How I Won The Picks

As a result of winning both the regular season weekly picks and then carrying it on through the playoffs and Super Bowl, Zeb has asked me to post a blog. Now, I don’t know if he meant posting how I won or a blog post of my choice, but I’m going to go with how I won and post a blog of my choice at a later time – promise, Zeb.

I didn’t start the season off really great, actually being in third place and down a couple of picks early on. I guess I was picking teams on past reputations, which was hard to do with the lock-out and short preseason. Some teams started off really hot, like the Redskins and Bills, which I stayed away from because of last season’s performances, and I lost points there; and, ultimately, when I went to pick them to win, they showed their true mettle and started to lose.

Another difficulty in making my choices was teams playing so well one week and then losing so badly the next? I think a lot of us didn’t expect the Eagles to start so poorly, the drastic fall of the Buccaneers, and the Chargers fade in the middle of the season.

I started watching who the pros were picking. I’d search websites to see if I could glean an edge that maybe others hadn’t seen. I started playing the pick ‘em on Yahoo to see if my picks were far afield from others, and I also looked to see who my competition on this board was picking to see if I was missing something.

I got lucky that my personal favorite team, (remember I’m not just a fan but part owner), the Packers, won their first 15 games. I anticipated the resurgence of the Lions, the depth of the Bears struggles with the loss of Cutler, and the glee of watching the Vikings downward spiral. I also knew that the loss of Peyton Manning to the Colts was extremely costly to them, and went with the “Suck for Luck” attitude.

It took me until week 4 to win the weekly pick ‘em, but I was still down to Zeb by four picks. However, in week 5, Zeb went 5-8, which I went 8-5 to close the gap and trail by one win. Week 6 saw the freaky week where Zeb initially picked against his team, and then he and I end up equally split in the total points for Monday’s game. Week 7 was when I took the lead in picks and weekly wins and never gave it up.

I want to thank Brent for keeping tally throughout the season. I know his time was tight, but he always managed to get the results out for us. It’s a long season, which means it’s a long, hard chore for him to do.

I also want to thank everyone who played this season, especially some of the wild ways in which you guys used your imagination to select your teams. Way to spice things up to keep it from getting boring.

So, next year? Let’s say we do it again.