Survival Football Advice: One more weekend until glory
Resources: Yahoo survival pool pick distribution • SurvivorGrid.com
Week 16’s biggest killer: San Francisco over Jacksonville (1.7 percent)
Week 16’s biggest success: Carolina over Tampa Bay (57.2 percent)
My picks so far: Buffalo – Oakland – New England — Seattle — Philadelphia — Atlanta (x) — Minnesota — New Orleans — Jacksonville — Detroit — Kansas City (x) — Cincinnati — LA Chargers — Green Bay/Pittsburgh — Carolina/Baltimore — Chicago/LA Rams
It wasn’t supposed to work out this way.
The idea behind two-pick weeks down the stretch is that it makes it twice as hard to advance and it’s a lot easier to whittle down the number of eligible prizewinners as the end of the season rapidly approaches
That’s theoretically how it’s supposed to work.
Except some times the chalk wins and the plot gets foiled. Weeks 15 and 16 barely made a dent in the number of entries still alive for a share of our $100,000 prize. Heading into the final week, 1,035 lucky people remain in contention for the big money.
That’s not to say that form will hold serve in Week 17. While regular fantasy football leagues usually never go anywhere near the final week because of rested players, eliminated teams and checked-out coaches, the path to survival pool glory requires you to conquer one final gauntlet.
With more than half of the NFL’s 32 teams off the board, of course.
If you’ve made it this far, you probably have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing. Maybe you’re even lucky enough to have saved the Patriots or Steelers as they go into crucial-for-homefield Week 17 home games against the Jets and Browns.
If not, maybe you still have teams that still need a win to get into the playoffs (Tennessee, Baltimore, New Orleans) or for a first-round bye (Minnesota).
My general rule for Week 17: Try your best to pick a team that still has something riding on it. For my situation, that means the Titans, who need a win over the Jaguars to get into the playoffs and will be facing a Jacksonville squad that won’t improve its playoff position with a win.
That’s all I have left though, so I’m also tabbing the San Francisco 49ers over the Los Angeles Rams. Maybe that’s a bit of a risk but the Rams won’t be playing their starters much and are locked into playing the first week of the playoffs. Jimmy G, deliver me!
It’s going to be a hard week so good luck with your picks. That Indy-Houston matchup gives me nightmares; same with the Eagles-Cowboys game that features two disinterested teams.
Hopefully, though, you’ll be able to find one or two good teams to deliver you to safety after four straight months of picks. Thanks for reading my column all year and — as I say at the end of every video — be safe out there!
