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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, 199 BTB-members took part in the Pick 256 challenge in Week 13.
In Week 13, our Pick 256 consensus left almost nothing to chance and followed the Vegas lines in 14 out of 16 games, only picking the Cowboys (yay) and the Vikings (boo) as underdogs.
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 119-72 record, or a 62.3% win rate, which only six of our Pick 256 participants have exceeded over the course of the season.
Last week, 13 of 16 games ended with the favorites pulling out the win, and only the Eagles, 49ers, and Cowboys pulled off the upset win as underdogs, as the table below shows.
| Week 13 Picks, 199 participants |
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| Game & Closing Lines |
Pick 256 Favorite | Pick 256 vote | Winner |
| CIN (-7.5) @ CLE | Cincinnati | 98% | CIN |
| PHI @ NE (-9.5) | New England | 98% | PHI |
| SF @ CHI (-6.5) | Chicago | 94% | SF |
| ARI (-3.5) @ STL | Arizona | 92% | ARI |
| DEN (-6) @ SD | Denver | 92% | DEN |
| CAR (-6) @ NO | Carolina | 90% | CAR |
| IND @ PIT (-9.5) | Pittsburgh | 81% | PIT |
| BAL @ MIA (-3.5) | Miami | 80% | MIA |
| NYJ (-2.5) @ NYG | NY Jets | 73% | NYJ |
| SEA (-2.5) @ MIN | Minnesota | 70% | SEA |
| ATL @ TB (-1) | Tampa | 64% | TB |
| DAL @ WAS (-2) | Dallas | 63% | DAL |
| GB (-2.5) @ DET | Green Bay | 62% | GB |
| HOU @ BUF (-3) | Buffalo | 61% | BUF |
| JAC @ TEN (-3) | Tennessee | 56% | TEN |
| KC (-3) @ OAK | Kansas City | 56% | KC |
Week 14 is shaping up to be a very interesting week from a pick 'em point of view. As the odds are stacking up right now, only two teams are favored as road teams, the Patriots in Houston, and the Seahawks in Baltimore. Are you going to follow the Vegas line this week with your picks, or are you taking at least one extra road underdog (the Cowboys are 8.5-point underdogs in Green Bay) for the win?
Can you correctly predict some of the underdog wins this week? Join our Pick 256 Challenge below to find out.
Week 14 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 13 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 distancing yourself from the rest of the field is much harder. Which makes the score of our top finisher in Week 13 all the more astounding. BTB member TNCowbyfan finished with 14 correct picks, nine others finished as runner ups with 13 correct picks.
Here are the top Week 13 finishers in alphabetical order:
- 14 - TNCowbyfan
- 13 - CowboyOcelot, dtwmm, earl, ibleedcowboyblue, kethry1313, Mark Barrington, PrfBrain, Reno Cowboy, will03
- 12 - 1Bullseye, 1MissouriCowboysFan, BaylorBrianL, Benthere, Blue & silver, Cowboy Joe, cwby4lf, Dithanial, Dobanion, Donald j scott, Frank Stanford, GalTex, holyroof, Jackie22, Lajitas Lava, mahenza, Ncstar, PAPAGDAVIS69, Robert Gutierrez, Roun2It, slowmotion80, Smax17177, UTcowboy
- 11 - 45 participants finished with 11 correct picks
Season Ranking
The top of our leaderboard is quite a bit ahead of the 119 wins the favorites have scored so far this season, but longtime leaders oldboysfan and revellyre only got 10 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 |
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| Correct Picks |
Participants |
|
| 125 | oldboysfan | |
| 124 | revellyre | |
| 122 | 1Missouricowboysfan, Normrock | |
| 121 | Aggie Man | |
| 120 | Millard Fillmore | |
| 119 | gwzahn7, mahenza | |
| 118 | dtwmm, I'm_people_too, Roun2It, Starheel42, Trent Schoneweis | |
| 117 | aaa61aaa, cap2vator, cwby4lf, ibleedcowboyblue, Katana, MinasIthil92, Rdbull1 | |
| 116 | bartman, Benthere, HowleyAtTheMoon, Reno Cowboy, Sandmann, thesirknight | |
| 115 | earl, Mark Barrington, Max2, PAPAGDAVIS69, Stevefromerrick, TazJr89, Timmy G | |
| 114 | blue & silver, c.matson18, MUTTS, Pagrebo, PrfBrain, Realist Larry, Ride Together, Die Together | |
| 113 | ansky23, cowtownNcowboysfan, duffer33, jwdge, kethry1313, lenboy, Ncstar, since '66, Sir Robin, Terry, tmaeus, Truebluedcfan, UTcowboy | |
| 112 | 4evercowboy, camrin55, CapitalT, DarthGrumpa, Fred G Samford, LoboTX, maragath, Rajohnnn, Smax17177, Vancity Cowboy, Witten mittens | |
| 111 | 1Bullseye, enogueras, JDobermans, j-man, scottysd, Shadowcat, stanthecowboyfan, starmesh23 | |
| 110 | apprentice_curmudgeon, Canadian Cowboy_74, CowboysFan_Nepal, CTCowboy, klkmainiac | |
| As a reference, the BTB writers currently sit at 120 (Rabblerousr & OCC), 116 (Tom), 114 (Dave), 111 (Dawn), 110 (Danny & Michael), 107 (Jim) | ||
Full results can be found in the Fanpost section.
The fine print
Submissions have to be in until kickoff on Thursday at 8:30 PM EST. No late submissions will be accepted (all entries are time-stamped). In case of multiple submissions, we will always use the last submission as the final and valid one.
Good luck with your picks.