10/27/26
There were some very intriguing matchups this week in the NFL and when the dust settled there were only one undefeated and one winless team remaining. Atlanta knocked San Francisco off the unbeaten mountain while Seattle beat the breaks off of Kansas City to hand them their first L. Minnesota stayed perfect with another tight win over Indianapolis while Miami used the bye week to get into the win column by downing the New York Jets. Only the Los Angeles Chargers remain winless but Professor DW’s Football Pick ’em Challenge had some impressive non-Charger like showings.
With just 14 games on the schedule this week, we would see eight contestants get into double digits after Dallas beat up the injured Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night. However, two contestants separated themselves and worked their way to 11 points in very impressive showings. Jeff Johnson (Chehalis) and Neil Braslow would be the two to go head-to-head as Jeff correctly called Miami getting their first win and Atlanta handing San Francisco their first loss. Neil on the other hand also called the Atlanta win while predicting Tampa Bay to get back on track and was in the minority in picking Seattle at home on Sunday night.
Last week when we went to the tiebreakers, the penalties were still high despite two fewer games with the bye weeks. This week, the number of accepted penalties dropped by quite a bit, despite some controversial calls in one of the afternoon games. A total of 176 accepted penalties this week was by far the fewest so far this season. Jeff guessed a total of 128, shooting low, while Neil guessed 201 which is around the average so far this season. The low total netted Jeff the win and forced Neil to settle for second.
Both Jeff Johnson and Neil Braslow now qualify for Professor DW’s Exclusive Postseason Tournament to run the number of already qualified entrants to 13. Neither had already secured a spot so now the competition gets even tougher with only one blocked out spot so far this season. 22 spots still remain but Jeff and Neil will be looking to block those out to improve on their chances of taking home the grand prize and their first championship.
I am not even going to waste my time writing about DW this week. It was abysmal and he should be ashamed. DW would lose to the LA Chargers which tells you just how bad he is.
We had a number of upsets this week but the least predicted upset was actually a tie. JJ McCarthy led the New York Giants to an OT win over Houston while Miami earned their first win of the year by taking down the New York Jets. It was a good and bad week for New York as 12% of the entrants picked each of those games but only William Pecson predicted both of them correctly.
Week 8’s contest is up. The deadline to enter is back to 4pm on Thursday so get signed up ASAP. Congratulations Jeff and Neil and best of luck to everyone this week.
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