Casey Engel picked five games right in the first week of HomeTeam Pick 'Em. Only two people had a worse record. People looked at Engel when he walked into stores and restaurants all week, pointing with one hand and covering their giggles and snickers with the other.
But Engel can stop wearing disguises in public.
Tied with three others with a 14-2 record this week, Engel broke the tie by predicting the Plant-Robinson game would produce 61 points. The actual total was 64.
That made Engel a champion, edging out JasonG and Thunderlips the Ultimate Male.
"Wow. I did a little more research than usual,'' Engel said via direct message on Twitter. And by research, Engel surely means reading the Tampa Bay Times newspaper every day and visiting the always informative and info-packed HomeTeam website often.
I'm guessing Pick 'Em was kind of easy this week: 16 of 70 players finished 13-3, including last week's champion Bo Puckett and hard-charging JK, and another 19 went 12-4. So better than half the field was 12-4 or better. Heck, even perennial losers like Matt Baker and Kelly Parsons got 13 right.
Matt Baker, really? Come on.
Overall, Cowboy went 13-3 and is now in first place overall at 24-8, followed by JasonG, Yoda Master and JK at 23-5.
As for the defending champion, he's puttering along at 19-13, and may already be too far back. Taking some big gambles as is my trademark and eschewing the safe route so many other cowards clearly traveled down can hurt, but at least I have my pride. Speaking of folks who are losing pride with each passing week: Ahmad Jackson and Bocephus (10-6 last week), Skurd (nine for the second straight week) and Tyler Kaminski, who was 5-11 the first week and didn't play this week.
Just saying.
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