In my ongoing campaign to eventually someday be included on King Kaufman’s Panel O’ Experts and compete for his grand prize of dinner at his house, even though I’ll never win, I am posting NFL picks. This is for Week 9.
Please note that if you actually use pure beatpath picks for your own picks, you’re insane. We don’t even pay attention to home field advantage here. Last week we were 11-2, but who cares. We are now 75-41, for a 64.7% pick percentage, but who cares.
Week 1: 9-7
Week 2: 10-6
Week 3: 8-8
Week 4: 8-6
Week 5: 9-5
Week 6: 9-4
Week 7: 11-3
Week 8: 11-2
SAN DIEGO at Minnesota: Neither team has a beatpath to the other, but San Diego is ranked much higher. Both teams are playing for a beatpath to the other, but if Minnesota wins, it would make most of the AFC look a lot worse.
Carolina at TENNESSEE: Neither team has a beatpath to the other, but Tennessee is ranked higher. If Carolina wins, Tennessee loses credit for defeating Houston. If Tennessee wins, they get a beatpath. No major rankings impact either way.
Arizona at TAMPA BAY: Tampa Bay has dropped in the rankings recently, but they still have a beatpath to Arizona. If Arizona wins, it would bust the beatpath through Carolina, but they’d still be mired in the bottom of the rankings due to Baltimore.
WASHINGTON at NY Jets: Washington has a long beatpath to the Jets. If the Jets win, it busts the beatpath through Philadelphia, for no major rankings impact.
San Francisco at ATLANTA: Atlanta is actually favored, despite having no beatpaths to any teams. Both teams are playing for a beatpath.
Cincinnati at BUFFALO: Neither team has a beatpath to the other, but Buffalo is ranked higher. I don’t think Cincinnati realizes how bad they are yet – if they lose in Buffalo, expect another Bengal post-game meltdown about how they’re playing beneath their abilities. But even if Cincinnati wins, it hurts Buffalo more than it helps Cincinnati. Both teams are playing for a beatpath.
DENVER at Detroit: This might be the only objective system that has Denver favored over Detroit. I’m not sure what to make of that, and Detroit does have home field advantage, but there you go. Neither team has a beatpath to the other, and they’re both playing for one. Detroit winning would hurt the AFC in general.
GREEN BAY at Kansas City: Neither team has a beatpath to the other, and they’re both playing for one. If Kansas City wins, look out – they’d be ranked ahead of the entire NFC.
JACKSONVILLE at New Orleans: Neither team has a beatpath to the other, but it’s fairly lopsided in terms of the rankings. If New Orleans wins, some existing beatloops keep it from having much of an effect.
SEATTLE at Cleveland: Neither team has a beatpath to the other, but Seattle is ranked higher. Both teams are playing for a beatpath. Cleveland winning hurts Seattle more than it helps Cleveland.
HOUSTON at Oakland: Neither team has a beatpath to the other. If Oakland wins, it sheds its beatloss to Kansas City, for no major effect in the rankings.
NEW ENGLAND at Indianapolis: Neither team has a beatpath to the other. Both teams are playing for a beatpath. And unless Green Bay loses, as was pointed out in the comments this week, the winner will then have a beatpath to every other team in the league except for Green Bay.
DALLAS at Philadelphia: Dallas has a beatpath to Philadelphia. If Philadelphia wins, Dallas would actually lose a couple of beatpaths due to beatloops, and would sink in the rankings considerably.
Baltimore at PITTSBURGH: Pittsburgh has three beatpaths to Baltimore. Baltimore could help themselves immensely by winning, busting all three beatpaths and being one of the only teams without any beatpaths to them. They’d rise in the ranking considerably, although they still wouldn’t have any quality beatpaths below them.