FanPost

KD's 10-for-10 - 2013 Week #2 Update

Well, the first week went smoothly for the Cowboys, and for 10-for-10. We had a record number of participants; all got their picks in on time; most were easy to read and figure; everyone included the Cowboys game; everyone who made Thursday Game Only picks returned with their other nine; and, Cowboys won.

This week was a little different. I am learning the pattern of BTB players. Week #2 normally has some new players, and many more who drop off the map. The only mention of them the rest of the season is at the bottom of the overall leaderboard each week (they're the ones who stay in single digits all year).

We did drop this week - 49 week #1 players failed to return for week #2. We did add some this week - 14 new players this week. However, we also had:

  • three - failed to include the Cowboys game as one of their ten picks
  • two - failed to submit ten countable picks (one failed to highlight either team in one game; the other submitted picks on Friday, but included the Thursday Night game as one of his picks - at least, it was right, just not counted)
  • one - made a Thursday Game Only pick, but failed to return with his other nine

So, we had 207 participants this week - one played Thursday Game Only and 206 played 10-for-10. 203 made picks in the Cowboys-Chiefs game, and three failed to include the mandatory game in their ten picks.

In an "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" moment, we had another good scoring week, with our consensus picking eleven winners and five losers. Ten of our wins were near-unanimous, but three of our losses were staggering as well. The other three games had more even splits, and the least number of participants.

That is the same record as last week (11-5), but it drops us a game behind the Front Page Writers consensus (they went 12-4 this week). They got Arizona right, while our majority/consensus favored Detroit. The other fifteen were the same.

Before I go on any farther, I need to give a shout-out to One.Cool.Customer. I had not written any table-laden FanPosts since the new SBNation webdesign, and my tables did not format or look right. He gave me some secret HTML code commands to make them look the same way they did last year. I re-edited last week's FanPost after many of you saw it. You will see the updated and more colorful tables this week in this FanPost, and in KD's next contest page (he uses my data/tables for the overall leaderboard and the Hall of Fame).

KD did approve of my Hall re-design, so you will see that this week on his page, not here (spoiler alert - it is unchanged; no new members this week).

Here is our weekly scorecard:

Week #2 Results (Home in CAPS)
Win Winners (we're great) Lose
176 HOUSTON Tennessee 2
174 GREEN BAY Washington 2
160 New Orleans TAMPA BAY 1
158 CINCINNATI Pittsburgh 1
158 Denver NEW YORK GIANTS 2
152 BALTIMORE Cleveland 3
151 ATLANTA St Louis 4
135 NEW ENGLAND New York Jets 2
96 OAKLAND Jacksonville 1
95 CHICAGO Minnesota 4
Win Losers (we're bleep) Lose
10 KANSAS CITY Dallas 193
8 Miami INDIANAPOLIS 113
9 San Diego PHILADELPHIA 96
22 ARIZONA Detroit 43
Win Pretty Even (we're indifferent) Lose
25 BUFFALO Carolina 24
13 SEATTLE San Francisco 23

Even with the Cowboys' loss to the Chiefs, all NFC East teams lost on Sunday (just as all four AFC North teams lost in week #1). And, if Andy Reid's Chiefs can beat the Eagles, Redskins, and Giants as well, then this could end up being "no harm, no foul" in the long run.

Last week, I mentioned how it takes us a couple of weeks to catch on to this year's strong and weak teams. Last year, we picked the Saints overwhelmingly to win in their first three games - all losses. Finally, in week #4, we picked them to lose.

We were a little quicker to make a couple of adjustments: in week #1, we were all over the Steelers (I was one of the handful that picked Tennessee to beat them); this week, we were almost unanimous to pick the Bengals (only one picked Pittsburgh). We were all over Washington in week #1, riding the Shanny-Bob Express against Chip and the Collegians; we got off that train this week before it reached the frozen tundra.

Something I began to track last year is our record picking each team each week. You see, we don't just pick winners each week - whom we think will win ten selected games - but we also, by extension, pick losers - whom we think will lose those ten games.

Often, that's how we pick our "winners" as we pick "whoever is playing Jacksonville", "whoever is playing the Raiders", etc. This next table tracks our success at picking each team to win or lose each week. Again, these numbers are based on our consensus picks and are not weighted (our 176-2 preference of Houston over Tennessee counts the same as our 25-24 preference of Buffalo over Carolina).

There are fourteen teams that we have picked correctly both weeks - either picking them to win and they won, or picking them to lose and they lost. There are sixteen teams - including the Cowboys - that we have picked correctly once and missed once. Finally, there are two teams that we mis-picked both weeks. Will we mis-pick them again this week?

In this table, the first letter is how our consensus picked that team - win or lose; the second letter is the result. WW means we picked them to win, and they won. LL means we picked them to lose, and they lost. The others are our misses - we pick one way and the result is the opposite. Here's that table (with room to grow across the season):

Picks/Results for Each Team/Each Week
Team Wk 1 Wk 2 Wk 3 Wk 4 Wk 5 Wk 6 Wk 7 Wk 8 Wk 9 Wk 10 Wk 11 Wk 12 Wk 13 Wk 14 Wk 15 Wk 16 Wk 17 W L
Atlanta LL WW 2 0
Baltimore LL WW 2 0
Buffalo LL WW 2 0
Carolina LL LL 2 0
Denver WW WW 2 0
Green Bay LL WW 2 0
Houston WW WW 2 0
Jacksonville LL LL 2 0
Minnesota LL LL 2 0
New England WW WW 2 0
New Orleans WW WW 2 0
New York Giants LL LL 2 0
Oakland LL WW 2 0
St Louis WW LL 2 0
Arizona LL LW 1 1
Chicago LW WW 1 1
Cincinnati WL WW 1 1
Cleveland WL LL 1 1
Dallas WW WL 1 1
Detroit WW WL 1 1
Indianapolis WW WL 1 1
Kansas City WW LW 1 1
New York Jets LW LL 1 1
Pittsburgh WL LL 1 1
San Diego LL LW 1 1
San Francisco WW WL 1 1
Seattle WW LW 1 1
Tampa Bay WL LL 1 1
Tennessee LW LL 1 1
Washington WL LL 1 1
Miami LW LW 0 2
Philadelphia LW WL 0 2
Total 44 20

Here's what you've been waiting to see - the scoreboard. How did we do this week? Did anyone score 10-for-10?

KD will list the complete leaderboard - top to bottom - each week in his contest page. I list here each week the top weekly scores and the top leaderboard scores.

This week, no one scored 10-for-10, although we had 27 score 9-for-10 to lead the way. Twenty-two faithful, loyal, upstanding, young leaders of the blog scored 9-for-10 by having the Cowboys as their only loss. Four renegade "realists" picked the Chiefs. All four, ironically enough, picked the Eagles, and had that as their only loss. What about the twenty-seventh 9-for-10? He was one of the four who failed to make a pick in the Cowboys-Chiefs game. He had nine right, his tenth discarded, and the Cowboys game scored "wrong", per KD's rules.

With two consecutive 9-for-10s to open the season, we have a single leader overall this week. Congratulations to I am Ironman!!! for being alone at the top. Right below him, there are sixteen breathing down his neck, only one off the pace. Forty more (including yours truly) are only two behind, and fifty-two more are three behind. That's over one hundred within three of the lead.

Here are the top scores of week #2, and the top of the overall leaderboard:

Top Scores This Week
Week #2 Score Week #2 Score Overall Score Overall Score
Aggie Man 9 Hookem Up 8 I am Ironman!!! 18 traceabides 16
beastygaming 9 hookerhome 8 9_to_88 all day 17 Trent Schoneweis 16
BoydNation 9 Howleyesque 8 Aggie Man 17 1Bullseye 15
CarloRue 9 ibleedcowboyblue 8 Baloo. 17 behind.enemylines 15
DCB* 9 illcowboy 8 BoyfromOz 17 BigBad Joe 15
geof 9 IRONRAVEN 8 DCB* 17 BishopWest 15
gershwin 9 jakezze01 8 ginge159 17 bookiebuster 15
I am Ironman!!! 9 jamesvb 8 Lajitas Lava 17 boys.camncrew 15
jstaubach 9 JDobermans 8 lsttexas 17 connor.cmr 15
Lajitas Lava 9 Jebediah Flibberbrush 8 One.Cool.Customer 17 Cowboy Joe 15
lucke 9 Junkyard Dog 8 Realist Larry 17 CowboyinExile 15
mik888 9 Kansas Cowboy 8 skinny post 17 cwby4lf 15
nicomachus 9 kethry1313 8 spur_for_life 17 D_Carter 15
One.Cool.Customer 9 Kire_V 8 Travlr 17 Doc_J 15
Ray Silva 9 LoboTX 8 Useful_Idiot_ 17 EchoEcho 15
Realist Larry 9 lsttexas 8 Vector_41 17 Enja 15
revellyre 9 Matt Buresh 8 Wreck'emCowboys 17 gabrielau23 15
skinny post 9 Max2 8 Allan Uy 16 geof 15
spur_for_life 9 mbraunginn 8 beastygaming 16 gershwin 15
suddendeath88 9 meisternance 8 BigHat in NewTexas 16 HonorTheStar 15
Tallgrass Prairie 9 melman88 8 BoydNation 16 Hookem Up 15
Travlr 9 mikemc68 8 Canadian Cowboy_74 16 illcowboy 15
Useful_Idiot_ 9 MSM33 8 CarloRue 16 jakezze01 15
Vector_41 9 MUTTS 8 CDMac24 16 jamesvb 15
Witten mittens 9 Nova84 8 ChrisMan 16 JDobermans 15
Wreck'emCowboys 9 Oh Hai Doggy 8 cowboy1966 16 jockmeister 15
YumaCactus 9 Panzer84 8 CowboyBaby 16 Junkyard Dog 15
9_to_88 all day 8 Pnut Gallery 8 CowboysBarry 16 KD Drummond 15
Allan Uy 8 Portland's Cowboy fan 8 cowdog 16 kethry1313 15
Baloo. 8 Proxy406 8 Dalai Luke 16 Kire_V 15
bcg08 8 pugbuddy 8 hookerhome 16 letsgtld 15
BigBad Joe 8 rhodri2112 8 Howleyesque 16 Matt Buresh 15
BishopWest 8 scotscowboyfan 8 IRONRAVEN 16 mdlusk 15
bookiebuster 8 Seatown7 8 Jebediah Flibberbrush 16 mehrans9 15
BoyfromOz 8 Shakeepuddn 8 jstaubach 16 melman88 15
Canadian Cowboy_74 8 sirjason22 8 Kansas Cowboy 16 Mikellie 15
CDMac24 8 slowmotion80 8 LoboTX 16 Mikhaili 15
cee-los 8 Souna21 8 lucke 16 MosesArt 15
ChrisMan 8 Specific 8 Max2 16 MSM33 15
Cowboy Joe 8 swanhooch 8 mik888 16 mushpuppy 15
cowboy1966 8 TARHEEL PAUL 8 mikemc68 16 NCHeelsBoysFan 15
CowboyBaby 8 Tennessee_Jed 8 nicomachus 16 NorthStar99 15
CowboyinExile 8 the.mo.the.merrier 8 Oh Hai Doggy 16 Panzer84 15
CowboysBarry 8 thepainster 8 Pnut Gallery 16 Rex Pfister 15
cowdog 8 Through Thick And Thin 8 Portland's Cowboy fan 16 Samuel_L_Bronkowitz 15
cwby4lf 8 traceabides 8 revellyre 16 StarloverinWNC 15
Dalai Luke 8 WA_Cowboy 8 rhodri2112 16 Tennessee_Jed 15
Damnsammit 8 wildtigger2 8 scotscowboyfan 16 thepainster 15
Doc_J 8 wittenfan 8 Seatown7 16 Through Thick And Thin 15
Elbert 8 Yellowbeard 8 slowmotion80 16 WA_Cowboy 15
f the romo haters 8 75 tied with 7 Souna21 16 wildtigger2 15
gabrielau23 8 20 tied with 6 Specific 16 Witten mittens 15
ginge159 8 3 tied with 5 suddendeath88 16 wittenfan 15
HLCJ69 8 1 score of 4 swanhooch 16 zigg6411 15
Hobbes42 8 1 Thursday Game Only 1 Tallgrass Prairie 16 42 tied with 14

Last week, I was so late getting out my first FanPost that KD actually beat me - his week #2 contest page was up before my week #1 update. Normally, I will take early picks on my FanPost for those whose schedules will not permit them to wait for KD's page. Here is that opportunity this week.

You know the routine: highlight your picks in bold, and leave all games in order. Delete the games you are not picking, leaving just the ten games you are selecting - in order. If you are making a Thursday Game Only pick, please indicate that in your subject. When you are ready for the other nine, either reply to yourself, or make a new comment that says "other nine" or something similar.

The easiest way to make your picks bold, especially from a mobile phone or tablet, is to use asterisks before and after your selection (with no space after the first or before the last asterisk).

  • *Kansas City* at PHILADELPHIA will look like Kansas City at PHILADELPHIA
  • Kansas City at *PHILADELPHIA* will look like Kansas City at PHILADELPHIA

This is the second week in a row for the Cowboys to play early on Sunday, so there again is no grace for late picks. Here are this week's games, separated by day/time:

Thursday, September 19 (don't include after it kicks off):

Kansas City at PHILADELPHIA

Sunday, September 22 (early):

Houston at BALTIMORE

New York Giants at CAROLINA

Green Bay at CINCINNATI

St. Louis at DALLAS (mandatory, must include this game)

Cleveland at MINNESOTA

Tampa Bay at NEW ENGLAND

Arizona at NEW ORLEANS

San Diego at TENNESSEE

Detroit at WASHINGTON

Sunday, September 22 (late games):

Atlanta at MIAMI

Buffalo at NEW YORK JETS

Indianapolis at SAN FRANCISCO

Jacksonville at SEATTLE

Sunday/Monday, September 22-23 (night games):

Chicago at PITTSBURGH

Oakland at DENVER

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.