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Pick 256 is a season-long contest in which BTB members and readers get to pick the straight-up winners for all games each week. Overall, 225 BTB-members took part in the Pick 256 challenge in Week 15.
On Saturday last week, we wondered whether an upset weekend was in the works for Week 16. Our Pick 256 consensus left almost nothing to chance, and followed the Vegas lines in 15 out of 16 games, only picking the 1.5-point underdog Chargers over the 49ers.
Overall, picking the favorites is not a bad strategy. For the season, picking the straight up favorites in each game would have left you with a 157-82-1 record, or a 65.7% win rate, which is not too far off the consensus result of our Pick 256 Challenge, which currently stands at 165-75.
Last week, seven of the 16 games ended with an upset win by the underdog, leaving the favorites with a 9-7 record for the weekend.
| Week 16 Picks, 225 participants |
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| Game & Closing Lines |
Pick 256 Favorite | Pick 256 vote | Winner |
| GB (-11.5) @ TB | Green Bay | 97% | GB |
| NE (-9.5) @ NYJ | New England | 96% | NE |
| BUF (-6.5) @ OAK | Buffalo | 95% | OAK |
| IND @ DAL (-3.5) | Dallas | 95% | DAL |
| MIN @ MIA (-4.5) | Miami | 92% | MIA |
| SEA (-9.5) @ ARI | Seattle | 88% | SEA |
| DET (-10) @ CHI | Detroit | 86% | DET |
| BAL (-6.5) @ HOU | Baltimore | 85% | HOU |
| TEN @ JAC (-4.5) | Jacksonville | 84% | JAC |
| ATL @ NO (-6) | New Orleans | 82% | ATL |
| DEN (-3) @ CIN | Denver | 80% | CIN |
| KC @ PIT (-2.5) | Pittsburgh | 77% | PIT |
| NYG @ STL (-6.5) | St. Louis | 77% | NYG |
| CLE @ CAR (-6) | Carolina | 72% | CAR |
| PHI (-7.5) @ WAS | Philly | 71% | WAS |
| SD @ SF (-1.5) | San Diego | 71% | SD |
Can you correctly predict some of the underdog wins in the regular season finale this week? Join our Pick 256 Challenge below to find out.
Week 17 Picks
Click on the link below and you'll be taken directly to the Pick 256 entry form where you can select the teams you like for the win.
The link above should auto-fill your BTB user name into the entry form (in most cases). In some cases, the link hasn't worked properly, so here's an alternative link that works without the auto-fill - just remember to spell your username correctly.
Alternative Pick 256 Entry Form
If you prefer not to use your BTB user name, or are not a BTB member, go ahead and enter a name of your choosing, but try to stick with that name throughout the season.
With all of that that out of the way, on to last week's results.
Week 16 Results
Top Finishers
When all or most of the favorites come through on a weekend, achieving a high score in our Pick 256 Challenge is a fairly straightforward task. But when you have a lot of upset wins, achieving a good score is much harder. Which makes the scores of our two top finishers in Week 16 all the more astounding. BTB member Yobwoc finished with 14 correct picks, AZ_Dave was the runner up with 13 correct picks.
Here are the top Week 16 finishers in alphabetical order:
- 14 - Yobwoc
- 13 - AZ_Dave
- 12 - 33lmitch, 5timechamps, BUBBA KUHL, chappycav, cowboyofthenorth, dallas4ever65, Fhfgj, lonewolfz28, Morgan460, NCHeelsBoysFan, Sanman9840, scotscowboyfan, since '66, The Sethnicity, Troy, westmodelmarket
- 11 - 43 paricipants finished with 11 correct picks
Season Ranking
The top of our leaderboard is quite a bit ahead of the 157 wins the favorites have scored so far this season, but longtime leader Jebediah Flibberbrush onyl got 9 picks right this weekend, which allowed some of the pursuers to close the gap a little. Are the pursuers close enough to push for the lead on the final regular season weekend?
Only if they manage to pick enough upset wins correctly. Stay tuned ...
| Pick 256 Leaderboard |
||
| Correct Picks |
Regular Participants |
Part-timers |
| 172 | Jebediah Flibberbrush | - - |
| 168 | revellyre | - - |
| 166 | aaa61aaa | - - |
| 165 | boys.camncrew, Prfbrain, Rajohnnn, Wildhair | - - |
| 164 | Dcowboy, LoboTX | GalTex* |
| 163 | CowboysWin, Florida dodger, Specific | angie'sdad, Becho, couboy12 |
| 162 | Chuck Sisco, Jeff Landrith, Oldboysfan, Yellowbeard | - - |
| 161 | cowboy1966, jtiddahr, Spaceball, UTCowboy, Vancity Cowboy | FANSINCESB5, Lcdano24 |
| 160 | BigDFanSince77, ginge159, NutriaBoudin, StarloverinWNC | cap2vator, fs65, kat31, Mighty Blue Star, milehightexan |
| 159 | braininahat, lonewolfz28, NorthStar99, Pagrebo, pugbuddy, Starmesh23 | codydoser, Realist Larry, rhbgsherb, Trent Schoneweis |
| 158 | JDobermans, KETHRY1313, Lajitas Lava, mfoster, MIllard Fillmore, qcisco | Buckywaters, Canadian Cowboy_74, Daledoe, nreyesjr02, Vector_41 |
| 157 | JayRosser27, Rathos, Roun2It, rptril | Aggie Man, blue & silver, CowboysFan_Nepal, Morgan460, strobman, yushay bohra |
| "Regulars" are participants who haven't missed a single week in our challenge, "Part-Timers" received one or more freebies (as denoted by the asterisks) depending on the number of weeks they missed. | ||
The fine print
This week, submissions won't have to be in until kickoff on Sunday at 1:00 pm ET. No late submissions of any kind will be accepted (all entries are time-stamped), no exceptions of any kind will be granted. In case of multiple submissions, we will always use the last submission as the final and valid one.
Good luck with your picks.