Sorry - again - to be late with this FanPost, but I hope my reason will be an excused absence in your eyes.

I was up in the Metroplex (Dallas-Fort Worth area for those who are bandwagon fans, or not from the area) for a concert this week. I have told you before that I am the accompanist for a group of men who are ministers of music from churches all over South Texas, and have been playing piano for them for thirty years. I even shared a link a month or so ago where you could watch our September concert that our host church recorded and streamed from its website.

Well, this week, our parent organization had its fortieth anniversary celebration and concert with all six regional choirs combining to be one massed men's choir with at least two hundred fifty participants. I drove up Monday night. We rehearsed Tuesday afternoon and presented the concert on Tuesday night. Wednesday was my day to get back, and get ready for my church rehearsals on Wednesday night.

I was actually able to finish the tables at the hotel before I left the area. The only thing I have to do now is write everything around the tables.

Please excuse my absence/tardiness with this week's post. Now, here goes:

Wow, what a week! I was extremely confident that the Cowboys would reverse their fortunes and complete a season's sweep of the Eagles. Our overall leader, revellyre, had asked in one of last week's Pick 256 threads for advice with some of the toss-up matchups. As one who had fallen far behind already, I was in no position to offer advice. Well, this week got him along with most of us. Read more about that later.

Since I have been tracking Pick 256, we have never been unanimous picking any team in a game. We've come close, and this week we came doubly close. The good news: we gained another game on the Front Page Writers.

Now, for the details:

After a bump in week #7, bolstered by a bunch of new participants, we continued our downward spiral of participation. For the second week in a row, we had nine new participants. But, we only had 206 total entries. Maybe that's my fault because I was actually home watching the game and flipped the switch shortly after kickoff to close the contest to new entries.

Here is the Participation Table, tracking the first nine weeks:

As I mentioned earlier, we have never had a unanimous pick for a team in a game. We have come close. This week, we came close twice as 205 picked one team and only one person picked the other. One (not named here, but Jessy S mentioned elsewhere that he was the one) picked WAS while all the rest of us picked NE. The other, Gregory_Regularly, was the lone genius who picked TEN over NO.

With that one game (205-1 losers), perfection watch ended with the Sunday early games. However, most of us did all right in the other early games, and our consensus was 6-2 (most of us also missed CAR, picking GB) when the late games kicked off.

Then, the bottom fell out. Our consensus only got one of the final five games right (three late afternoon, one Sunday night, one Monday night), and that one is the one that we wish we had missed (NYG over TB). After starting out 6-2, our consensus finished 7-6. 82% of us picked the Cowboys, and our consensus had FOUR losses that were worse (more than 90% picked teams that lost).

Here are the results of our consensus preferences for each game in week #9:

As badly as we picked, we actually outpicked the pros (the Front Page Writers) this week.

Our consensus has been almost identical each week with the Front Page Writers. One week, there were two discrepancies, although we had the same score (each of us won one of the discrepancies). The other weeks, every preference in every game was identical.

In week #3, however, we had a single discrepancy. We won that one, and have been nursing a one-game lead ever since. This week, we had another one. The FPWs preferred MIA, and our majority preferred BUF. With the Bills' win, our consensus increases its lead over the FPWs to two games.

Here's the table tracking the weekly consensus scores of Pick 256 participants and the Front Page Writers:

If you got seven right, you matched our consensus. Twenty-six of you did better, scoring 8 or 9 out of the thirteen games that were played this past weekend. Fifty-one of you matched our consensus. The rest of us did worse, some much worse.

Congratulations to the seven at the top this week: ansky23, DWDRUMR, lucke, oldboysfan, Powers93, quinduno, and shooter09. All posted scores of 9, and beat our consensus by two full games.

Here are the week #9 scores of all 206 participants:

After jesting each week about the new leader having to wear the special shirt from Target with the bullseye on the back, revellyre responded and threw down some smack. He actually wanted one of those shirts and welcomed the challenge. He pledged to not be a one-week wonder.

He was a two-week wonder. As he mentioned in different Pick 256 comment threads, this was a tough week to pick. Our consensus missed almost as many as we got right, and the FPWs missed more than they got right. However, his main pursuer, oldboysfan, posted the top score this week, and leaped past him to regain the lead.

They are beginning to make this a two-man race, as a bit of daylight is beginning to show in the gaps between their scores and the others at the top.Tenth place is now seven games behind after nine weeks with only eight weeks remaining. If you had taken the safest route and matched our consensus, you would have 85 and be tied for eleventh. Since you don't have access to see our consensus until after picks are due, you could post as your picks the FPW consensus. If you had done that, your score would be 83, and you would be tied for twenty-third.

However, if you had mirrored my picks, you would be twenty out of the lead, have eight ahead of you who had each missed a week, and have one tied with you who had missed two weeks.

Here are the scores from all 777 who have participated at least once this season:

Finally, and I always close with this, is the Pick Accuracy table. This is designed to recognize and reward players who play most weeks, but miss one or more throughout the season. It is not designed to recognize or reward "one-week wonders", who play once, post a great score, and disappear.

In my opinion, that means that participants need to play most weeks. So, I am generally only going to include scores here of those who have played at least 60-70% of the time. So, to make this week's list, you need to have played six of the nine weeks.

Last week, I answered a question from revellyre wondering how our pick accuracy compared to last year. My suspicion was that it was much worse, and was confirmed when I looked up last year's FanPost from the same week. Well, we took another tumble this week, and for the first time since I began tracking pick accuracy, there are no full-time (every week) players above 70%. This week's left column scores were on the right column last week. This week's right column would not have made last week's chart.

APerfectStar missed the first two weeks and has played all seven since, tracking and pacing the overall leaders. Well done! In a moment of personal embarrassment, he has now matched my overall score. It's one thing to be lapped by players who missed a week. It's another thing to be caught by someone who has missed two weeks. Well-done on his part, and not-so-well-done on my part.

If you have missed a week or two, look to see your name and percentage. See which nine-week players' scores you fit between. That's where you would rank if you had played every week.

Because of ties and my enjoyment of round numbers (I have previously listed the top ninety and hundred scores), I have listed different numbers of participants. This week, my usual cutoff spots had ties. So, I expanded to find a place to make a smooth break and almost found a round number.

Here are the top one hundred twenty-two scores of those who have played at least six weeks:

Again, I invite you to come back to this page throughout the weekend for my updates (comments) as the other games progress.

Week #10 contest is already open. You do not have to wait for One.Cool.Customer's next contest page to post week #10 picks. Use (and bookmark) the same link you have been provided each week. Please post your picks before Thursday night kicks off. I'll be watching, and I'm getting quicker to flip the switch.