I sure hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, filled with lots of good food and laughter at the expense of the Bears. The Pantheon had a nice holiday, and also had a decent couple of weeks, adding several more names to its halls.
However, the weeks were only that, decent. After scoring 10 points in Week 11, our prognosticators followed up that performance with 11 points in Week 12, and five points in Week 13. So, we continue along the roller coaster ride that has been this season in the National Football League.
While the group as a whole did not have a great two weeks, there was one prognosticator who had a very good two weeks. This person scored four of those 16 points by himself, and saw himself rise to the top of the leaderboard as well. Maybe we should all just try and emulate this prognosticator, and get ourselves an all-knowing fake mustache. It couldn’t hurt to try.
Well, now that Movember is over, maybe some of you won’t need a fake mustache at all. Either way, let us now focus on to the games for this week.
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.)
- Dallas Cowboys XX @ Chicago Bears YY
- Carolina Panthers XX @ New Orleans Saints YY
- New York Jets XX @ Minnesota Vikings YY
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers XX @ Detroit Lions YY
- Atlanta Falcons XX @ Green Bay Packers YY
I would just like to remind everyone that the match-up between the Cowboys and Bears is on Thursday night, so please be sure to get you predictions for that game in on time. Any predictions for this game that are not posted before it starts, will not be included.
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 either 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.
- Week 12: Tampa Bay @ Chicago – MKE correctly predicted that the Bears would win by eight points.
- Week 12: Cleveland @ Atlanta – Nardo correctly predicted that the Browns would win by two points.
- Week 12: Detroit @ New England – Building With Clay correctly predicted that the Patriots would win by 25 points.
- Week 13: New Orleans @ Pittsburgh – Maized and Confused correctly predicted that the Saints would win by three 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.
- Week 12: Tampa Bay @ Chicago – Staffords_Glove correctly predicted that the teams would combine to score 34 points.
- Week 12: Baltimore @ New Orleans – Big Cheese and LaCW both correctly predicted that the teams would combine to score 61 points.
- Week 13: Chicago @ Detroit – MIBearFan correctly predicted that the teams would combine to score 51 points.
- Week 13: Carolina @ Minnesota – Maized and Confused correctly predicted that the teams would combine to score 44 points.
- Week 13: Arizona @ Atlanta – Maized and Confused correctly predicted that the teams would combine to score 47 points.
Winning team’s score
- Week 12: Cleveland @ Atlanta – Childerz correctly predicted that the Browns would win with a score of 26 points.
- Week 12: Detroit @ New England – curtisfryer_p, niemerg1, smtate, and The Real CJammin all correctly predicted that the Patriots would score 34 points in a victory.
Against the grain
Oftentimes, our picks will be unanimous. However, there are those who will sometimes walk their own path.
- Week 13: Arizona @ Atlanta – Maized and Confused was the only one (out of 17) the predicted the Falcons would defeat the Cardinals.
ESPN The Magazine
In their NFL preview issue, the writers at ESPN The Magazine predicted the score for every single NFL game to be played in the regular season. Let’s see how they did these past weeks. Here are their predictions:
Week 12
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23 @ Chicago Bears 16
- Cleveland Browns 16 @ Atlanta Falcons 27
- Detroit Lions 13 @ New England Patriots 20
- Green Bay Packers 33 @ Minnesota Vikings 13
- Baltimore Ravens 17 @ New Orleans Saints 35
Week 13
- Chicago Bears 21 @ Detroit Lions 45
- Cincinnati Bengals 27 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14
- New Orleans Saints 21 @ Pittsburgh Steelers 31
- Carolina Panthers 20 @ Minnesota Vikings 13
- Arizona Cardinals 7 @ Atlanta Falcons 26
- New England Patriots 17 @ Green Bay Packers 27
The “pros” did not get any predictions correct over the past two weeks. That means that they are still sitting at 7 points for the year. We now have nine of our prognosticators that have matched, or exceeded their point total.
Week 13 Leaderboard
Now on to the leaderboard!
What a difference a few weeks can make. There is now a new leader. By scoring four points over the past two weeks, Maized and Confused propelled himself into sole possession of first place with 11 points.
There was a only one other person who advanced on the leaderboard over the past two weeks. By scoring one point over the last two weeks, smtate moved from a five-way tie for fourth place with seven points, into a… three-way tie for fourth place with eight points. Okay, that’s not much movement at all, but his name still appears on the leaderboard.
Speaking of not appearing on the leaderboard, there are several prognosticators who still have a chance to appear on here over the next few weeks. The week that Maized had is a perfect example as to how the three people with seven points, and the five people with six points can appear on the leaderboard.
With that said, here is the leaderboard after Week 13 (in the case of a tie, the names are arranged alphabetically):
- Maized and Confused – 11 points
- curtisfryer_p – nine points
- natesweet – nine points
- FalconsFan0125 – eight points
- MKE – eight points
- smtate – eight points
This was not the best two weeks for the Pantheon. I have seen, and know we can do better. However, in the meantime, 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 NFC North and the NFC South. 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.