Crunch time is officially here. There are only three games left in the season, so it’s now or never for those who would like to be enshrined in the Pantheon.
Like last week, we had another successful run this week. In fact, we did even better! Our prognosticators improved on the nine points from last week by scoring 13 this week! That’s great! That brings the playoff total for this season to 22, which is double what was scored last year. Let’s keep it up, and continue to add more names to the halls of the Pantheon.
And now, without further ado, bring on the Conference Championships!
The Games
As always, here is the slate for next week’s games. Simply copy and paste it to the comments, and add your predicted scores after the team names. (Substitute scores for the XX and YY.)
- Green Bay Packers XX @ Seattle Seahawks YY
- Indianapolis Colts XX @ New England Patriots YY
With all of that out of the way, read on to find exactly who Nailed It!
Final score
These are the people who have (somehow) correctly predicted the final outcome of a game. The only shot that was called that could be considered more famous than these belongs to Babe Ruth. Bow down before their wisdom! (And make sure you ask them for next week’s lotto numbers.)
- None this week.
Scoring differential
These are the ones who correctly predicted the margin by which the victors would best their competition. These are also the ones to consult if you want to bet the spread.
- Baltimore @ New England – Established in 1965, jmac3444, natesweet, and TheRajiBelt47 all correctly predicted that the Patriots would win by four points.
- Carolina @ Seattle – Donny33, Maized and Confused, MKE, and SDL all correctly predicted that the Seahawks would win by 14 points.
Total combined score
These are those who somehow managed to pick the correct total score but did not have any clue in how the teams would actually get there. Still, if you want to bet an over/under, you could do worse than consulting with them.
- Dallas @ Green Bay – curtisfryer_p, and MIBearFan correctly predicted that the teams would combine to score 47 points.
Winning team’s score
- Carolina @ Seattle – bp, jmac3444, and thenichels all correctly predicted that the Seahawks would win with a score of 31 points.
Against the grain
Oftentimes, our picks will be unanimous. However, there are those who will sometimes walk their own path.
- None this week.
Divisional Round Leaderboard
Now on to the leaderboard!
The names are all the same, but there was some slight adjusting on the leaderboard this week. By scoring one more point again this week, MKE moved into sole possession of third place with his 13 points for the season.
Also, their positions didn’t change, but both Maized and Confused and natesweet scored another point each this week, slightly extending their positions. The race between these two is coming down to the wire, and with only three games left in the year it will be interesting to see if Maized can be caught.
Again, with only three games left in the season, there is still hope, however small, that a few people can see their names on the leaderboard. So to the two people with 11 points, and the two others with 10, keep on trying.
With that said, here is the leaderboard after Divisional Round Weekend (in the case of a tie, the names are arranged alphabetically):
- Maized and Confused – 16 points
- natesweet – 14 points
- MKE – 13 points
- smtate – 12 points
- LaCW – 12 points
Let’s give a little congratulatory clap to all the people who are listed in this article. Or not. Your choice.
If you would like to have your name forever enshrined in the vast expanse that is the internet, simply call your shot in the comment section below for the games of the playoffs. I will be reviewing the comments and keeping track as the season goes on. And who knows? Maybe you’ll even see your name in the leaderboard!
If you cannot call your shots on Thursday, as is custom, it is still possible to participate. As long as your called shots are posted to the comments of this article before the games start, I will include them.