10/13/26
What a week in the NFL in week 5 as we had some high level, playoff caliber match-ups that lived up to the hype. San Francisco used some turnovers to defeat Seattle while Buffalo downed Los Angeles in an overtime thriller on Monday night. Upsets, nailbiters, and even a tie highlighted the week and we had a very close week in Professor DW’s Football Pick ’em Challenge. With one fewer game the scores were high but so were the penalties which would help us decide our week 5 winner.
Out of 15 games, two contestants would finish with 12 points as Skip Smith and Bob Kickner tied for the top spot but at the same time both locked a spot up in the Postseason Tournament. Skip and Bob each missed three games with Skip missing Tampa Bay’s upset win over Dallas, Green Bay’s blowout win over Chicago, and San Francisco’s thrilling win in Seattle. Bob also missed the Thursday night game and Green Bay’s rivalry win, but his third miss was a toss-up game where Pittsburgh rolled past Indianapolis.
It would come down to the tiebreaker and Skip went high with a guess of 252 penalties while Bob went safe with a guess of 191. While the penalties were higher than most of the weeks so far this season, the total landed at 228 which earned Bob the win and forced Skip to settle for second in week 5 and the first week of byes.
Bob and Skip are both qualified for Professor DW’s Exclusive Postseason Tournament once the regular season concludes in January. Bob takes home the $25 and will hope to earn the mystery grand prize this postseason. 26 spots remain open and nobody has successfully earned a block as the 10 spots have been filled by 10 different contestants. Bob and Skip will hope to change that in the coming weeks. Bob is into the postseason for the missed the postseason last year but will make his return this year while Skip also makes his return after missing in 2025.
Professor DW was not average this week with a total of 9 in homage to JJ McCarthy. He took chances on upsets but was let down in a big way by the Raiders, Cowboys, and Rams which really tanked his score. On the bright side, DW remains perfect in games played in Europe this year after Jacksonville’s stunning win late over Philadelphia. If they played all games in Europe maybe he could get a win.
The upset of the week was also the first game of the week with Tampa Bay’s stunning victory over Dallas. Only MJ Hargrave and Darin Arthur correctly called that win as Jalon Daniels broke the heart of Jerry Jones. There is trouble in Dallas, but we say that every year once October hits I guess.
Week 6’s contest is up. The deadline to enter is back to 4pm on Thursday so get signed up ASAP. Congratulations Jim and Alicia and best of luck to everyone this week.
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