As you all know the regular season ended yesterday. Once the final standings are tabulated they will be posted in another thread.
Most of you know that the playoff pool is a complete reset with a separate winner. The regular season pool does not carry over. The pool is open to everyone as usual. I won’t have time today but tomorrow I plan to ping past participants and others to invite them into the pool in case they may not read this new thread. In the meantime feel free to join the pool and make your first set of picks which must of course be made before the games start. If you miss picking and have to pick late you probably shouldn’t bother as missing making picks is pretty well fatal given the limited number of games.
The rules are simple. The standings will operate the same way they do in the regular season and in the CFL Pool. Best record wins. First tiebreaker is perfect weeks. Second tiebreaker is aggregate +/- score. If it looks like a tie may be possible prior to the Super Bowl those in contention will be asked to predict a Super Bowl score, although that hasn’t been necessary as a 4th tiebreaker the last two years.
The pool will take place over 5 weeks with 4 weeks of picking (one week off before the SB). There are a total of 13 games that break down as 6, 4, 2 and SB. Perfect weeks will only be available for the first two slates of 6 and 4 games.
The first six games on tap with odds in brackets are:
Saturday
Cleveland (-2.5) at Houston 3:30 Miami at Kansas City (-3.5) 7:00
Sunday
Pittsburgh at Buffalo (-10) Noon Green Bay at Dallas (-7.5) 3:30 LA Rams at Detroit (-3.5) 7:00
Monday
Philadelphia (-2.5) at Tampa Bay 7:00
All times Central.
Byes: Baltimore, San Francisco
Pick early but don’t pick often! Convince all your friends to participate in the race for the coveted Amazing Kreskin playoff award.
First off congrats to Dave for winning the season pool . I gave it a good run but in the end I think I wound up in the top 3 so over all not a bad showing I suppose . Anyways on to bigger and better things here .
My 1rst round playoff picks are…
Good luck to all participants in this years NFL playoff pool .
Actually maybe I wasn’t clear or maybe you misinterpreted what I said. The rules aren’t really any different other than the modified perfect weeks (only the first two count) and there is no selection of games -all game are automatically in. What I intended to say about missing picks is that you essentially have no chance if you do because there are only 13 games. If you miss the first week or second or probably any week you’re likely toast. No wiggle room here.
I wanted to invite those of you have participated, at least to some extent, in recent pools, to the 3rd annual NFL playoff pool. If I missed anyone please know that everyone is welcome.
The rules are simple and posted at the top of the thread. Just post your picks for the Wildcard round before the first game starts Saturday afternoon. There will be no more reminders so make your picks before you become a no good galoot. No need to respond if you are not interested. Thanks.
(Sorry Dolphins…this cold front will get to KC same time you do…) (See above, Bills are experienced playing in the snow…) (Just have a bad feeling that “young team that doesn’t know they shouldn’t win” may overcome “Win at home”)
Flacco has mostly played well and has playoff experience, but Stroud was one of the top 5 QB’s in the league this year and Houston is at home. Still a tough call as I could see the Brown’s defence ruling the day.
KC
Miami hasn’t measured up against top teams for the most part. KC has struggled in many games but it’s the playoffs, they are at home, it’s expected to be cold and Patrick Mahomes. It wouldn’t shock me if Miami won which I could see them doing if they can get ahead by a couple of TD’s early.
Buffalo
The spread says it all and no TJ Watt. Rudolph’s Cinderella story comes to an end as his sleigh crashes. Easiest pick of the week.
Dallas
I’m betting that despite their improvement Green Bay isn’t quite ready for prime time just yet. Plus Dallas has won 16 in a row at home and are all but unbeatable there. This doesn’t look to me like the game that ends that impressive streak. Should be one up on any Dallas haters that let their emotion cloud their judgement on this one. Second easiest pick of the week.
LA Rams
A very difficult choice. Detroit should win but they do have a history of big game choking. Rams have easily been the better team the second half of the season and are as good a deep threat as any team in the league. Plus they have Aaron Donald. The coin flip came up Rams here.
Tampa
Five weeks ago this would have been the easiest game to pick even though five weeks ago it would have been Dallas at Tampa. Another tough game to pick and it wouldn’t shock me if the Eagles squeaked this one out. Tampa isn’t that good although Mayfield has been better than Hurts lately. I just can’t get past the depth of the Eagles swoon and the reported bickering between them. Tampa is however quite a bit better than the hapless Giants and I also can’t get past those Giants taking the Eagles to the woodshed last week. The weakest match up of the weekend between perhaps the two weakest teams to make the playoffs. In my opinion whoever wins this potential stinker has only one more week to play.
Nice summary @Jon. Although the poor showing by Detroit’s defence last week was the reason to pick the Rams…
That and KC. Cold weather takes a cold weather game plan. I think Reid knows more what it takes to win on a cold day and will have a better game plan for the weather.
for you according to the strict rules, so don’t be a no-good galoot this time folks!