Week 10 Panel Picks
We’re halfway through the season, and with Ravens vs Bengals kicking off in a matter of moments, let’s do a quick standings update.
George felt the pain of coming up a few games short last season and has come out of the gates with a vengeance and has cemented a five-game lead over second place. Besides George, most of us are sliding up and down the rankings from second to sixth every week. Rahul, Ray, Josh, Theo, and I are all clumped up within one game of each other.
In his rookie season, at least Ben isn’t last, but he’s got quite a bit of work to do to dig out of seventh place. As for Jackson, a few successful weeks haven’t been close to enough to climb out of last, but he’s gaining ground.
Let’s transition to the week 10 picks.
Primetime Games
Early Window
Late Window
Most alike picks: For the first TIME ever, two panelists picked the exact same results. Congrats, George and Theo—this is enough to make a grown man cry.
Least alike picks: In less climactic fashion, Jackson and Rahul picked seven games differently.
Most upsets picked: For the second week in a row, Rahul has picked the most upsets. Last week it was five, and this week it was four.
Fewest upsets picked: Four of us only picked two upsets (Ray, Josh, Webb, and Theo).
Most picks with majority: Ray and I were in the majority for all but one game.
Most picks against majority: Rahul was in the minority three games.
What Stands Out?
Ravens vs Bengals and Texans vs Lions are two of the biggest matchups of the week, but there seems to be consensus about the results of those games on the panel. Like we have all season, we put faith in Baltimore, sweeping the Bengals 8-0. We also picked the Lions to sweep the injury-riddled Texans.
Jets vs Cardinals is perhaps the game of the week. Both present very intriguing storylines with Jets fighting from a 2-6 hole with an extremely talented roster and the Cardinals outperforming everyone’s expectations and sitting at 5-4. The panel split votes on this one meeting it could come down to the wire.
All seven of the early games don’t appear to be barnburners. Every game had a vote of either 6-2 or 8-0 and only one line was lower than three points. Hopefully the underdogs come to play this week.
The Chargers are gaining momentum as an AFC playoff lock. They received all eight panelists’ votes and two locks. If they manage to beat Tennessee, they’ll have a multi-game lead in the Wild Card race.
I already pointed it out already, but in the panel’s 33rd week, we finally have two panelists who picked the exact same results. The probability of that happening this week was 0.0024% this week.
Playoff Picture
Let’s pretend our majority pick in each matchup won this weekend. Here are the projected playoff matchups on Wild Card Weekend.
AFC
(1) Kansas City Chiefs vs BYE | The 2020 Steelers were the last team to start 9-0.
(2) Buffalo Bills vs (7) Denver Broncos | Denver beat Buffalo 24-22 in week 10 of last season.
(3) Ravens vs (6) Los Angeles Chargers | The last time the Harbaugh brothers faced off was Super Bowl XLVII
(4) Houston Texans vs (5) Steelers | Houston defeated Pittsburgh 30-6 in week four last year.
NFC
(1) Detroit Lions vs BYE | The Lions have never finished the season as the one seed in their franchise’s history.
(2) Washington Commanders vs (7) Green Bay Packers | These teams currently have the 2nd and 3rd best records in the NFC.
(3) Atlanta Falcons vs (6) Minnesota Vikings | This would be the Kirk Cousins bowl.
(4) San Francisco 49ers vs (5) Philadelphia Eagles | This is rematch of the 2023 NFC Championship.
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