9/29/26
Only 4 out of 16 games were decided by more than one possession in what was quite a crazy week in the NFL. Back-up quarterbacks stepped up and got huge wins as Marcus Mariota led the Commanders past the Seahawks while Case Keenum made his first start since 2023 on Monday night to lead the Bears by the Eagles. Those were just a couple of the surprises as the Browns won again against the Panthers and the Raiders moved to 3-0 with a win over the Saints. All the wackiness led to quite the low scoring week in Professor DW’s Football Pick ’em Challenge.
Chicago’s upset win on Monday night prevented a large tie for first as one contestant celebrated that upset as they took home the win outright. Darin Arthur was very successful with some big upsets as he was the only one to predict the Commanders to beat the Seahawks and one of very few to pick the Bears over the Eagles. That led Darin to 11 points and a win while three remained tied for second.
An Eagles win would have given us a four-way tie for first but instead we had a three-way tie for second. MJ Hargrave, Shawn O’Neill, and James Orsag all tied for second as they battled for a spot in the postseason. It was a high penalty week and none of the three were over and all three tried to play it safe with low guesses. MJ went with 134, Shawn went with 185, and James guessed 142. The grand total was a whopping 237 which gave Shawn the second-place finish.
Darin and Shawn qualify for Professor DW’s Exclusive Postseason Tournament at the end of the season. Darin also earns the $25 cash for being the overall winner for the week. The grand prize will remain a mystery for now but there are still many chances to get qualified for the postseason. All six contestants to qualify for the postseason are still able to play to try to block out spots and maximize their chances to take home the grand prize. Despite getting just one entry into the Tournament, fewer entrants create a better chance to win. Darin will make his debut in the postseason tournament while Shawn will return to the postseason after missing last year but qualifying in the 2024 season.
Professor DW was as average as anyone this week with 8 points along with a vast majority of the field. DW whiffed on the upsets and missed on a couple of the toss-up games as he picked Cincinnati over Pittsburgh, Houston over Indianapolis, and Dallas over Baltimore. It is one of those weeks you can’t make fun of him too much, but there have been a lot of weeks where he does exactly this.
One upset stood out among the rest. Darin Arthur was the only entrant to correctly predict Washington to stun Seattle led by a back-up quarterback. Darin was clearly aware of the fact that Marcus Mariota has never lost to a team from Seattle as he was 3-0 with Oregon against Washington in college and is now 3-0 against the Seahawks as a pro.
Week 4’s contest is up. The deadline to enter is back to 4pm on Thursday so get signed up ASAP. Congratulations Darin and Shawn and best of luck to everyone this week.
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