10/20/26
Four teams were on a bye in week 6 but that did not take away from the excitement as the NFL provided plenty of fireworks and excitement this weekend. We had a stunning upset as Arizona shocked Los Angeles as the Rams continue to fall apart while Houston has turned things around with a big win in London over Jacksonville. Professor DW’s Football Pick ’em Challenge was all around low scoring as well with the upsets and late injuries to key players.
Only two contestants made it to double digits this week but it came down to Monday night to decide which two that would be. The San Francisco 49ers held on against the Washington Commanders despite a nightmare of a second half in which they only had one drive not result in a three-and-out. That moved Joe Williams and Jim Spinelli both to 10 points. Joe waited until late so he had Carolina over Philadelphia without Jalen Hurts while Jim nailed a gutsy Cleveland upset over Baltimore which made up for his other upset of Tampa Bay over Pittsburgh hurt a lot less.
We were back to the tiebreaker with two fewer games for penalties to be called. Both Joe and Jim lowered their guesses down as Joe predicted 179 penalties while Jim guessed 150. It was unfortunately for fans another high penalty total with 209 total accepted penalties this week. That gave Joe his first win of the season while Jim had to settle for second place.
Joe Williams locks his spot into Professor DW’s Exclusive Postseason Tournament with his win but Jim Spinelli doesn’t this week. That is because Jim took home the win back in week 4 which means he becomes the first contestant to block out a spot in the postseason. Now there are a maximum of 35 entrants for the playoffs as Jim blocks one of the 36 possible out, giving him a better shot at winning it all. Joe will make his first postseason appearance this year as will Jim Spinelli.
Ladies and gentlemen, Professor DW is starting to figure things out and finished in a tie for third with 9 points as he looks to end his drought. He did shoot high on the penalties with 217 but DW was only hurt by upsets this week along with Sam Darnold’s turnover problem in 2026. Unfortunately for DW, his perfect streak of picking games in Europe came to an end as he did not predict CJ Stroud and the Texans outlasting Jacksonville.
While there were a couple of large upsets including Tennessee getting their first win of the season over Indianapolis, one upset was by far the largest and least predicted. Only one entrant correctly picked the Arizona Cardinals to upset the preseason Super Bowl favorited in the Los Angeles Rams. Emily Mueller knew something the rest of us didn’t and saw the future in her crystal ball.
Week 7’s contest is up. The deadline to enter is back to 4pm on Thursday so get signed up ASAP. Congratulations Joe and Jim and best of luck to everyone this week.
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