh with 30, and WastedTime12 is ironically in twelfth place.

Just one more game folks, and it’s the BIG ONE!!! Like ‘em or hate ‘em, the Seattle Seahawks take their shot at being repeat Super Bowl champs against the New England Patriots. This should be a good game being played in the desert, so pop that corn, grill those brats, ready that guacamole and let’s go!!!

ETA: Whoops! Forgot to let you all know, picking the winner gets you 24 points!

SUPER BOWL XLIX

Your pick AND YOUR TIE-BREAKER SCORE are due by 11AM CT Sunday, February 1st

Sunday, February 1st

5:30 PM CT

Seattle vs. New England

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!!!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 11:36 AM, January 20th (Tuesday)]

9 comments posted: Tuesday, January 20th, 2015

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Divisional Recap - Conference Games

Forget all the predictions, pomp and controversy that surrounded the Divisional playoffs, folks. Here’s all you need to know about why the remaining teams vying for the Lombardi trophy are still in contention:

Well, that and I’m in the midst of doing employee reviews this week so my time devoted to fun stuff like football has been greatly diminished. So here’s a very quick recap to the games y’all watched anyway and update to the standings.

The Patriots managed to break the Ravens hold on them in post season play on the heels of Brady and Company making some excellent halftime corrections to the Baltimore game plan which had them up 28-14 in the third quarter. Using a firework display of hitting multiple receivers, (with six players registering four receptions each), Pretty Boy was pretty unstoppable, finishing 33-50 with 367 yards and four TD’s. Meanwhile in Seattle, Russell Wilson produced his best playoff appearance yet, throwing for 268 yards with 3 TD’s and 22 rushing yards worth of scrambling. Yeah, yeah, yeah – but it was Kam Chancellor who wowed everyone with his ability to jump the Carolina O-line not once but twice before capping off his day with a 90-yard return of a pick-six and his first NFL TD.

Karma played a visit at Lambeau where poor officiating got the better of the Cowboys who had benefited from it the prior week as they made their first post season appearance on the Frozen Tundra since the infamous Ice Bowl of ’67. Dez Bryant’s call reversal of a reception that would have set Dallas up for a much better shot at the win (let’s be real folks, the TD still would have given Rodgers enough time for another offensive blast), instead sent Jerry’s boys packing. Finally – argh – my Broncos. Dagnabit! When the game opened with a three-and-out by the Colts and a Denver TD march as an answer, the Broncos became the only favored team of the weekend to not win. Not so much, with the time Andrew Luck had to throw his way to a 27-43 and 265 yards with two TD’s kind of day. Prior to the kick-off, Denver was 8-0 at home and was averaging 35 points per game, but that all disappeared as the Broncos picked a bad time to have a bad game. Peyton’s future is now more uncertain given the disclosure of a torn calf muscle post-game only to be surpassed by John Fox and his staff being shown the door earlier today.

With a whopping 24 points on just four games up for grabs this week, one player was able to gaze into her crystal ball and come up smelling like a rose, getting them all and taking with her this week’s honor’s as top picker. Let’s hear it for booger bear who went a perfect 24/24 on the week!

Woo Hoo!!! Way to go, booger bear!!!

Rounding out the rest of the pack we have a whole bunch of folks with three outta four correct games to get 18/24 points to include devasted30 and sportsfan who share second place honors, MadeOfScars in third, Manningup26 in fourth, lingerdog in fifth, and Yours Truly in sixth. Coming in seventh with 12/24 was Chria while in eighth place, also with 12 correct, was WastedTime12. Rounding out the pool of those still standing was purplejacket4 who had a very uncharacteristic 6/24 kind of day to take ninth place, while ray-ray took tenth also with 6/24.

Heading into this weekend’s Conference Championship round, we have four players who are all tied at 27 total points, giving devasted30 the edge in the lead thanks to more accurate tie-breaker picks. MadeOfScars therefore came in second, our pal booger bear with her impressive 24/24 is now in third and lingerdog in fourth, also with 27 points. Yours Truly is in fifth with 24, while sportsfan, Manningup26 and WastedTime12 take sixth through eight places with 21. Regular season Champion purplejacket4 slipped to ninth place with 15, while Chria and ray-ray, each with 18 total points, landed in tenth and eleventh place, respectively.

It’s hard to believe there are just three football games left in the season as the Conference Championship games get played on Sunday afternoon. As a reminder, each correct pick is worth 12 points toward your total and the crowning of our post-season champion.

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Picks are due by 11AM CT on Sunday, January 18th

2:05 PM CT

Green Bay at Seattle

5:40 PM CT

Indianapolis at New England – TIE-BREAKER GAME

These ought to be rocking good games!

Have fun everyone, and good luck!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 12:21 PM, January 13th (Tuesday)]

12 comments posted: Tuesday, January 13th, 2015

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Playoff Rounds - Divisional Games

Well, ya knew the wheels had to fall of Arizona’s bandwagon some time, what with playing a third string QB and then going up against the defensive powerhouse that Carolina has suddenly become. When you’re held to 78 yards the entire game, it’s probably best you just pack it in and take your team home to heal for the off season. The Cardinal’s special teams members didn’t do them too may favors either, what with Drew Butler punting just under 35 per attempt. Musta been that wet Carolina weather that enabled the Panthers to be in great field position nearly the entire game. Good thing the Carolina D was spot on, as Cam Newton was able be forgiven for an INT and a lost fumble, and relax his way to an 18 for 32, 2 TD, 198 yard day. The win moves the cats into the divisional playoffs against the well-rested defending Super Bowl champs hailing from Seattle who play at home on Saturday.

The Ravens took full advantage of Le'Veon Bell's absence in their contest against Pittsburgh as Joe Flacco reminded everyone he really can be an elite QB. When you combine that with a defensive that was able to reach Big Ben five times while the offense was able to score on six of nine possessions, Baltimore quickly put losing Ray Rice to the back of everyone’s minds. Through Roethlisberger out-yarded Flacco by nearly a football field, his 18-29 accuracy bested Ben’s 31-45, stamping Baltimore’s ticket to go head-to-head on Saturday against Brady and Company on the Patriot’s home turf as the league’s only sixth seeded team to reach the next level.

It was yet another Andy Dalton post-season collapse as he directed the Bengals to a loss against the Colts, taking away the all-time record for failure to win in a playoff opening round from Warren Moon (WOW – remember him?) and setting the new record at 0-4. It’s hard to believe that at 10-6-1, Cincinnati has now been playoff-less since 1991, incidentally the year Microsoft released MS Dos version 5.0. For his efforts, Luck finished at 31 for 44 tries and 376 yards with one tossing TD, and more importantly, finished a playoff game without an INT for the first time. Indy will take on Denver at Mile High in the second of two Sunday divisional games.

It took a rally, an accurate Tony Romo and a little officiating help for the Cowboys to finally break their five year playoff game drought while ridding the playoff landscape of the Lions on Sunday on the heels of a pass interception reversal without explanation. This allowed Romo to take his boys 59 yards in 11 plays for the go-ahead and eventual winning score, despite a rookie fumbling mistake by DeMarcus Lawrence. Making up for his miscue, he sacked Stafford on fourth down mid-field in the final minute, saving himself untold amounts of ridicule from the Dallas fans for years to come. Dallas travels to Lambeau for their Sunday contest versus The Pack, where kick-off temps are predicted to be a balmy single-digit something.

Well, what do ya know, pickers – we have a PERFECT PROGNOSTICATOR this round! Let’s hear it for ray-ray who managed to hit all four of last week’s games, ending the day with a cool 12 points heading into the next round of play.

Woo Hoo!!! Way to go, ray-ray!!!

‘den there was a whole bunch o’folks who managed to get all but one game correct, finishing with 9/12 possible points for second through sixth places, to include WastedTime12, lingerdog, MadeOfScars, followed by our Regular Season winner purplejacket4 and and runner up, devasted30. Yours Truly finished ironically in the Elway spot getting half right (damn you, Dalton!) with 6/12, joining LAFA and Chria who ended up in eighth and ninth place, respectively. Rounding out the pool with 3/12 were sportsfan, booger bear and Manninup26 in the tenth through thirteenth spots.

The pack of Lombardi trophy hopefuls has now been dwindled from twelve teams down to the final eight, with a weekend full of action starting Saturday afternoon. Please note the dual tie-breakers and cut-off times for this week’s games.

DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS

Picks are due by 11AM CT on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.[\bold]

Saturday, January 10th

3:35 PM CT

Baltimore at New England

7:15 PM CT

Carolina at Seattle – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Sunday, January 11th

12:05 PM CT

Dallas at Green Bay

3:40 PM CT

Indianapolis at Denver – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have fun everyone, and good luck!

The Commish

13 comments posted: Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Playoff Rounds - Wild Card Games

Here we go fellow prognosticators, another chance to showcase your Swami-like pickin’ abilities to choose the winning teams in our “Playoffs to the Super Bowl” round of the 2014-15 S.I. NFL Pigskin Picks competition. Or, if you missed out on the regular season game, now’s your chance to jump in!

There are three playoff rounds leading to the Super Bowl. This weekend (January 3rd and 4th) are the Wild Card rounds. Next weekend, (January 10th and 11th) are the Divisional Playoffs, and finally, on Sunday, January 18th, the Conference Championships are played to determine the final two teams vying for the Lombardi trophy in the Super Bowl, which will be played on Sunday, February 1st.

Here’s how this challenge will work:

1. There are four games being played this weekend (see schedule below) in the Wild Card round. Choosing the winner of each of these games will be worth 3 points. There will be two tie-breaker games – one each day – that must be chosen.

2. There will be four games being played the weekend of January 10th & 11th for the Divisional Playoffs. Choosing the winner of each of these games will be worth 6 points. There will be two tie-breaker games – one each day – that must be chosen.

3. There will be two games being played on Sunday, January 18th for the Conference Championships to whittle the field down to the final two teams. Choosing the winner of each of these games will be worth 12 points. The late game (Time/Teams TBD) will be the tie breaker.

4. The Pro Bowl will be played on Sunday, January 25th. Like everyone else, we won’t care about that game.

5. The Super Bowl will be played on Sunday, February 1st. Correctly choosing the winner and the tie-breaker closest to without going over for the Big Game will be worth 24 points.

6. The player with the highest total points throughout the Playoffs – Super Bowl will be crowned the winner of the S.I. Post-Season NFL Picks Pool.

If you are interested in playing, please reply to this thread with the teams you think will win for the Wild Card weekend games along with your guess at the total final score (closest to without going over) to be used as the tie-breakers where indicated. If you have any questions, please PM me.

Important notes for this week’s round:

• Your picks are due by 11AM CT on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

• If you post your pick then elect to change it prior to the 11 AM CT deadline, update your thread and then PM me right away with your changes.

WILD CARD WEEKEND

Saturday, January 3rd

3:35 PM CT

Arizona at Carolina

7:15 PM CT

Baltimore at Pittsburgh – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Sunday, January 4th

12:05 PM CT

Cincinnati at Indianapolis

3:40 PM CT

Detroit at Dallas – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have fun everyone, and good luck!

The Commish

13 comments posted: Tuesday, December 30th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - We Crown A Champion!!!

The Christmas week turned out to be a very good week for twelve NFL teams and one of our prognosticators as those teams vying for the Lombardi trophy got closer to their dream as the playoff picture developed and we crown our champion for this season.

Those teams in, set and resting this week while ending the 2014 season all with 12-4 records in their respective divisions are the Patriots and Broncos for the AFC, while in the NFC, the Seahawks and Packers took the honors. Clinching first round byes were the Broncos and Packers, while the Patriots and Seahawks won the favor of home-field advantage through their playoff runs.

The remaining eight teams will vie for more playing time in January by surviving the Wild Card round, set for this coming weekend. In the AFC, the Ravens got help with San Diego’s loss and will face the Steelers who won over Cincinnati, getting a season sweep of their contests. Though they lost, the Bengals will go against the Colts who were already in as the 4th seed, beating the Titans on Sunday. In the NFC, the Lions, though losers to the Pack by virtue of the power of the beard, will face the Cowboys who decided to play their entire first string in a meaningless game against Washington. The Cardinals will face the only team with a losing record, the Panthers, who managed to get in with a win in football’s most sucky division ever, also known as the NFC South.

But enough about all of them – let’s move on to the REALLY important stuff – crowning this year’s champion!

In this week’s games some players took big risks to strike it big in the point’s column while others played it conservatively going with those favored, even though the higher positioned teams usually don’t play starters in meaningless Week 17 games (except Jerry Jones & Co.). Coming in first is ray-ray who garnered this week’s honors with an excellent round of 14/16 correct picks. Nicely done!

Woo Hoo!!! Way to go, ray-ray!!!

In second with 12/16 correct is Yours Truly, while three players, including the two overall leaders, managed to get 11/16 correct. In third place thanks to a more accurate tie-breaker, we have purplejacket4, while in fourth place is sportsfan with devasted30 in fifth. Rounding out the Top Ten are players who all ironically had 10/16 correct, with booger bear landing in sixth, Manningup26 in the Elways spot, WastedTime12 in eighth, MadeOfScars is in ninth and Ascendant is in tenth.

I’ve said all along the tie-breaker plays a big role in the pool, and as it turns out, it did – especially this last week with our two head-to-head players coming in with the exact same number of cumulative points at 176.

Thanks to a lower but not over tie-breaker, this year’s honors of Champion of the 2014 S.I. Pigskin Picks Pool go to purplejacket4. Nicely done, Doc – it was a close, great season!

Coming in second also with 176 was devasted30, while ray-ray, who has been giving the top two a run for their money all season, finished in third with 173. Yours Truly ended up in fourth with 173, while Chria and MadeOfScars finished in fifth and sixth places respectively with 161. Coming in seventh is soon to be Commish lingerdog with 157, while Manningup26 finished in eighth with 153. Ninth and tenth places went to sportsfan and Ascendant, each with 150 points. Last year’s champion, MissesJai finished in eleventh with 144, while scared&stronger ended up twelfth overall with 139. I’m sure Jrazz could school all of us as to where she “should” have finished, but according to our calculations, she’s in thirteenth place overall with 133. Finishing in fourteenth this year is booger bear with 127, while WastedTime12 completes the pack of prognosticators in fifteenth with 120 points overall.

Hope you all had fun, and remember – the fun continues for those of you interested in taking your prognostication skills to the next level. Stay tuned for the “Playoffs to the Super Bowl Pool” with an announcement coming soon!

Thanks for playing, everyone - and have a Safe and Happy New Year!!!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 11:47 AM, December 29th (Monday)]

9 comments posted: Monday, December 29th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 16 Results - Week 17 Games

By all appearances, the only clear winner in Thursday night’s contest was Jacksonville DT Sen'Derrick Marks who managed to trigger a $600K bonus by sacking Charlie Whitehurst on the final play of the game. The win gave the Jags their third on the year, while the loss inched the Titans closer to the No. 1 draft pick than Jacksonville. The 49’ers had to be thinking they had a win in the bag, what with a 28-7 halftime lead against the Chargers and all. That is until Philip Rivers, playing with an injured back and a sore chest, took care of the deficit by registering a 24-of-40, 273 yards, three TD (with 1 INT) performance in the second half into OT. It was then left up to Nick Novak’s toes with a 40 yarder which he managed to hit for the win. Ryan Tannenhill threw four TD’s and managed to save Joe Philbin’s job – at least for one year – with a squeak-by Miami 37-35 win against the Vikings. The win was garnered by a seldom seen game-winning safety, the result of a blocked punt with 41 ticks left on the clock. The Eagles took to channeling the Cowboys and let their December collapse and with it their playoff hopes by losing to the 4-11 Redskins. To hold onto a spot in January, Philly now has to win against the Giants and Dallas has to lose to Indy in the final week.

Newly signed QB Case Keenum, Houston’s fourth to play this year, took things to task and walked away with a surprising win over the Ravens, breathing slim life into the Texans playoff hopes. Joe Flacco certainly didn’t help the Ravens by tossing three INT’s on the day, a season-high for him. Arian Foster ended up with 25 carries and 96 yards against a top defense, but his day was made with an 11-yard TD pass tossed to C.J. Fiedorowicz. The Bears thought that by finally benching Jay Cutler they’d have the slimmest of chances against the Lions, but as much of their season has gone, it wasn’t meant to be. The loss pretty much sealed Marc Trestman’s exit, while the win gives the Lions a playoff spot and puts them in contention for the NFC North Championship with a win over Green Bay next Sunday in Lambeau. The Lions may be forced to play the game without Dominic Raiola as he sits out his suspension for needlessly stomping on the leg of Bears tackle Ego Ferguson. I wonder if he and Suh are roommates on the road? Thirteen days ago, Cam Newton rolled his truck several times, sustaining two fractures in his lower back. Yesterday he threw for one TD while scoring another, leading his Carolina Panthers toward being one game-away repeaters as the NFC South Champions over the Browns. Along the way Johnny Football hurt his hammy which made the Browns reactivate Brian Hoyer. Then he got hurt and is now listed day-to-day. Rumor has it the Browns reached out to Rex Grossman who hasn’t thrown a ball since 2013 who politely declined citing a full house for Christmas as her reason for taking the pass. Who can blame him? I know nothing comes between me and my sister’s Hooch Cake come the holidays. Teams normally like to play well enough during the season to coast to a berth, but now the Panthers meet the Falcons next week for the winner take all spot. If successful, Carolina joins the Seahawks as the only teams since 2010 to reach the playoffs with losing records.

Usually when a team outgains the other by 236-0, the final score is something like 63-0. But thanks to some sloppy play all around and an at-home Bucs defense, Green Bay only managed to put up 20 to the Buccaneer’s 3, despite taking that 236-0 and having it end 431-109 total yards. Early in the game, a friend sent me a text lamenting the low score to which I replied, “They’re playing Tampa Bay. R-E-L-A-X.” Now in hindsight, it’s obvious my pal (and scores of others) had the over. Green Bay makes it in with a Wild Card spot, and as mentioned earlier, plays Detroit for NFC North Championship bragging rights. Finding the end zone versus kicking field goals proved the edge in the Steelers win over the Chiefs. Had two of his players not dropped passes in the end zone, Big Ben would have had only 5 missed throws on the day, finishing instead 18 for 25 and 220 very efficient yards with one TD. The Chiefs take take their fourth loss in five games into a must win game versus San Diego, which only gives them a chance as they have to have help from losses in Baltimore and Houston. The Saints / Falcons contest opened and closed in dramatic fashion as getting to the top of the NFC South leaderboard was all the Saints had on their mind. This certainly showed in the opening minutes of the game when Jalen Saunders blasted the field with a 99-yard kickoff return to the Atlanta 1-yard line, setting up a Mark Ingram touchdown run and silencing the Atlanta home crowd.

Earning their fifth straight first round bye, New England managed to finally hold off the Jets to earn the extra pre-post season rest. Maintaining a lead into the fourth quarter with adequate coverage over Brady, the Jets managed to limit him to just a single touchdown. Hard to say what will happen to Rex Ryan, whose six-year run with New York may be coming to a close. That other New York team fueled by the exceptional play of rookie Odell Beckman Jr. managed to take out St. Louis despite some scrappy (read dirty?) play a.k.a. “late hits”, one in which ignited a brawl followed by three rejections. Beckman set a franchise rookie record of 11 TD catches and topping 1,000 yards for the season on the day’s play. It’s hard to fathom that the Bills can upset the Packers so handily and then turn around and lose to the Raiders, but shockingly they did, as the Raiders celebrated their 12th straight playoff-less year by bouncing Buffalo out of the race. Though mathematically it would have been tough for the Bills to break through, they surely could have increased their chances with a win here. Instead they give the crown of spoilers to Oakland, Raider Nation having beaten the Chiefs and 49er’s after starting their season 0-10.

There has got to be snow on the Equator, what with the Cowboys making the playoffs and all, finally ending their four-year drought. Tony Romo was on fire, tossing four TD’s to break Troy Aikman’s franchise records for yards passing as well as breaking a three-game home losing streak by tossing 18-of-20 for 218 yards and four touchdowns making one ask “What back fractures?” Battling a stomach bug with a handful of Skittles, Marshawn Lynch came into the Seahawks tussle with the Cardinals after the first quarter on Arizona’s home turf and managed to score two TD’s, including a 79-yard slippery run to the end zone to help his team look like the real Super Bowl defending champs. Beast Quake 2 went something like this:

Buoyed by the outstanding play of Russell Wilson who completed 20 for 31 and 339 yards with 88 yards rushing, the win gave the Cards their second out of three home losses to the Hawks. It was a must win situation for the Bengals, and they took it to the Broncos in defensive fashion while taking full advantage of a season high and rare four Peyton Manning INT’s on the night. To his credit, Manning brought the Broncos close with three TD’s in the third quarter, but the strength and energy the Bengals D packed on for the night turned out to be just too much. Denver didn’t need the win to get in, but the extra week of rest with a first round bye in the playoffs would certainly have helped the team.

This week had its share of upsets with some players taking chances to jump up in the standings. MadeOfScars came out on top with a great 11/16 showing and is this week’s winner.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, MadeOfScars!!!

Four players had 10/16 correct to include Yours Truly in second place thanks to a more accurate tie-breaker, followed by purplejacket4 in third, devasted30 in fourth and WastedTime12 in fifth. Rounding out the Top Ten, we have Ascendant in sixth with 9/16, lingerdog in the Elway spot, also with 9/16, scared&stronger is in eighth joined by Manningup26 with 8/16 correct for ninth place. With 7/16 correct for tenth place we have ray-ray, grabbing tight and hanging onto that last spot.

We had us another flip for the lead between our two strong leaders, with purplejacket4 commanding the top spot with a more accurate tie-breaker and 165 total points, giving second place to devasted30. Staying in third place is ray-ray with 159, Yours Truly stays in fourth with 158, Chria also keeps his place – fifth – with 153. Thanks to his good week, MadeOfScars jumps up two spots to take over sixth, while lingerdog remains in the Elway spot with 151. Rounding out the Top Ten, we have MissesJai in eighth with 144, Manningup26 in ninth with 143 and Ascendant busts into the tenth spot with 140.

So…just a coupla Commish things as we head into the final week of the season. First, to all of you who followed my cue on the way picks need to be posted, my brain and eyeballs thank you very much. Secondly, I felt it best to let you all know now so as not to take any of the pomp and circumstance away from next week’s crowning of this season’s Pigskin Picks Champion that I will be handing over the weekly Commissioner duties to our good pal lingerdog, beginning in the 2015 season. I’ll still Commish over the Playoffs to the Super Bowl Pool (info on that coming very soon ).

It has been a real pleasure being your Commish for the past four seasons and I’ve greatly enjoyed this true labor of love. I thank you all for your involvement and for making football and picking on Jay Cutler so darn much fun. Now just as those of us who have had to tell our kids we were divorcing, this isn’t anyone’s fault other than a perfect storm of unavailability on my part to pull the info together on a weekly basis while deadlines loom during the juggling of life’s responsibilities. I’ll still be here as a player and will be doing the scoring for lingerdog as I wouldn’t wish that spreadsheet upon even my X, let alone someone I like, so yes – please keep doing your picks the way I explained last week. Trust that you are in great hands, as linger started this whole thing what, 6 or 8 years ago?

Week 17 means no Thursday night or Saturday games (and they all said “Amen!”) – just some good ol’ fashioned Sunday Funday with great match-ups. There is a lot on the line for the teams vying for January play as well as our players, so please folks – practice safe prognostication and don’t forget your tie-breakers!

N.F.L. Games

Week 17

Picks due by 11AM CT Sunday, 12/28.

Sunday, December 28th

NOON CT

Carolina at Atlanta

Cleveland at Baltimore

Dallas at Washington

Indianapolis at Tennessee

Jacksonville at Houston

San Diego at Kansas City

NY Jets at Miami

Chicago at Minnesota

Buffalo at New England

Philadelphia at NY Giants

New Orleans at Tampa Bay

3:25 PM CT

Detroit at Green Bay

Oakland at Denver

Arizona at San Francisco

St. Louis at Seattle

7:30 PM CT

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone! Have fun!!! ... and ...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 12:22 PM, December 23rd (Tuesday)]

19 comments posted: Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 15 Results - Week 16 Games

About this time every year I like to take a look at how things are shaping up around the league as we head into the final weeks. Prepare your brain for some playoff math, but before that, some quick hits:

Cutler. Snort. … Poor Arizona, poor Drew Stanton. Seems like that team cannot cut a break. … Big Ben: 27-of-35 for 360 yards and the win on the road. Nice. … It’s pretty quiet here in Cheddarland. Maybe everyone is still R-E-L-A-X ing? … Tampa Bay: *this close*. … Football Johnny – where to start? Worse start as an NFL QB in the history of the league seems to sum it up. Ryan Leaf’ish and look where he is now. … Our thoughts and prayers to MissesJai for hanging in there this season as Oakland takes another one on the chin. … Brady and Co. continue on their roll – think they’re making room for another ring in the jewelry case? … Like Washington, the Badgers ping-pong between QB’s and look where that’s gotten them. At least RG3 looked somewhat respectable this go around – AND – Eli didn’t have an INT! … It took double and triple teaming Watt, but it paid off as the Colts put the Texans playoff hopes on life support. … Looks like the Titans may have won the race for the number one pick. … Hey Peyton – going thigh first is NOT how you throw a block. … Hey Minnesota – nice try on that 68-yard kick, which if Walsh had made it, would have set the NFL record. … I hear Michigan is Jonesing for Harbaugh. Great, now I may have to deal with him in the B1G? So. Not. Fair. … Dallas took a big lead into the usual scary Cowboy theme of allowing the other team to catch up but did something different this time – they actually held up for the win. … Cutler. Snort.

We bid farewell and adieu to the following teams whose playoff hopes have been surrendered in their divisions thanks to miserable play, unfulfilled draft choices, injuries, poor coaching and any other reason (cough *excuse* cough) one can muster:

The 2-12’s: Tampa Bay, Oakland, Jacksonville

The 3-11’s: NY Jets, Washington

The 5-9’s: NY Giants, Chicago

The 6-8’s: St. Louis (the spoilers that they’ve been), Minnesota

The 7-7: San Francisco

Those barely breathing at 7-7 (and by virtue of sucky divisions): Miami, Cleveland (This would be one of dem dar draft choice musings)

Here’s who we have as still in the hunt for a Wild Card bid if the projected seeds completely fall apart these last two weeks:

Let’s hear it for the Patriots, Broncos and Colts who have clinched their Division Titles and the Cardinals for making a playoff berth despite losing their starting and now second string QB’s. OK, peeps – hold on. We’re about to make Jrazz’s hair hurt as we talk about the leaders:

New England can clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with a win and a Denver loss. They clinch a first-round bye with a win OR a tie and an Indy loss or tie OR an Indy loss with a Cincy loss or tie AND a Steelers loss or tie with a Ravens loss or tie. Hope you paid attention as there’s a test later.

Provided Peyton heals, Denver can clinch a first-round bye with a win or a tie and an Indy loss or tie. All Arizona needs to do is win against Kansas City and they take the NFC West division title and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. The Colts are in and can phone it in as they won the pitiful AFC South title, where teams the like of Jacksonville, Tennessee and Houston reside.

As to the Wild Card, it’s too soon to tell as those teams who were virtual shoe-in’s, including the defending Super Bowl Champion Seahawks, the Saints and the Packers have had their share of SMH-WTH losses. With two games left, here’s how things are shaking out for the Wild Card and Divisional rounds:

It’s down to the wire for teams and prognosticators alike as we take a look at the Week 15 results and the standings overall. With just one loss, purplejacket4 came the closest this season as far as acing a 16 outta 16 week with 15/16 correct picks. Nicely done and damn those Packers for ruining perfection!

Woo Hoo!!! Way to go, purplejacket4!!!

Two players were also quite close, and with 14/16 correct we have devasted30 in second and lingerdog in third. Coming in fourth with 12/16 was ray-ray, joining Manninup26 also with 12 for fifth place. Yours Truly managed 11/14 correct for sixth place, joining MadeOfScars in the Elway spot, Chria in eighth and sportsfan in ninth. Rounding out the Top Ten is MissesJai with 10/16 correct.

There’s still some muscling going on in the overall standings, with devasted30 maintaining the lead by virtue of a stronger tie-breaker point, tied with purplejacket4 with 155 points. In third we have ray-ray, biting at their heels with 152, while Yours Truly retains fourth place with 148. Chria remains in fifth overall with 146 points, MissesJai in sixth with 143, while lingerdog jumped up two spots to take over seventh with 142. MadeOfScars stays put in eighth place with 140 points while sportsfan bumped up one to end in ninth with 138. Manningup26 slides up one to take the last of the Top Ten spots.

OK…slight Commish vent: You guys are killing me. I would SO appreciate it if you could simply copy/paste then delete away the team you don’t want with your picks as winners exactly as they are listed here. To reiterate one more time, the ginormous spreadsheet that’s used for this has the teams listed as they are shown here which sets off macros of unbelievable proportions. Any deviation means you stand a high chance of a pick not counting, so I’d appreciate it if you’d practice safe pasting. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest – and don’t forget your tie-breaker score. Had a couple of those missing recently as well.

We have our usual (can you tell the season is coming to end and the NFL wants some cash in the coffers from TV rights) Saturday end of season games this week, so there are three times when picks will be due. As usual, you can get them all in by Thursday’s deadline or take your time and do them at your leisure as long as they make the deadlines as below.

N.F.L. Games

Week 16

Thursday pick due by 4:00 PM CT Thursday 12/18; Saturday picks due by 11AM CT Saturday 12/20; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 12/21.

Thursday, December 18th

7:25 PM CT

Tennessee at Jacksonville

Saturday, December 21st

3:30 PM CT

San Diego at San Francisco

7:30 PM CT

Philadelphia at Washington

Sunday, December 21st

NOON CT

Minnesota at Miami

Baltimore at Houston

Detroit at Chicago

Cleveland at Carolina

Atlanta at New Orleans

Green Bay at Tampa Bay

Kansas City at Pittsburgh

New England at NY Jets

3:05 PM CT

NY Giants at St. Louis

3:25 PM CT

Buffalo at Oakland

Indianapolis at Dallas

7:30 PM CT

Seattle at Arizona

Monday, December 22nd

7:30 PM CT

Denver at Cincinnati – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone! Have fun!!!

The Commish

25 comments posted: Tuesday, December 16th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 14 Results - Week 15 Games

Well, I’ll be…the Cowboys broke their 8-8 (or worse) streak by winning over the Bears on Thursday night and finally have a win in a month that ends in December. Leaving all the off-field scuttlebutt behind him (*cough, cough*), DeMarco Murray saw to it that Tony wouldn’t have to throw the ball much and channeled his energies on the field for a season-high day of 179 yards and a TD on 16 carries. Big Ben came up big indeed, tossing three TD’s including a 94-yarder to move the Steelers closer to the playoffs as they shook off last week’s slaughtering courtesy of the Saints. Le’Veon Bell had another stellar day with three scores on 26 carries and 185 yards to assist in the big victory. If only Eli hadn’t thrown a pick-six he could have led the Giants to a no-score-Sunday against the Titans. But, you know, Eli’s gotta be Eli and win is a win, one that brought with it an end to their seven-game losing streak. It took a replay reversal and two TD’s of 97 and 75 yards for the Ravens to listen to Cher and snap-outta-it and finally take over the Dolphins. This was after they were down by 10 in the second quarter, their playoff hopes on life support.

Andrew Luck has a habit of not making things easy on himself. After spending the day being pummeled by the Cleveland D-line, it came down to masterful use of the clock and typical Luck perseverance. Counted among his miscues were an end-zone fumble recovery and two subsequent picks as the Browns built up a quick 14-point lead heading into the final minutes. Many pickers (including Yours Truly) thinking once again, “Here come those spoilers, the Brownies – AGAIN!” that is until Luck capped a drive that began on his own ten yard line into an 11-play, 90-yard three minutes and some change 1-yard pass to T.Y. Hilton to steal the victory. Matthew Stafford put together a solid performance with 311 yards and three TD’s to officially kill the Buccaneers playoff hopes. Or perhaps it was their 2-10 record leading into the game. The win gives the Lions their second straight win and their first win in December in 10 tries. Despite an abysmal beginning to the season, the Texans managed to keep their playoff hopes alive with the league’s other 2-11 team by taking care of the Jags Watt-style – as in three sacks, a tackle for a loss of yards and a batted down 3rd down pass. The Redskins dropped to 3-10 after being shut out by the Rams, and it’s hard to say whose bags will be packed first: Jay Gruden’s or RG3’s. Meanwhile the Rams keep protesting and chipping away and are at 6-7 on the year but I have to hand it to them for sending out the six players they gained on the RG3 trade for pre-game handshakes. Oooo, Smack!

Peyton Manning’s 51-game touchdown streak came to a close on Sunday in a game that clearly showed the team’s shift from a passing to running offense. Led in part by an efficient Wes Walker with six catches and 82 yards, the Broncos put a re-energized defensive line in front of their former QB and watched as Kyle Orton channeled Manning, going 38-57 for 355 yards, but still coming up short to send the Bills to 7-6. Hey, ya’ll – l wouldn’t be great if Cam Newton would share with us prognosticators when he decides to be Cam Freaking Newton? On a day that saw him rush for 83 yards and a touchdown on the ground with as many rushing attempts afforded running backs (12), the only thing missing was a bit of fire. Oh wait, there was that too, with a skirmish between Cam and Curtis Lofton after one Newton’s signature “Superman” TD moves. Settle down there, Cam – at least Superman is consistent. A controversial call involving a Travis Kelce catch kept the Chiefs from gaining their shot at balancing their wins and losses in their game against the Cardinals, when the red-zone play was ruled a fumble, though many thought it was a recovery. Let’s put some good ol’ fashioned SI Mojo in the airwaves as Chiefs safety Eric Berry begins the battle against Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. #BerryStrong. Arizona maintains a one-game lead over the Seahawks, while the Chiefs enter a crowded field tied with San Diego, Pittsburgh and Baltimore for the Wild Card spot. Teddy Bridgewater and Janus Wright decided to spoil the good day and homecoming Percy Harvin was having by connecting for an 87-yard TD in the Viking’s win against the Jets. Catching six for 124 yards and a touchdown, Harvin’s day was further spoiled by an ankle injury, reportedly bad enough to keep him out the balance of the year.

Russell Wilson drove the Seahawks toward keeping their Super Bowl repeat dreams alive by going 22 for 37 with 263 yards and three TD’s (two passing; one rushing) while on the ground ended up with 48 rushing yards on 10 scrambles joining the Cardinals and the 49’ers to add the Eagles to list of their latest victims. Speaking of…that ticking you hear is the clock about to close on Jim Harbaugh’s tenure in San Francisco as the niner’s become team number two to lose to the Raiders this year. Kaepernick finished 18 for 33 on the day and 174 yards, and despite his one TD, threw two INT’s and was sacked five times. Pretty stinking bad, indeed. With just the Dolphins, Jets and Bills left on their schedule and two out of three of those games at home, the Patriots seem like locks for the number one seed in the AFC, what with taking care of the Chargers Sunday night after spending the week in sunny Sandy Eggo. It had to royally suck for the Chargers not only being shut out in the second half but by having most of the fans cheering for the Patriots by the end. Then again, maybe their fans were confused. Consistent temps in the mid 70’s year round can play havoc with your brain. The Falcons flew into Lambeau and Aaron Rodgers took to slicing and dicing them up quite efficiently in the first half on Monday night. That is until the Falcons decided to test their playoff hopes by giving the Pack a run for their money by taking their 24 point deficit to the wire, and coming thisclose to upsetting Green Bay at home. Helped in large part by the performance of Julio Jones who went caught 11 passes for a franchise-record 259 receiving yards with a touchdown. This sets the record this season for most receiving yards for any receiver in the league…and…the most yards for any opponent against the Packers – EVAR – effectively exposing defensive issues for the Pack going forward.

This week’s standings show two players that took some chances and save for a couple of upsets either of them could have gone a perfect 16/16. Out top two tied with 13/16, but one prognosticator must have really polished his crystal ball to come up with an incredibly close tie-breaker score, just 10 points shy of the 80 it turned out to be. Let’s hear it for Ascendant who garners first place honors this week!

Woo Hoo! Congrats, Ascendant!!!

His twin picker who ended up in second is MissesJai, while Manningup26 managed 12/16 to take third place. Three players correctly picked 11/16 winners, so in fourth we have sportsfan, in fifth is Jrazz and taking sixth place is lingerdog. Yours Truly and ray-ray both ended up with 10/16 correct for seventh and eight places, while MadeOfScars and devasted30 rounded out the top ten with 9/16 correct picks.

The race to the finished just got tighter with a mere six points separating the top five players in cumulative points. With 141, devasted30 maintains a 1-point lead over newcomer to the top two ray-ray in second with previous co-leader purplejacket4 now in third. Yours Truly maintains fourth place with 137 points as well as Chria who remains in fifth with 135. MissesJai bumped up a spot to take over sixth place with 133 points, joining Ascendant as he ascended into the Elway spot with 130 points overall. Rounding out the top ten, MadeOfScars lept up two spots to take over eighth, while lingerdog and sportsfan remained in ninth and tenth, with 128 and 127 points, respectively.

Well folks, we have three – count ‘em – just three – remaining games in which to take those picking skills you’ve crafted over the past fourteen weeks to the next level and claim your spot for the championship. Things are getting competitive as the teams we follow work hard to get playing spots in January which will take them to a Sunday match-up in February which I hear is kind of a big deal.

N.F.L. Games

Week 15

Thursday pick due by 4PM CT Thursday 12/11; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 12/14.

Thursday, December 11th

7:30 PM CT

Arizona at St. Louis

Sunday, December 14th

NOON CT

Pittsburgh at Atlanta

Washington at NY Giants

Miami at New England

Oakland at Kansas City

Houston at Indianapolis

Jacksonville at Baltimore

Green Bay at Buffalo

Tampa Bay at Carolina

Cincinnati at Cleveland

3:05 PM CT

NY Jets at Tennessee

Denver at San Diego

3:25 PM CT

Minnesota at Detroit

San Francisco at Seattle

7:30 PM CT

Dallas at Philadelphia

Monday, December 15th

7:30 PM CT

New Orleans at Chicago - TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!!!

The Commish

25 comments posted: Tuesday, December 9th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 13 Results - Week 14 Games

Ahhh…Thanksgiving Day…a day when we remember the people and things we are most thankful for and relish the thought that there will be 12+ hours of football noise to help drown out the dysfunction within our families.

The day started with Detroit’s Megatron reminding us all that he’s just fine, coming off injury for an 11 catch, 146 yard and two TD kind of day in their win over the Bears. Shaky ground continues in Dallas as the Cowboys lost to the Eagles, notching their third straight home loss in a row, no thanks to productive play out of LeSean McCoy (159 yards and a TD) and a very reenergized Mark Sanchez, who went pert near perfect in the first quarter, tossing 9 for 11 and 99 yards, finishing 20 for 29 and 217 yards on the day. If you chose the 49’er/Seattle match-up to let the turkey tryptophan take over and grab a nap, you made a good choice. Big mouth Richard Sherman again let his actions do the talking to support his verbal pre-game smack talk of San Francisco by catching the game’s only TD while winning the honors of the day’s most boring game. Going just 16 for 29 and a measly 121 yards, me thinks Kaepernick’s 15 minutes of elite QB status may be just about over.

Certainly tossing a pick-six early in a game isn’t exactly the way you’d want to start it, but finishing it 31 for 47 with 392 yards and three TD’s was just the start for a career day for Andrew Luck. Along the way he broke Peyton Manning’s Indy franchise record for most 300-yard games in one season with 10 so far and joined the very exclusive club of players to toss for 4,000 yards in two of their first seasons, Manning and Marino his record setting mates. And to think he came in second in the 2011 Heisman voting to RG3 who spent the afternoon on the bench. With a day to include two sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, three tackles and a touchdown catch, could MVP honors be too far behind? Hopefully not for JJ Watt who paired with Ryan Fitzpatrick (coming off a two-week benching) for a smacking of the Titans. Football Johnny finally got in a game and scored a running TD, but the Bills defense took over and silenced the hope of his first NFL win. Given the ineptitude of Brian Hoyer, it’s looking good for Manziel to start next week against the Colts.

This season’s spoilers, the Chargers, managed once again to derail a good team by taking out the Ravens in a 1-point victory spread in dramatic 38-seconds to go fashion with a 1-yard Rivers to Royal TD. Despite an early pick, Rivers finished 34-for-45 for 383 yards, and three TD’s on the day. It’s hard to pick the biggest loser in the Giants/Jags contest, only to point out that the Giants have now lost seven straight games and will miss the playoffs for the fifth time in six years while by winning the Jaguars have essentially lost the number one pick in next year’s draft. Having twelve men on the field proved fatal for the Buc’s who went to 2-10 in the closing 12 seconds of their game against the much better coached Bengals – better coached by Marvin Lewis having the wherewithal to throw a challenge flag right before a spike, forcing a review of the setup which revealed the extra help on the field. Either way, Lovie Smith’s Christmas Wish has been revealed:

Drew Brees turned on the fire that is typically seen during Saints home games by going 19-of-27 for 257 yards and five touchdowns on the road as the Saints squeaked by the Steelers. Big Ben appeared to have injured his hand by hitting a helmet on a throw causing two picks, but despite this, managed to net 32-of-58 for 435 yards and two touchdowns in the loss. Carolina’s loss in Minnesota will go down as the game in which the Cats had two blocked punts become touchdowns, despite coming in off a bye week that nearly gave them two weeks rest. Perhaps the game time kickoff temperature of 12 degrees played a role in the southern boys’ loss. Then there’s Oakland. Aw jeez, even a half-packed stadium didn’t help. Continued heartbreak for MissesJai, indeed.

I was really afraid that when Carson Palmer playing his career-best year went out with his reinjured knee, the candle would blow out on Arizona’s hopes of hosting the big game as a playing team. Seems that fear may prove truthful as the Cards lost to the Falcons in a game that finally saw an Arizona offensive touchdown after 11 quarters without any. It’s really too bad as they were really on a roll. In this season’s pre-Super Bowl matchup, the numbers 12 faced off at a cold and blustery Lambeau with Mr. Rodgers besting Brady in the first meeting between the two QB’s as starters. Going for 368 yards and two TD’s, Rodgers and Co. managed to stave off the Patriots and thanks to a missed field goal attempt by Gostkowski late in the game, gave Brady something to be displeased about. Someone please show Tom the swear jar.

For once it wasn’t Peyton Manning winning a game for the Broncos, rather with 168 yards on 32 carries thanks to C.J. Anderson and six sacks allowed by the KC offensive line, a converted fake and a 5:5 field goal day for new kicker Connor Barth, it was a combined group effort. Barth comes to the Broncos after the team 86’ed Jason Elam looking obviously fully recovered from an Achilles heel tear suffered in a charity basketball game that kept him out of football for the past year. Mistakes took their toll yet again on the beleaguered Jets as they lost to the Dolphins in a game that saw Geno Smith go 7 for 13 times – yes, that’s for the entire game, for a whopping 65 yards – again, that’s for the entire game – which usually means a heck of a running game. This proved true at least in the first half until Miami half time corrections hit for the win.

The season’s final bye week left 15 times for players to pick well as we head into the final round of the 2015 season. Four players managed to get 11/15 correct for the first three spots (we had us a tie, folks) with Chria the most accurate tie-breaker picker of the bunch, (though he was a bit over). Let’s hear it for Chria who has garnered this week’s honors as Top Pigskin Picker!

Woo Hoo!!! Way to go, Chria!!!

The aforementioned tie is between sportsfan and WastedTime12 who each had 11 with a 38 point tie-breaker for second place. Yours Truly landed in third place while fourth place also saw a two-way tie between lingerdog and ray-ray with a 39 point tie-breaker. Rounding out the top ten, MissesJai came in fifth with 10/15 correct, devasted 30, also with 10/15 came in sixth, while the next group of pickers with 9/15 correct took the seventh through tenth places to include scared&stronger, MadeOfScars, Jrazz and purplejacket4.

This strong accuracy made the top positions in the overall standings pretty stagnant with no shifts at all in places first through sixth. The race between purplejacket4 and devasted 30 continues with each player at 132 points, ray-ray stays in third with 130, Yours Truly retains fourth place with 127, Chria’s win this week keeps him in fifth place with 126, MadeOfScars stays in sixth with 120, while MissesJai with 120 and Ascendant with 117 flipped seventh and eighth places, respectively. Maintaining in ninth place is lingerdog with 117 while sportsfan retains the tenth spot with 116.

It’s hard to believe, but only four more weeks are left in the 2015 season as we round the corner to home in our picking pool. (I know, I know – don’t use baseball analogies when talking pigskin). The good news with the bye weeks gone is there are 64 total points available in the upcoming weeks to pad the picking wallets of our players.

Who is going to come out on top???

N.F.L Games

Week 14

Thursday pick due by 4PM CT Thursday 12/03; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 12/07.

Thursday, December 3rd

7:25 PM CT

Dallas at Chicago

Sunday, December 7th

NOON CT

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati

St. Louis at Washington

NY Giants at Tennessee

Carolina at New Orleans

NY Jets at Minnesota

Baltimore at Miami

Indianapolis at Cleveland

Tampa Bay at Detroit

Houston at Jacksonville

3:05 PM CT

Buffalo at Denver

Kansas City at Arizona

3:25 PM CT

Seattle at Philadelphia

San Francisco at Oakland

7:30 PM CT

New England at San Diego

Monday, December 8th

7:30 PM CT

Atlanta at Green Bay – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!!!

The Commish

21 comments posted: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

Happy Holi... wait...W-T-H?

These are the Christmas street decorations in AJ's dad's hometown.

Props and adulations to the best lyrics to Christmas songs to describe them.

For some reason, "Oh come, let us adore them" comes to my mind.

AJ's MOM

20 comments posted: Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 12 Results - Week 13 Games

Much to the chagrin of WastedTime12 and the angst of booger bear and all the other prognosticators who chose Kansas City, Raider Nation finally prevailed by taking out the Chiefs. #wouldathunkthat? Just what this Denver fan needs heading into our showdown with them Sunday night – a team all full of piss and vinegar. Yet another reason for Denver fans to hate the Raiders.

Poor time management helped the Browns prevail over the Falcons, putting some more arm behind the belief that Mike Smith will soon be out in Atlanta. Play the clock, dude. Simple stuff. The Packers did a rare thing which was NOT to score more than 50 points in their rivalry game against the Favre stealing Vikings. Slippery little sucker Eddie Lacy had a nice game, as he ran for 125 yards on 25 carries with two receptions for 13 yards toward setting up the NFC team going to the Big Dance. Notice Mr. Rodgers beverage? Subtle move, No. 12.

Another shocker is Mark Sanchez is 2-1 since starting for the Eagles. He threw two picks in their game against Tennessee lest any of you thing he’s an elite QB or something – well that and his two W’s are against less than stellar opponents on his home turf. Meh. A win’s a win. New England rolled over the Lions. Any questions? The Pack sure does thank Brady for his help as the possible/probable? (don’tsaythisifyou’reaDenverfan) Super Bowl match-up gets played in Green Bay on Sunday. Andy Dalton had some redemption delivered through a win over the Texans, a team that has haunted him in the past, especially in playoff games. Houston continues to struggle on offensive, leading some fans to think:

Despite taking five licks to the dirt, Andrew Luck had his eight-game 300-yard streak snapped by the JAGUARS, but thankfully new daddy T.Y. Hilton came to play. Even with his late entry to the game Hilton managed to catch four passes for 122 yards and has now surpassed the 1,000 mark for the second time in his three year career. Happy Birthday, Little Miss Hilton. The Seahawks continued their quest to right themselves by winning their 4th out of 5 games, perhaps just in time to save their divisional and playoff hopes by quieting the hot Cardinals to just a field goal. Hopefully all the 8th grade girl drama has left the locker room for once and for all. Drew Stanton halved his career-high performance from last week, tossing for just 149 yards with Fitzgerald out. Speaking of drama, San Francisco capped their third straight win in a row against the smack talking led RG3 Redskins, which should help fuel the Niner’s in the coming weeks as they face the Seahawks Sunday and again in Week 15. It’s really a shame RG3’s teammates just aren’t playing well enough to enable him to play well enough.

Those Bronco bustin’ Rams came *thisclose* to beating the Bolts, thanks to a goal line INT by Shaun Hill with just 56 ticks left on the clock. Besides their own stink-fest play, this one was wrought with laundry and bad calls (3 nullified TD’s among the count) that went against the Rams, spoiling the upset. Lovie Smith returned to Soldier Field and watched Matt Forte steal away the win for his hapless Buccaneers. It’s hard to win when both of Matt Forte’s TD’s came after Tampa Bay turnovers. Meanwhile in the parking lot, the Bears debuted Cutler’s new jersey:

I swear, those Broncos are going to be the death of me. I think I need one of those foam bricks to toss at my TV. Miami swapped injuries with the Broncos, and minus Odnick and Finnegan, and with a healthy Emmanuael Sanders back in for Denver, Peyton’s 28-35, 257 yard, 4 TD performance helped overcome an 11 point deficit for the win, giving me a week to grow my fingernails back. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or have been busy digging you and your family out from Snowpocalypse ’14, Odell Beckham (no relation to David) made Giants fans young and old completely forget about Victor Cruz by grabbing what will probably hold for a long time as the catch of the century. Yep – he Bent it Like Beckham, for sure. With far too many stellar meme’s to choose from, I thought I’d take yet another stab at the Kardashian Klan with this one:

The luster that the Saints depend on to win at home, especially at home, and especially in prime time seemed to dissipate last night when despite a 420-yard, three TD performance (with one INT) by Drew Brees, mistakes ultimately destroyed them as they lost to the Ravens. Justin Forsett had himself a fine meal chewing up the Saints defense rushing for 182 yards with two touchdowns (including the game winner) on just 22 carries – that’s an 8.3 average yard night for those of you playing at home. Nearly a first down with every carry – now that’s impressive! Thanks to Mother Nature, football fans got a rare treat with two MNF games as the Jets and Bills took their interstate match-up to Detroit (free tickets, bay-beee!) when the thought of shoveling out Ralph Wilson stadium became far too daunting. The Bills quickly went to business and when the dust settled, Michael Vick went in for Geno Smith (again) and again neither QB could manage any offensive strength in a Buffalo “home game” smack-down. What does it take for a home team to win at Ford Field? Apparently a different home team.

Capping off the last non-16 game week as the season grinds to a close, let’s hear it for Chria who despite a number of upsets managed to take enough winners (13/15 to be exact) to earn this week’s honors as Top Picker.

Woo Hoo! Congrats, Chria!!!

Coming in a close second were two pickers with 12/15 correct, namely ray-ray with a better tie-breaker than third place finisher purplejacket4 who landed in third. We have us a two-way tie for fourth place with the M’s – MadeOfScars and super-happy-OMG-my-Raiders-won! Misses Jai who both had 11/15 and a dual 55 tie-breaker score. In sixth place also with 11/15 was lingerdog, while Yours Truly garnered the Elway spot, also with 11. Eleven seems to be the score to get this week, as Jrazz and Manninup26 grabbed eight and ninth places respectively with their 11 correct picks while Ascendant took tenth place with ten correct picks for the week.

We have to look all the way down to ninth place to see any shifting in the overall standings, with places one through eight the same as last week. Still in the lead by a slim 1-point margin is purplejacket4 with 123 total points, devasted30 in second with 122 and ray-ray in third with 120. Yours Truly remains in fourth with 116, while Chria is still in fifth with 116. MadeOfScars hangs onto sixth place with 111, while Ascendant and MissesJai, both with 110, stayed in seventh and eighth place, respectively. Rounding out the top ten, we had a flip between lingerdog and sportsfan, with linger stealing ninth place while sportsfan slipped into tenth.

This week football fun starts on Thursday and we get three – count ‘em – three ways to avoid our dysfunctional families by staying glued to the coverage. As a result of the early games, your picks will be due by 9 a.m. on Thursday morning – and, word to the wise – you may want to make your picks for Thursday’s games on Wednesday because that’s a heck of a lot of points to lose if you forget. Bye weeks are also gone for the rest of the season, so from now until the end, there will be 16 points available each week as we wind to the finish line.

N.F.L. Games Week 13

**Thanksgiving Day picks due by 9AM CT Thursday 11/27**

Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 11/30

Thursday, November 27th

11:30 PM CT

Chicago at Detroit

3:30 PM CT

Philadelphia at Dallas

7:30 PM CT

Seattle at San Francisco

Sunday, November 30th

NOON CT

Washington at Indianapolis

Tennessee at Houston

Cleveland at Buffalo

San Diego at Baltimore

NY Giants at Jacksonville

Cincinnati at Tampa Bay

Oakland at St. Louis

New Orleans at Pittsburgh

Carolina at Minnesota

3:05 PM CT

Arizona at Atlanta

3:25 PM CT

New England at Green Bay

7:30 PM CT

Denver at Kansas City

Monday, December 1st

7:30 PM CT

Miami at NY Jets – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving, football peeps – good luck, and HAVE FUN!!!

The Commish

21 comments posted: Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 11 Results - Week 12 Games

Hey...how ‘bout ‘dem Badgers?

Sorry, I digress, but at least I had one bright spot in football this past weekend!

Yup.

Which also sums up Week 11 quite accurately in a week in which it sucked to be a Manning, a Viking or a Saint and was great to be wearing green and gold or if your last name was Watt or Romo. JJ managed his usual (yawn, yawn) performance on Sunday, completely dominating the Browns with a sack, a forced fumble and a whole bunch of tackles for lost yardage. One thing he’s got to be careful of is that he peels it back a little when he’s in front of punters – other than that, it was another stellar day for a much needed Houston win. Weeks ago the Falcons were all but written off…here’s some more wackiness for you – they are now tied for first in the NFC South sitting at 4-6 by staving off the Panthers for a two-point gap win. The Dolphins managed to break their three-game skid (just in time to face the Broncos this week) winning at home against Buffalo. Shaking off five sacks, Ryan Tannehill helped the Fins to 19 unanswered points in the final 18 minutes for the win. What’s scarier is the win gives Miami their best 10 game start (mind ya, they’re 6-4) since 2008.

Andy Dalton completely redeemed himself from last Thursday’s debacle, going 16-of-22 for 220 yards and three touchdowns which was enough for the win against the Saints, who managed to remain tied for first place (with dem Falcons) in the NFC South. Gotta love Drew Brees’s optimistic attitude (overly perhaps?): “We’re learning a lot about how to win. Unfortunately, it’s because of failure, but failure can be the best teacher at times.” Wait…what? Huh? Me thinks Drew is too young to remember his home team fans wearing paper bags over their heads back in the days of the New Orleans AIn’t’s era and that crowd is all about not putting the word win in the same sentence as the word failure. As much as I try to be objective here, I still can’t completely wrap my head around what in tarnation happened in St. Louis with the Broncos, though like any parent, I’d love my kid to eat some of Peyton’s Humble Pie once in a while after hearing his post-game interviews. Oh, and that hit Sanders took! I’m shocked his air bag didn’t deploy. Good thing Denver is bringing the Fins to some chilly temps and high altitude this week.

After their a$% kicking last week courtesy of Mr. Rodgers and Co., the Bears took it out (well, just a tad) against the Vikings and actually came up victorious, though just for the second time in seven games. The jury seems to still be out on whether Cutler or hipster head coach Trestman return to the Bears sideline, especially with a stat like being outscored a combined 94-7 in the first two quarters over its previous three games. Many fans (Yours Truly among them) thought the Cardinals would shrivel up and float away after Carson Palmer’s season-ending knee injury, but I guess myself and all the other naysayers have better start believing in Arizona who beat the Lions to the best record in the league at 9-1. They’ve got a tough road ahead to be a playing team hosting the Super Bowl, what with four of their last six games on the road with Seattle up next, but they seem to have it together right now. The Chargers limped to victory over the Raiders – just barely at that – to give Oakland their tenth-in-a-row “L” for the year. Our sympathies, MissesJai – I too remember those very lean Denver years.

Only Tony Romo could have a bye week and benefit because if it, but that’s the case with the Giants, Philadelphia and Philadelphia all losing, which put the Cowboys in a two-way tie for the lead in the NFC East. Eli threw 5 INT’s on the day as the Giants lost in San Francisco, while Tampa Bay beat the Redskins – that’s no typo, folks – they won another one – to go 2-8. Then there was the Green Bay game. Ho-Le-Cow – another shellacking courtesy of the Mayor of Green Bay and his merry band of revelers to include incredible performances by Eddie Lacy (geez – the size of that guys thighs!) and Jordy Nelson. Makes one wonder if Rodgers will ever see another fourth quarter in the regular season?

Jamaal Charles had only 20 carries in Sunday’s Chiefs win, but they were very productive for 159 total yards (his first over 100 yard day all year) and two TD’s as the Chiefs outlasted the Seahawks to take their 7-3 record into a first place tie with Denver in the AFC West. BTW, prognosticators – booger bear was the only picker to take St. Louis over Denver, not because she had any faith in the Rams, but because she hates Denver. Right, booger? Still, it was a big win for at the right time for Andy Reid. Rookie RB Jonas Gray set a Patriot’s team record with a career-high 199 yards and four TD’s in only his fourth NFL game as New England continued on their run to blowing out the Colts 244-17 on rushing yards for their sixth win in a row. After some impressive wins prior to losing to the Jets last week, the Steelers rebounded with just enough oomph to get the win on the road against the Titans. Le’Veon Bell ran for 204 yards on 33 carries along with a TD, setting the bar for the highest total in a single game this season, and Big Ben’s first road win in Tennessee and erasing their third quarter 24-13 deficit in some Polar Vortex wind chills, with a 25 degree kick-off temperature.

This week’s top pickers share one thing in common – they both LOVE football – and then a stark difference – one of them doesn’t hate the Broncos. Nonetheless, hat’s off to a correct pick tie but a safer and under tie-breaker for Yours Truly to capture this week’s honors as the best prognosticator in the group with 10/14 correct picks.

Woo Hoo!!! Yay, ME!!!

Coming ever so close to upsetting the Broncos backer, booger bear ended up in second, while ray-ray had an impressive 9/14 correct for third place. We had quite a bunch of 8/14 correct pickers, led by purplejacket4 for fourth place, sportsfan in fifth, devasted30 in sixth, MadeOfScars in seventh, lingerdog in eighth, Chria in ninth and scared&stronger to take the top ten spots.

Meanwhile, not too much has changed in the overall standings, as purplejacket4 regains the lead flipped to devasted30 last week. In third through fifth place: ray-ray in third, Yours Truly in fourth and Chria in fifth – everything stayed copasetic. Ascendant and MadeOfScars stayed in sixth and seventh places, respectively, while MissesJai fell three spots to end up in eighth, sportsfan slipped one to land in ninth and lingerdog slipped one as well to hang onto tenth place.

You can always tell when the season is getting close to wrapping up and that’s when the bye weeks end, which happens after this week as we enter into Week 12. That’s just a few short weeks, peeps, to get your prognostication skills polished up as we head into the final quarter of the season!

N.F.L. Games

Week 12

Thursday pick due by 4PM CT Thursday 11/20; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 11/23.

Thursday, November 20th

7:30 PM CT

Kansas City at Oakland

Sunday, November 23rd

NOON CT

Cleveland at Atlanta

Tennessee at Philadelphia

Detroit at New England

Green Bay at Minnesota

Jacksonville at Indianapolis

Cincinnati at Houston

NY Jets at Buffalo

Tampa Bay at Chicago

3:05 PM CT

Arizona at Seattle

St. Louis at San Diego

3:25 PM CT

Miami at Denver

Washington at San Francisco

7:30 PM CT

Dallas at NY Giants

Monday, November 24th

7:30 PM CT

Baltimore at New Orleans - TIE-BREAKER GAME

Teams on Bye Week: Carolina, Pittsburgh

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

28 comments posted: Tuesday, November 18th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 10 Results - Week 11 Games

The Browns went on the road (all 249 miles of it) in prime time and took out their state rivals starting Week 10 in the race for the Lombardi Trophy. Limiting the usually unstoppable Bengals to just three points and under 3 yards per play while pass rushing Andy Dalton into submission, the Brownies three TD’s turned out to be all that was needed to take the Bengals out at their knees. A healed up Megatron came back from injury in a big way, with seven catches for 113 yards including a TD to stave off the Dolphins in typical heart attack Lions fashion – for their third-in-a-row fourth quarter comeback. Tony Romo was well enough and played well enough against the Jags (who doesn’t, though – really) to take the final 6:42 minutes of the game off to rest the two small broken bones in his back. I’ll give him props for that. I don’t even like working out if I’m having a bad hair day. The game capped off this year’s NFL away games in London (yeah, sorry about not forewarning y’all) and provided Romo with a 138.8 season-high passer rating.

The opening drive of the Titans – Ravens match-up looked like it was going to be all Tennessee until the Baltimore defense started hassling Mettenberger and stifling his offensive line’s abilities to get first downs until four and some change remained on the game clock. Poor guy had his first NFL road start blown away. Someone forgot to tell the Jets they were playing the Steelers, or perhaps that should be the other way around. After Big Ben tossed 12 touchdowns in his last previous games, he only managed one in a game that saw Michael Vick double Ben’s production and along the way became the first NFL QB in history to run for 6,000 career yards. Scoring two TD’s in under five minutes in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs managed to erase a 10-point deficit to pull out a win against the self-destructing Bills. Though Halloween was days ago, someone forgot to tell this KC fan who did a bang-up job of emulating Andy Reid at the game. Headset and all.

Thankfully Atlanta had Tampa Bay this week which enabled the Falcons to finally snap their losing streak (5-games, folks), ironically against the last team they last won against. Though he was sacked four times, Josh McCown came back from injury and ended the day going 27-of-43 for 301 yards, with two touchdowns. Unfortunately for him, it just wasn’t enough to sneak out the victory, which had to feel better than the last time this two tussled when Atlanta creamed the Bucs 56-14. Things started rather shaky for Peyton Manning in the opening drives of the Broncos – Raiders match-up with a pair of interceptions. Then he settled down. Or relaxed. Or whatever – on his way to five touchdown passes in five drives. The loss for the Raiders was their 15th in a row.

Bad luck hit the Arizona Cardinals in what may prove to be the end to their Super Bowl run when they lost Carson Palmer with a torn ACL in his left knee for the rest of the year – the same knee he injured back in 2006 when he tore both his ACL and MCL. Here’s hoping he has AP’s orthopedic team. Ironically the injury occurred just days after just signing a three-year contract extension worth a reported $50 million with $20.5M of that guaranteed. I’d LOVE to be his agent right now. Here’s hoping that back-up QB Drew Stanton can continue to do what he did while coming in for Palmer by scoring three TD’s in the remaining minutes, erasing the Cards 14-10 deficit for the win. The Seahawks managed to wake up in time to overtake the Giants thanks to a season-high 140 yards and career best four TD’s by Marshawn Lynch. Which completely erased New York’s upset dreams even though the game was tied with just a quarter to go.

With the possibility of going 4-5 and being more than likely finished for any postseason berth, the Niners didn’t let the fact that they were playing in the Superdome where the Saints were 11-0. The thriller of Sunday afternoon took the form of a tussle as the game went down to OT after the 49’ers took an early lead only to become all tied up at the end of regulation. The exclamation point was a strip-sack of Brees and a game winning kick into the uprights to send the Saints instead to 4-5 land. Da Bears. Snort. Unless you’re living under a rock and hadn’t heard the news yet, Sunday night’s 190th matchup of the NFL’s oldest rivalry proved to be a training camp given by Mr. Rodgers for anyone and everyone who has even a slight interest in QB’ing. The most relaxed guy in Green Bay went 18-27 for 315 yards and six touchdowns (five alone in the first half) which pretty much summed up this torching. It’s interesting that Mark Sanchez leaves the Jets and in back-up to Nick Foles manages to have become the QB he was always expected to be. Tossing for 332 yards and two TD’s along with a stellar defensive performance (pitching Cam Newton to the dust nine times), Philly owned last night and are now 7-2 on the year.

We had some pretty darn accurate pickin’ going on in Week 10, with MissesJai garnering top honors with a stellar 11/13 correct picks and praise and props to being this week’s winner!

Woo Hoo!!! Way to Go, MissesJai!

The next five spots went to those with 10/13 correct picks, to include Chria in second, a three-way tie for third between Yours Truly and devasted30 and purplejacket4 for third place, Jrazz for fourth place, and MadeOfScars for fifth. Rounding out the top ten were those players with 9/13 correct to include Ascendant in sixth, lingerdog in seventh, ray-ray in eighth, WastedTime12 in ninth and sportsfan who is holding onto the tenth spot.

Cumulative point scoring showed its usual tussle between our two leaders, devasted30 and purplejacket4, both with 103 and both with a 42 point tie-breaker for a first place tie. Maintaining their places in second, third and fourth, respectively, we have ray-ray, Yours Truly and Chria. With her great week this week, MissesJai leapt up four spots to take over fifth, stayed the same and in sixth, while MadeOfScars and sportsfan also slipped one spot each for seventh and eighth places, respectively, while lingerdog and Manningup26 both jumped up a spot to take over ninth and tenth.

The fun continues into the back half of the season as we wind our way down the path to the Super Bowl. We’ve got some good matches here, pickers – let’s see who is going to continue their run for the title!

N.F.L. Games

Week 11

Thursday pick due by 4PM CT Thursday 11/13; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 11/16.

Thursday, November 13th

7:30 PM CT

Buffalo at Miami

Sunday, November 16th

NOON CT

Minnesota at Chicago

Houston at Cleveland

Seattle at Kansas City

Atlanta at Carolina

Cincinnati at New Orleans

Tampa Bay at Washington

Denver at St. Louis

San Francisco at NY Giants

3:05 PM CT

Oakland at San Diego

3:25 PM CT

Detroit at Arizona

Philadelphia at Green Bay *(NFL Flex Schedule Change)

7:30 PM CT

New England at Indianapolis

Monday, November 17th

7:30 PM CT

Pittsburgh at Tennessee - TIE-BREAKER GAME

Teams on Bye Week: Baltimore, Dallas, Jacksonville, NY Jets

Good luck, everyone! Have fun!!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 11:55 AM, November 11th (Tuesday)]

21 comments posted: Tuesday, November 11th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 9 Results - Week 10 Games

It took New Orleans and Carolina close to the end of the second quarter to get their game and the scoring going on Thursday night in the great Southern match-up. Fumbles, tumbles and yawns were everywhere until Mark Ingram turned up the heaters in a 100 yard on 30 carries performance and the much needed win for the Saints. The Browns continued their rise to legitimacy with their fourth win in five games, climbing to 5-3. Granted, they were playing Tampa Bay (a team that remains self-destructive) AND they were at home, still, the win gives them a much needed boost as they look forward to their state rival match-up Thursday night against the Bengals. Just when Tony Romo got the Cowboys back to respectability, Brandon Weedon decided to throw it all away – literally – via two INT’s and an inability to get the running game going. Recovery and some game recovery may have come for the boys, but not against a healthy Carson Palmer. Jerry Jones has got to be grinding his teeth at night.

Seems like just yesterday Mark Sanchez was butt-fumbling his own player as a NY Jet then sitting out an entire season due to injury, yet on Sunday his redemption came by way of a fill-in victory over Houston as he took the place for an injured Nick Foles. Foles, out indefinitely with a broken collarbone, left the game early in the first quarter, setting Sanchez up to get some real game time in and in a winning fashion. Apparently top pick Jadeveon Clowney was too ill to play, which with other maladies causing him to miss much of his rookie year, brought out the talking heads insisting that he buck it up and get out there, aches and pains aside. Me wonders if perhaps the Texans win to loss ratio was a couple of ticks higher to the positive, would all this scuttlebutt even be an issue? The Chiefs played a little hocus pocus on the Jets sending them to 1-8 with among other things, a batted down pass which rolled into a touchdown. The Jets have now lost 8-in-a-row, their longest since 1996. The Chiefs, meanwhile, climbed to 5-3, erasing those awful 0-2 memories booger bear had to bear the opening weeks of the season. Usually a team takes their bye week to rest up, mend injuries and shore up any issues they’re having thus far in the season. The 49’ers capped off their bye week with a complete meltdown of the team they used to be, what with allowing Kaepernick to be sacked a total of eight times – six of them coming in the first half alone – under little to no protection. With a chance to win it at the end, Kaepernick had a QB sneak called back as a fumble which was later revealed to have been good, albeit too late to count. Talk about total frustration for San Francisco and yet another ego booster for Jeff Fisher.

The Jaguars took to the road to play against a team bound for the playoffs and what was expected, happened – another notch in the loss column, their 8th out of 9 games played thus far. Rookie RB Jeremy Hill ran for a career-high 154 yards and a pair of TD’s to include a 60-yarder that sealed the win for the Bengals. At least the Jags made it look close to respectable, unlike the Chargers who flew coast to coast only to be whoop-ass-canned into submission and a big ‘ol 37-to-ZIP shutout courtesy of the Dolphins. Yep, those Dolphins – the ones who call Miami home. While Philip Rivers greeted the Sun Life turf on the first play of the day, the momentum stayed the fins way with everyone on all sides of the ball contributing. Heck, even their cheerleading squad was better.

It was tough all around for the Washington Redskins who came into Minneapolis under duress from an accident involving one of the two team buses en route to the game. Despite minor injuries, everyone came to play, shrugging off the latest locker room dissention involving RG3’s return in which some of the team would rather have had Colt McCoy at the helm. Alas, the Vikings fueled by a consistent performance courtesy of Teddy Bridgewater, staved off a late game push by Washington to seal the win. Then there was the Manning vs. Brady showdown, the pre-game hype almost sickening even for this Denver fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah – we get it – they’re both stellar QB’s who continually set records. To answer the New England fans, for this game, Brady Was Better, going to 11-5 against his peer, throwing for a cool 333 yards and four touchdowns on the day. Gotta love Peyton’s take on the day: “Well, I don’t usually stink, but I stunk today.” Indeed, #18. Indeed.

The Raider Nation faithful came *thisclose* to channeling St. Louis in a near victory over the Seahawks, causing all kinds of headaches for the reigning SB champs who played the second half of this contest hell bent on trying to lose it. Thankfully Marshawn Lynch would have none of that, as he proved to be the Iron Man of the day, finishing with 67 yards rushing and 76 receiving to pick up his two TD’s on the day.

OK…now I REALLY want to know what Big Ben is having for breakfast as he followed up last week’s franchise setting record six TD’s against Indy with mirror TD’s and 340 yards (against last week’s 522 yards) against Baltimore. Seriously, WT?????? Who are you, and what have you done with Roethlisberger? Peyton wasn’t the only Manning hurting this week, as his baby brother took one on the chin in pert near the same fashion with just a four-point difference as the Giants fell to the Colts last night, the Colts proving to everyone you can dust a previous blowout loss away rather quickly if you’re so inclined. Hats off to Reggie Wayne, who surpassed James Lofton for career yards receiving, logging 14,070 so far in his career.

Well folks, for the third time this year we have a player that has grabbed the weekly honors with her exceptional prognosticating skills. Hats off once again to purplejacket4, who along with ray-ray (who grabbed second place), had an impressive 11/13 correct picks in a week that had its share of upsets. Let’s hear it for the Doc, as this feat is quite exceptional!!!

Woo Hoo!! Way to go, purplejacket4!!!

Rounding out the top ten, let’s hear it for Chria who along with devasted30 had 10/13 correct for third and fourth places respectively, MissesJai and booger bear with 9/13 correct for fifth and sixth, while Yours Truly and back-up Commish lingerdog split the Elway honors with 8/13 and twin tie-breakers. Great minds indeed do think alike. Ascendant also had 8/13 for eighth place along with Manningup26 for ninth. Hanging on by a toe nail, please give sportsfan a man hug as his seven correct picks landed him in the tenth spot.

For the second time this year, purplejacket4 has taken both the weekly and cumulative honors, pushing our leader devasted30 down to second place with her more accurate tie-breaker point as both players now have 93 cumulative points. Hanging onto third place is ray-ray with 90, Yours Truly remains in fourth with 85, Chria jumped up three spots to take over fifth with 84, while Ascendant also jumped up – this time by 1 – to land in sixth place. Falling into seventh place was MadeOfScars with 82, while sportsfan, also with 82 ended up in seventh. Going for the trifecta, MissesJai, also with 82 jumped up one spot to take over ninth, while lingerdog made the leap up two spots to grab tenth place.

We’re coasting into the second half of the season as we slide into Week 10 and get closer to eliminating some teams from post season contention with another week with just thirteen tries to getting them all correct. Still…don’t despair – there’s LOTS of football left to enjoy!

N.F.L. Games

Week 10

Thursday pick due by 11AM CT Thursday 11/06; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 11/09.

Thursday, November 6th

7:35 PM CT

Cleveland at Cincinnati

Sunday, November 9th

NOON CT

Kansas City at Buffalo

Miami at Detroit

Dallas at Jacksonville

San Francisco at New Orleans

Tennessee at Baltimore

Pittsburgh at NY Jets

Atlanta at Tampa Bay

3:05 PM CT

Denver at Oakland

3:25 PM CT

St. Louis at Arizona

NY Giants at Seattle

7:30 PM CT

Chicago at Green Bay

Monday, November 10th

7:30 PM CT

Carolina at Philadelphia - TIE-BREAKER GAME

Teams on Bye Week: Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, New England, San Diego, Washington

Good luck, everyone! Have fun!

The Commish

21 comments posted: Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 8 Results - Week 9 Games

Seriously, that’s what it looked like as Peyton Manning decided to spread the TD love on Thursday night and went to Emmanuel Sanders, connecting with him a total of nine times for three TD’s as the Broncos handed the Chargers their second straight loss. In all fairness the Bolts were missing their top two cornerbacks which allowed Manning to hit 25 of 35 for 286 yards in the win. Next up for Denver are the Patriots. Yep, those Patriots that handed it to the Bears in a completely lopsided blowout, strongly silencing the naysayers who had them out of any post-season fun and Brady posed to become Mr. Mom. Brady was simply on fire, going 30 for 35 with 5 TD’s, 3 of them to his pal Gronk.

The Chiefs made mincemeat of the Rams but not until they let them score the first seven and then never looked back. Turning every wheelhouse on, Kansas City scored the next 34 points and left them on the field unanswered with two TD runs by Jamaal Charles, a Knile Davis 99-yard TD return and the defense sending rookie Austin Davis to the turf seven times. The lopsided win basically 86’ed St. Louis win last week against the Seahawks. How’d ya like that win, booger bear??? It’s hard to say if the Lions were the comeback team of the week or if Atlanta had a meltdown worse than that kid in the Dish Network commercial whose Glitter Pony Dance-Off show was deleted. The teams traveled across the globe to trade mediocrity but rewarded fans with very early morning Bloody Mary football in their contest in London, as Matt Prater’s toes won another one, this time for Detroit. Luckily both teams have a bye week next, which should help them both in getting their circadian rhythms back. Carolina became the latest team to learn the hard way never to let Russell Wilson have any ticks left on the clock (even with 80 yards to go) especially if you’re looking for the grand upset at home, as they fell to the Seahawks by a baseball score of 13-9.

ETA: Yeah, so lemme take the size of that photo down a bit.

Rookie Titan QB Zach Mettenberger got under JJ Watt’s skin, and as most seasoned players in the NFL know, that isn’t the place you want to be. The irritation sparked by a selfie duel was enough to fuel a three-game skid snap for the Texans who are now .500 on the season. Teddy Bridgewater finally had a decent no INT game, tossing for 241 yards and a TD, but it was an overtime strip-six by Anthony Barr that gave the Vikings a win over Tampa Bay. Andy Dalton was thisclose to walking out of Sunday’s game against the Ravens holding his head down low after two fourth quarter turnovers. Luckily for him, he instead pulled off a QB 1-yard sneak with less than a minute left in the game to win it. In this year’s Orange Bowl match-up, Miami took full advantage of Jags rookie QB Bortle’s erratic play including two INT’s returned for TD’s to beat Jacksonville. Hard to believe Jacksonville outgained Miami by halftime 219-56 and still lost. My sincere sympathies to any of you fellow pickers who ended up with Geno Smith as your QB in your fantasy league. Here’s why:

Yep, the Jets lost again.

In arguably the best of Sunday’s games, two 5-1 teams – Arizona and Philadelphia, faced off and let ‘er rip. Insanity ensued, what with a combined total of 921 net offensive yards, 44 first downs, 104 passing attempts and 21 penalties between them. Just for good measure, the game ended with a 75-yard TD pass by Carson Palmer to John Brown to steal the lead, leaving Nick Foles with a chance to do what he does best and that’s win with little clock. It’s just unfortunate his receiver was out of bounds to end it. The Raiders inched ever closer to securing the number one pick in next year’s draft, dropping another one, this time to the Browns, who in week eight, matched their win total for all of last year and avoided setting the NFL record for a team losing consecutively to 0-7 teams. The Packers started their game against the Saints in typical relaxed fashion, that is until Aaron Rodgers pulled a hammy in the third quarter. The Pack was then outscored 28-7, losing to the attack of Drew Brees, who finished with an almost perfect 27-32 attempts, 311 yards and three TD’s. Looks like the aliens have deposited Drew back to earth. I’m not sure what was more laughable in the Steelers/Colts match-up – those hideous throwbacks or the score. Here’s to Big Ben who threw for the fourth-most passing yards in any NFL regular season game – drumroll, please – that would be 522 yards and six touchdowns. What the hell did he have for breakfast? Colt McCoy came back to Texas in yellow and burgundy and delivered for the Redskins a big V over the boys, capturing victory in his first NFL start in almost three years. DC fans are once again hoping RG3 isn’t quite healed this week, while the Dallas faithful got to see Tony Romo take another one on his back after a monstrous third quarter sack.

Those players willing to take some chances with the upsets this week proved to be our top prognosticators while those who played it safe (*cough,cough…that’d be me…cough,cough*) ended up somewhere in the middle as we make our way to the half-way point this season. Sometimes, you just have to play things cool, and that’s what Jrazz and four – count ‘em, four – other players did, amassing impressive 11/15 correct pick totals this week. Luckily for Jrazz, the tie-breaker proved to be the dagger for the other folks, and though she did go over, she was closest to it and earns herself this week’s picking pro accolades.

Woo Hoo!! Congrats, Jrazz!!!

Also with 11/15 and for second through fifth place, please “cyberly” high-five ray-ray, Chria, Ascendant and purplejacket4. With 10/15 correct and in sixth and seventh place, respectively, we have scared&stronger and devasted30. Rounding out the Top Ten were our 9/15 correct pickers to include The Empress for eight place, MadeOfScars for ninth and tesla for tenth.

Moving onto the current standings, devasted30 remains in the lead which has been chopped down to one point with purplejacket4’s strong week and a second place finish. Currently in third, ray-ray is two over Yours Truly (in fourth) with a two spot jump from last week, while MadeOfScars went up a spot and landed in fifth place. With a bit of a slide from fourth to sixth this week, sportsfan is currently tied in total points with Ascendant who jumped up one spot to land in seventh. Rounding out the Top Ten, Chria climbed up three spots to take over eighth, while tesla remains in ninth and ready to pounce, and MissesJai, who slid from seventh to the tenth, knocked out lingerdog along the way.

All the teams playing this week play on US soil, so there won’t be a need to jack around with the pick deadlines or get up so gosh darn early for our games. Things start getting serious now peeps, as teams formulate their runs for the Lombardi in the second half of the season.

It’s hard to believe it’s almost November, and the Super Bowl is just four months away!

N.F.L. Games

Week 9

Thursday pick due by 11AM CT Thursday 10/30; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 11/02.

Thursday, October 30th

7:25 PM CT

New Orleans at Carolina

Sunday, November 2nd

NOON CT

Tampa Bay at Cleveland

Arizona at Dallas

Philadelphia at Houston

NY Jets at Kansas City

Jacksonville at Cincinnati

San Diego at Miami

Washington at Minnesota

3:05 PM CT

St. Louis at San Francisco

3:25 PM CT

Denver at New England

Oakland at Seattle

7:30 PM CT

Baltimore at Pittsburgh

Monday, November 3rd

7:30 PM CT

Indianapolis at NY Giants – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Teams on Bye Week: Atlanta, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Tennessee

Good luck, everyone! Have fun!!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 11:49 AM, October 28th (Tuesday)]

24 comments posted: Tuesday, October 28th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 7 Results - Week 8 Games

Percy Harvin. Snort.

It’s not very often that you see a trade in Week 7. So, there’s that. Start your rumor mill rumblings!

No. 507 went to Emmanuel Sanders. No. 508 went to Wes Walker. No. 509 went to Damaryius Thomas. No. 510 also went to Damaryius Thomas.

…and then this happened…

…and then Peyton’s phone blew up…

Congrats to a player that exemplifies class and I’m not just saying that because I’m a Broncos fan – remember he played many years against us with that other team.

Well done, Omaha. Well done.

New England decided to let New York salivate a bit at a near win by letting the Jets outrun them by 100 yards. Then reality set in and their game winning kick got blocked and the Pats won by two. Maybe next time, Geno. At least he faired a bit better than poor Matt Ryan whose O-line continues to fail the signal caller by allowing him to eat turf five times in a Ravens shellacking of the Falcons. BIG upset of the day goes to the Rams, who managed to stave off a late-game charge on a questionable call to upset the Super Bowl hungover Seahawks. Maybe they’re thinking they should have waited a week to toss Harvin to the Jets.

Good thing RG3 is due to return next week, as Redskins fans bid a not so fond adieu to Kirk Cousins in a win over the Titans. At least Colt McCoy got some clock time in which should come in handy when RG3 gets wounded again. Hey, the Jaguars finally won! And the team they played was favored! Drew Brees had trouble getting into game time rhythm and along with some unusual lack of consistency (he was just 3-14 with a pick in the 4th Q) handed those scrappy Lions a win at their home dome.

Indy bought out a BIG can of Whoop Ass on the Bengals, outgaining them 443-42 and a 27-0 win, giving their Colts their 500th franchise win. Throwing for 244 yards, Andrew Luck pegged his sixth 300-yard game of his career, finishing 27-42. The Vikings continued their slide to go to 2-5 in a one-point loss to Buffalo. Remember when Kyle Orton got picked on as much as his partner Jay Cutler? Well, he’s shutting people up lately, capping this V with a 15-play, 80-yard drive with just one tick left on the clock. I put the blame on the Raider’s loss to Arizona on bad karma brought on by those Raider Nation team bus eggers last week in Sandy Eggo. Oakland has now lost 12 straight.

Last week, Green Bay handed Miami a heartbreaking loss on a faked intentional spike turned into a completion. This week, the Dolphins channeled that angst to tear down the Bears on their home turf and take a 27-14 back home with them. The loss makes the Bears winless in their three home games this year with just two wins outta their last seven at home. Scuttlebutt was there was some sort of fracas in the locker room post game. Keep tabs on this stat, fellow prognosticators, for future pickings: Miami is 4-1 in Chicago. The Packers continued to relax their way to another victory, this time taking out the Panthers 38-17, in a nearly perfect 19-22, 255 yard, 3 TD performance by Mr. Rodgers. That’s five Jell-O shots for those of you counting at home. A Jim Brown record got broken in Dallas on Sunday, as DeMarco Murray became the first running back in NFL history to start a season with seven straight 100-yard games. It also helped that Tony Romo played well (again), finishing 17 for 23 with 279 yards, three TD’s and just one interception in the Cowboy’s win over the Giants.

Looks like Andy Reid did it again by putting a well-rested bunch of Chiefs on the home field to finally stub the Chargers toes. Thanks very little, KC, for putting some piss and vinegar in them just in time for tomorrow’s match-up against my Broncos. I wonder if booger bear has her game voice back yet? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have a soft spot for players who end up on teams that can’t seem to win enough to get to the big show and win it, like Larry Fitzgerald in Arizona and now JJ Watt (who had another fumble recovery) in Houston. In blowing a 13-0 early lead, the Texans managed to stick their own fork into themselves with sloppy play and game changing turnovers against the passive-aggressive Steelers who can’t seem to remember if they want to play good or poorly week to week. Well, they chose both this week, but managed to right themselves enough to hand Houston their 4th loss.

In this weeks’ results, it looks like purplejacket4 has her groove back tying with ray-ray on points with 12/15 correct picks but inching into first place for the week with her more accurate tie-breaker.

Woo Hoo! Congrats, Dr. PJ4!

The doc’s win leaves ray-ray in second and scared&stronger, also with 12/15 but a missed TB score to take third place. Our pal sportsfan is in fourth with 11/15, while four players managed to hit 10/15: MadeOfScars landed in fifth; MissesJai ended up in sixth; Yours Truly has the Elway place locked up again while devasted30 came in eighth. WasteTime12 and Jrazz each had 9/15 correct for ninth and tenth places respectively.

In the overall standings, several players traded places up and down as we enter the mid-season mark. Still in the lead with 73 cumulative points, we have devasted30, while purplejacket4 is gaining steam with 71, right behind her in second. Yours Truly is in third place overall with 69, sportsfan with 68 is in fourth, while ray-ray jumped one spot up to take over fifth place, also with 68 points. Rounding out the Top Ten, we have MadeOfScars with 67 and in sixth place; MissesJai in seventh with 65; Ascendant and tesla both have 64 for eight and ninth places respectively, while “Commish Part Deux”, a.k.a. lingerdog, hangs onto the tenth spot with 63.

Thanks again for your patience in getting this out and for your reward, you will all have a little extra time getting tomorrow’s pick in. That said, the Detroit vs. Atlanta contest takes place on Sunday in London, which is going to push the pick deadline for Sunday’s games up.

N.F.L. Games

Week 8

Thursday pick due by 4PM CT Thursday 10/23; Sunday/Monday picks due by 7AM CT Sunday 10/26.

Thursday, October 23rd

7:25 PM CT

San Diego at Denver

Sunday, October 23rd

8:30 AM CT

Detroit “at” Atlanta – Being played in London

NOON CT

St. Louis at Kansas City

Houston at Tennessee

Minnesota at Tampa Bay

Seattle at Carolina

Baltimore at Cincinnati

Miami at Jacksonville

Chicago at New England

Buffalo at NY Jets

3:05 PM CT

Philadelphia at Arizona

3:25 PM CT

Oakland at Cleveland

Indianapolis at Pittsburgh

7:30 PM CT

Green Bay at New Orleans

Monday, October 27th

7:30 PM CT

Washington at Dallas - TIE-BREAKER GAME

Teams on Bye Week: NY Giants, San Francisco

ETA: Just a reminder: BE SURE TO GET YOUR PICKS IN ON TIME FOR SUNDAY’S GAMES!

Good luck, everyone. Have fun!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 6:01 AM, October 23rd (Thursday)]

22 comments posted: Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 6 Results - Week 7 Games

Thanks again to lingerdog for taking the helm last week!

There was something for every type of fan in this week’s NFL contests to include a shut-out, a tie, a blow-out and even one “What the hell was that, Rodgers???” game in addition to nine teams notching victories on the road.

We’ll get the tie out of the way first as those don’t happen all that often. It’s hard to pick who needed the victory more between Carolina and Cincinnati in an outstanding QB match-up that saw Cam Newton just about back to his old self with 107 rushing yards. Unfortunately, neither team can claim victory as they both get an additional hashtag added to their standings, and as for prognosticators here, there were no winners, nor losers, as in, they had a bye week while playing. That other winless team, the Jaguars – now Ooooo n' 6 – came within a blocked 55-yard FG kick to lose to the Titans in a pretty clean 300 and change yard outing by Bortles, who also let his team in rushing. Now that’s a problem a good draft should cure and if they stay on pace with their current win record (insert eye roll here), should garner them some good pickin’s.

Starting on Thursday night and among the Road Warrior teams winning big while away from the home friendlies, it looked like Indy was going to hand it to the Texans in a mighty way, leading 24-0 at the end of the first quarter. Despite a surge led by JJ Watt with seven tackles, a coupla sacks, some batted-down passes and yet another defensive TD, Andrew Luck proved no slouch in the victory with another 300-plus yard game in his fourth straight game as he squeaked out the V. In the hapless crowd, Tampa Bay limped to 1-5 after a pure shellacking by the Ravens, and Oakland became one of two winless teams this season, dropping to 0-5 on the year thanks to those pesky Bolts. To celebrate their dubious honor, Raider fans decided to egg the Chargers team bus. Better than grenades, I guess. Coaching firings to commence in 3, 2, 1…

Denver took care of the Jets, ruining Eric Decker’s chance to show up his former team and increased their record to 4-1 which makes me Happy, Happy, Happy in an Uncle Si kind of way. Wore the Elway jersey out and had some Packer fans actually toss me the thumbs up (at least I think that’s the finger they used), which beats the 12 year old kid at church last year who mistook me for a Bears fan because he didn’t know who Good Ol’ Number 7 was. WTHeck – isn’t history being taught in elementary schools anymore? The Lions went Megatron AND Reggie Bush-less and still managed to beat the Vikings in the dome, dumping Teddy Bridgewater eight times for his “Welcome to the NFL” moment. Meanwhile, the Brownies surprised the Steelers and many a prognosticator, by coming up with a 31-10 dismantling of a Pittsburgh team in some real trouble. Granted, they’re playing .500 ball, but they have had some ugly wins and now add this ugly loss to their tally. Jay Cutler threw for 381 yards – lemme say that again – Jay Cutler threw for 381 yards – to snap a two-game losing streak against the Falcons in Hotlanta. Jay’s performance meant there wouldn’t be too many Cutler MEME’s available, so rather than disappoint our Windy City fans, I’ll post this picture of an adorable Bears fan. Definitely a 10 on the Adorbs Meter.

Aaron Rodgers decided to try to give all the Cheeseheads in the world heart attacks after eating their cheese curds by taking the game with Miami into the last 3 seconds by channeling a Marino intentional spike for a TD and the win to blow my upset pick of the day. Gee, thanks #12. I surely thought the humid temps would lean mine and the Dolphin’s way. The Bills spoiled their new owner’s debuts (that’s what $1.4B will get ya) by falling to the Patriots for the 23rd out of 25 times with Brady at the helm who became the NFL’s fifth player with 60 300-yard games. By all appearances, Carson Palmer’s dead arm has been reborn with the Cards win over Washington. Me thinks committing four fourth-quarter turnovers also helped in Arizona’s favor, but still – he hasn’t thrown in pert near five weeks, and at that point I’m sure he was more than likely wondering if he ever would again. Let’s hear it for Larry Fitzgerald who welcomed Palmer back with a perfect 6-6 catch day for 98 yards and a TD. Then we have the Giants…my word. A bad night made worse by the loss of Victor Cruz who suffered a probable season-ending knee injury in a humiliating 27-0 loss to the Eagles, completely 86’ing their three game winning streak in which they scored more than 30 points in each game.

The 49’ers started out MNF looking like they were going to roll under the 1-3 Rams who were quickly up with a 14-point lead and a third stringer at the helm. Thankfully for the San Francisco faithful, the planets realigned properly and Kaepernick found a way to complete the game with 343 yards and three TD’s while partnered with a newly awakened defense, put the nonsense of a St. Louis upset to bed. I know this is a bit out of order, but had to save the best for last, because any one of us with favorite teams that play Seattle at home know how tough that 12th Man can be. The best have gone in to only come up short, defeated and deafened, so whodathunk that the Cowboys would be the team to take care of Seattle to go 5-1 for the first time in seven years? The bigger news? Romo was INT-less after he caught his breath after a brutal hit in the first quarter that took him some time to get back onto his feet. Kudos to the Dallas D who left the usually stoic Russell Wilson confused enough to only hit 14-28 for 126 yards.

Well folks, we have us a tie for this week’s honors with FIVE – count ‘em FIVE players managing to get 11/15 picks correct. Hats off to auxiliary Commissioner lingerdog and previous pool Champion MissesJai for both having a very accurate tie-breaker score to take a tie for first place.

Woo Hoo!!! Congrats, lingerdog and MissesJai!!!

As to the rest of those 11’s, Yours Truly managed to sneak into third place, sportsfan came in third and new player Ascendant garnered the fourth spot. Three players had 10/15 correct to include tesla in fifth, Chria in sixth and MadeOfScars in tenth place. Rounding out the Top Ten with 9/15 correct are purplejacket4 in eighth, nowiknow23 in ninth and ray-ray in the tenth spot.

We had a little pushin’ and jostlin’ for the coveted title of Pigskin Picks Champion, with devasted30 still in the lead, albeit a bit smaller, with 63 total points. Yours Truly is now in second place and purplejacket4 in third, both with 59 points. With 57 total points, we have sportsfan in fourth along with MadeOfScars, while ray-ray, Ascendant and tesla, in sixth and seventh places respectively with 56 points (we also had a little tie-breaker tying going on), while eighth (some more tie-breaking tying) and ninth places are commanded by those with 55 points to include lingerdog, MissesJai and Chria. Meanwhile, The Empress is hanging on by all tens in tenth place with 53 overall points. We’re almost at the halfway point folks (if you can believe it) and it seems this season is flying by!

ETA: A quick head's up and FYI to y’all about Week 8: I have some engagements on Monday that may prohibit me from putting the recap together until sometime on Tuesday evening (which is my goal). If I’m not successful and it doesn't hit until Wednesday, you’ll get a little extra time to get your Thursday pick in which I’ll expand to 4 PM for Week 8. I’ll keep you posted!

Here are the match-ups for next week:

NFL Games

Week 7

Thursday pick due by 11AM CT Thursday 10/16; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 10/19.

Thursday, October 16th

7:25 PM CT

NY Jets at New England

Sunday, October 19th

NOON CT

Atlanta at Baltimore

Tennessee at Washington

Seattle at St. Louis

Cleveland at Jacksonville

Cincinnati at Indianapolis

Minnesota at Buffalo

Miami at Chicago

New Orleans at Detroit

Carolina at Green Bay

3:05 PM CT

Kansas City at San Diego

Arizona at Oakland

NY Giants at Dallas

7:30 PM CT

San Francisco at Denver

Monday, October 20th

7:30 PM CT

Houston at Pittsburgh – TIE-BREAKER GAME

Teams on Bye Week: Philadelphia, Tampa Bay

Good luck, everyone! Have fun!

The Commish

[This message edited by ajsmom at 1:25 PM, October 14th (Tuesday)]

29 comments posted: Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

N.F.L. Pigskin Picks - Week 4 Results - Week 5 Games

With a gaggle of the power teams on a Week 4 bye, it was tough to gauge what kind of powerhouse football, if any, we’d be entertained with. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Those teams that usually don’t wow us did and the short pick week resulted in some unexpected blowout games.

Doesn’t it seem like the Thursday night games have become “Whoop Ass Bowls”? This week it was the NY Giants’ turn, blowing out the Redskins by 31 points thanks to Eli Manning’s 5 TD’s and far too many Washington mistakes to count. Carolina continues to experience implosions on both sides of the ball and fell 38-10 to the Ravens after Steve Smith’s smack talk proved poignant and purty darn accurate. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but much to my chagrin as a die-hard Broncos fan, I live 30 minutes or so from Lambeau. Trust me, EVERYTHING around here is about the Pack. Every local newscast opens with something about the team, and it can be as innocuous as what’s going to be served at the vending stands or whether 1 or 2 ply TP is being used in the porta potties. So when Mr. Rodgers was shown time after time telling fans to “Relax” about the Bears contest it was newsworthy, especially when he got the offense to score 6/7 times, beating their division rivals 38-17, while throwing 4 TD’s with 302 yards and a 78% passer rating. Now let’s see how relaxed he is playing three days later.

Andrew Luck continued his domination of the AFC South by tossing 393 yards with 4 TD’s against the hapless Charlie Whitehurst led Titans, while 32nd pick Teddy Bridgewater’s first start against a Swiss cheese Atlanta defense gave the Vikings a 41-28 victory before leaving the game with an ankle injury that doesn’t appear too serious. Let’s see if he can hold things up against the Packers on Thursday at Lambeau. You know things are bad when fans start shouting “We Want Vick! We Want Vick!”, but that’s what happened when the very inconsistent NY Jet, Geno Smith, yet again one possession away from victory, got all flustered and stuff and tossed the win the Lions way. Speaking of discombobulation, the Saints couldn’t manage to win one against the Cowboys, what with six pass drops and overall sloppy play. C’mon, you can’t give any team THAT much help! By all accounts Tony’s back is much better and he played well and with consistency to a 38-17 win. Now that is news!

Until I saw a dude wearing a Tannehill jersey at the sports bar I visited on Sunday, it made me realize that I kinda forgot to tell you their contest was being held across the pond. Yawn. Miami beat Oakland, who now share a bye in Week 5…and the sponors all said, “Halleluiah!”.

The 49’ers got the victory they absolutely had to have against comeback kid Foles’ Eagles in one of the best games of the week, capped off by an improbable Kaepernick, “He’s rolling left, going, going, going, throws it across his body to hit Frank Gore! Touchdown!” Boom! While the Steelers proved that on any given Sunday, even the Buccaneers can take one away from you if you’re not careful to rest your beat up defense. I’m thinking too, it may be time we start taking the Chargers seriously. Oh, wait, they played the 0-4 Jaguars. Yep, might be too soon. Hey, did you hear? They held a football game in Houston and no one came. That didn’t seem to stop JJ Watt, who ran back an E.J. Manuel pick for a monstrous TD, on his way to (possible?) MVP honors. Now THAT would make DS VERY happy!

I’ve saved the best for last, because well, booger bear’s screams could be heard all over the land last night as her Chiefs provided Tom Brady with a glimpse into his “Ya Suck – Retire Already” years. That old high school cheer: “U – G - L - Y – You ain’t got no alibi, You ugly, yeah, yeah, You ugly!” best describes what the New England offense looked like, what with Brady throwing just 159 yards for the night and only hitting 14-23 with two picks. But enough about Pretty Boy and company, the night belonged to Jamaal Charles, who came back from a sore ankle to score three TD’s. The bigger news is the Chief’s fan base reclaimed the Guinness World Record for loudest outdoor sports venue, snapping it away from the Seahawks. Double. Boom. Way to take “Go Big or Go Home” seriously, booger bear.

Onto the standings for our short week and some tussling as far as the overall totals. Looks like we have a real Playa in devasted30, as she comes out on top once again as the weekly winner with a great 9/13 correct picks for Week 4.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, devasted30!

Coming in second with 8/13 correct was Yours Truly, followed by a gaggle of folks getting 7/13 correct to include: tesla for third place, sportsfan in fourth, Chria in fifth, ray-ray in sixth, purplejacket4 in seventh, kernel in eighth and Manninup26 in ninth place. Holding onto a spot in the Top Ten is MissesJai with 6/13 correct.

In the overall race for the non-existent trophy, devasted30 did what Dr. PJ4 did in Week 2, and that was to repeat as weekly and cumulative winner, so once again let me go ahead and dust off those great copy/paste skills I’ve developed!

Woo Hoo! Way to go, devasted30!

Dr. PJ4 remains in second place from last week’s standings, while Yours Truly catapulted up three spots to take over third place, edging on ray-ray in fourth place with my closer to the pin tie-breaker. Our pal tesla jumped a whole whopping six spots to take over fifth, while Ascendant stumbled a bit to end up in sixth from third last week. Chria claimed up two spots to take over seventh, while MadeOfScars slipped one spot down to eighth. Manninup26 jumped up one spot to take ninth place, and nowiknow23, aka, NIK, skidded five spots but managed to dig her Empress nails in to stay in the top ten.

Yeah, so, I have this thing next week that is going to make doing the pool quite difficult as it involves traveling then being in seminars all dayem day and then doing wonderful team building activities like…don’t be haters…bowling and attending food buffets. Now, I’d rather shoot pistols or at the very least try my hands at paint balling, but what can you do when you wake up one morning and see that your Outlook calendar has been booked against your will. As a result, we will have a Guest Commissioner next week, so let’s hear it for lingerdog as he takes on the pool for Week 5. Rest assured, he knows his football and as he also ran the pool back in the day, so I’m betting you’ll be treated to a fine and dandy recap.

N.F.L. Games

Week 5

Thursday pick due by 11AM CT Thursday 10/2; Sunday/Monday picks due by 11AM CT Sunday 10/5.

Thursday, October 2nd

7:25 PM CT

Minnesota at Green Bay

Sunday, October 5th

NOON CT

Chicago at Carolina

Cleveland at Tennessee

St. Louis at Philadelphia

Atlanta at NY Giants

Tampa Bay at New Orleans

Houston at Dallas

Buffalo at Detroit

Baltimore at Indianapolis

Pittsburgh at Jacksonville

3:05 PM CT

Arizona at Denver

3:25 PM CT

Kansas City at San Francisco

NY Jets at San Diego

7:30 PM CT

Cincinnati at New England

Monday, October 6th

7:30 PM CT

Seattle at Washington

Teams on Bye Week: Miami, Oakland

Have fun, everyone!

Good luck, and see ya in a coupla weeks.

The Commish

27 comments posted: Tuesday, September 30th, 2014

The "Just Sayin'" Thread. A Place to Place Your Random Thoughts

Part Deux, because apparently the first version has walked the plank.

Damn you, miniature sized Almond Joy bars. Damn you, miniature sized Mounds bars. Damn you, miniature sized Kit Kat bars.

It hurts so badly to love you all.

Just sayin'...

AJ's MOM

999 comments posted: Tuesday, November 1st, 2011