How about Week 17?
Me? I go from having one of the best years picking games over the last decade — twice as many wins as losses is the new barometer — to blowing it all up this past weekend. I was on pace for a 2-win, 1-loss in 2025. That won’t happen now.
I got four correct picks — not a misprint! — out of the 13 games. I picked one monumental upset, Carolina over Seattle, and got plastered.
I had some company with seven underdogs and eight road teams winning games.
The first tiebreaker, the Patriots point total (42), is tantamount when I have a bad week. One winner had only five correct picks, but had the Patriots at 40 points.
All of the Week 17 winners were within four points of the Pats total. The second tiebreaker, amount of correct picks, was needed to break a tie with those at 38 points.
Enough with the past, let’s look ahead of the Week 18 and the degree of difficulty.
With a team or two accepting their seeding fate (see Chargers), and resting their stars in the finale, those potential tossups aren’t really tossups.
Will Josh Allen rest for the Bills, against the Jets in their final game at Highmark Stadium? Will it even matter after seeing the Jets last week?
This is the one, rare post-September games in which all 16 teams will play on Saturday and Sunday.
My guess is the Patriots will play their starters, but resting their “injured” players another week against the Dolphins, who are coming off an impressive win against the potential playoff team, Tampa Bay. They’ve also won five of their last seven games.
The Patriots will probably need to win to cop the No. 2 overall spot as the Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars are expected to win handily.
The best part of the weekend is that there will be two win-or-go-home “playoff” games — Carolina at Tampa Bay on Saturday, and Baltimore at Pittsburgh on Sunday night. Seattle at San Francisco on Saturday night is for the NFC West division and No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Good luck in Week 18.
I know I need it.