Week 10 was a real struggle this week, thanks to quite a few unexpected winners:

• Only 1 person picked the Redskins to win (shake n bake, that bastard).
• Twelve people (out of 53) picked the Packers to beat the Cowboys.
• Fourteen people picked the Panthers, and only 14 picked the Jaguars.

As a side note, our "experts" from USA Today and Yahoo! were almost unanimous in picking the Patriots (only Skip Wood being smart).  I'm sure they also still think the Patriots are better, regardless of the final score.  And they get paid to think these things...

This week in the Against the Spread contest, we had one winner, sandsaver01.  He/She got 12/15 games correct, which is unbelievable (especially to me, who only got 4 right).  Great week.  Our leaderboard after 10 weeks looks like this:

In the Straight Up contest, we had four people get 12/15 games correct!  They are:

• bluegirl
• chano14
• EnSsRex
• enjyinlife

Congratulations!  The leaderboard for the Straight Up contest looks like this:

shoein still has a share of the lead in both contests, but he's falling farther behind Bill Simmons, who has bounced back from his horrible Week 8. 

After the jump you'll see the full leaderboard.  Remember there is a game tonight, and you can place your picks either in the comments here, or in the FanShot I posted yesterday.  I'm not sure what my availability will be on Sunday, but I'll to get the link posted for everyone's picks before the games start.

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Picks Week 10

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Week 11, open until 1:00 ET Sunday

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Week 9 had possibly the biggest surprise of the season, with Tampa Bay beating the Packers, but that didn't get by all Stampede Blue readers.  Two people correctly picked the Bucs, which I never would have expected.  Nobody ended up picking the Texans or Redskins either, which ended up correct.  The other big surprise was only 10/51 correctly picking the Cowboys over the Eagles.

To save some room on the front page, check out the winners and leaderboards after the jump...

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Week 8 had a few surprises (like nobody picking the Panthers over the Cardinals), but we continue with great participation.  The other big surprise was only 16/64 people picked the Eagles over the Giants, which ended up being a pretty big blowout.  Nobody picked the 49ers to win straight up, and only 2 correctly picked them to cover (one of them was who I called out for picking against the Colts last week).  This was also the first week that the Broncos or Saints lost ATS, so you can't ride that train anymore.

On to the Results.  In the Against the Spread contest, the winner this week is TouchdownMonkey, who got 9/13 games correct.  Nice job in a tough week!  Here's the leaderboard after 8 weeks:

In the Straight Up contest, the winner this week is skywalker, who got 11/13 games right.  Yours truly was tied with a slew of others at 10 correct, which is the closest I've been to the top yet this year.  Here's the leaderboard after 8 weeks:

shoein is still on top in both contests, although he's actually 1 game behind Bill Simmons.  Speaking of Simmons, he had a pretty good column on how he did so well early on in the season, and a warning that he's now just guessing, and you shouldn't listen to him:

Anyway, here's my request for the next few weeks: If you have bad luck, stay away from "borrowing" my 2009 picks. Don't be the cooler of my column. Let me see if I can keep banging out 10-4 and 11-5 marks every week without you attaching a black cat to my ankles. If you have bad luck and are joining forces with me, that means other people with bad luck are doing the same. How do you think that's turning out for all of us? Badly. Poorly. Tragically.

Full Standings are after the jump.  You'll notice I've only included the last 5 weeks, as it's too wide for any more.  That means if you haven't participated the past 5 weeks, you're out of the standings. I'll be around Sunday afternoon to let everyone see the picks. 

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Picks Week 8

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Week 9, open until 1:00 ET Sunday

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Week 8 brought some better scores, and an almost perfect week by someone.  I also see 1 person picked Tampa Bay to beat the Patriots (that's some intense hatred!), and 1 person picked the Redskins to win.  Biggest Upset was by far the Cardinals over Giants, where only 5/75 picked the Cardinals.  I'd also like to point out that only 1 person picked the Rams either Straight Up or ATS, and I'll let him come forward with shame...

On to the Results.  In the Against the Spread contest, the winner this week is Orren's Boy, who got 11/13 games correct, which was a great week.  He picked all the Favorites, and had a great week.  Here's the leaderboard after 7 weeks:

In the Straight Up contest, the winner this week is shelbyjames, who got 12/13 games right.  He/She (I'm not sure) only missed the Cowboys winning, which is perfectly acceptable.  Here's the leaderboard after 7 weeks:

Congrats to shoein, who is still on top in both contests.  Only one game up in both, however.  I had an awful week picking upsets, and hope to turn that around this week.

Full Standings are after the jump.  You'll notice I've only included the last 5 weeks, as it's too wide for any more.  That means if you haven't participated the past 5 weeks, you're out of the standings. I'll be around Sunday afternoon to let everyone see the picks.  As a reminder, there is no Sunday Night game this week, as they won't compete with the World Series.

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Picks Week 7

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Week 8, open until 1:00 ET Sunday

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Week 7 was a real struggle for most of us around here.  It actually included two different teams (Oakland and Buffalo) who had 0 people pick them to win Straight Up.  Hopefully this week brings some better luck picking games.

On to the Results.  In the Against the Spread contest, the winner this week is PB, who got 10/14 games correct, which was a great week.  A couple games came within 1/2 a point, so getting those right was especially tough.  Here's the leaderboard after 6 weeks:

In the Straight Up contest, the winner this week is KingRichard, who got 12/14 games right.  That means the only games he missed were the games everyone missed.  That's the 2nd week in a row KingRichard has had the most right, just in opposite contests.  Nice work.  Here's the leaderboard after 6 weeks:

Congrats to shoein, who is now winning in both contests.  Still a long way to go, but pretty impressive so far.

Full Standings are after the jump.  You'll notice I've only included the last 5 weeks, as it's too wide for any more.  That means if you haven't participated the past 5 weeks, you're out of the standings. I'll also send the links to shake so he can post them, as I'm not positive I'll have internet on Sunday.

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Picks Week 6

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Week 7, open until 1:00 ET Sunday

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Another successful week for the Stampede Blue Prediction Contest, and our participation still remains great.  Week 5 saw a few more upsets, which I called 2 of the 3 (booyah!):

• Seahawks - 8/63 SU, 8/37 ATS (I guess a few of us doubted how much Hasselbeck means to the Seahawks)
• Browns - 12/63 SU, 17/37 ATS
• Bengals - 8/63 SU, 29/37 ATS.  Looks like everyone figured out 8.5 points was a lot.

Unanimous choices this week were Minnesota, Philadelphia, and the Giants.  None of these were ever in jeopardy, so nice work everyone!

On to the results of Week 5...Winning this week in the Straight Up contest were 4 different people going 11-3:

• bluegirl
• DFWColtFan
• peytonsthebest
• TouchdownMonkey

Great job to all of you!  As for the season totals, the leaders are:

In the Against the Spread contest, we had 1 winner who went 10-4, and that was KingRichard.  Nice work by one of my fellow writers here.  On the season, the Stampede Blue leaders look like this:

Bill Simmons is back on top, having a pretty good week himself with 10 victories.  I'd also like to point out that Skip Wood, "expert" at USA Today, only got 4 games correct STRAIGHT UP.  He decided to pick a bunch of the big number underdogs to win, but didn't pick the Bengals.  Great job!  You'll also notice the Power Ranking, which I mentioned earlier today.  Those full rankings will come at some point on Thursday, with a short explanation.  Needless to say, it looks to be pretty good at this point.

Full Standings are after the jump.  I'll try to post the link on Sunday for everyone to see the picks, but can't promise I'll be around at 1:00.

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Picks Week 5

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Week 6, open until 1:00 ET Sunday

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We are now 1/4 of the way through the season, and some of our leaders came back to the pack a little bit this week, giving some of us a ray of hope that we can still win this thing.  A couple "upsets" this week in Stampede Blue land:

• Broncos - 18/70  SU, 13/39 ATS
  
• Jaguars - 10/70 SU, 9/39 ATS

Also, nobody picked the Colts or Giants to lose straight up, which were pretty safe bets.  Also, 4 people picked Oakland to win.  For shame...

Let's get to the Results from Week 4.  Topping our Straight Up contest this week is piojocuau, who went 13-1 last week, only missing Baltimore.  Nice work!  Our leaders after 4 weeks:

Pete O'Brien of USA Today leads everyone with 49, and the Coin Flip struggled mightily this week, only getting 5 correct.  We have 3 people who got 10  games correct Against the Spread:

• burncruisin
• Orren's Boy
• marvinindy

Home teams were 12-2 ATS this week, which is a big change from both last year, and the first 3 weeks.  Overall Stampede Blue leaders after 4 weeks:

Bill Simmons only got 5 correct this week, and he's now tied with our leaders at 40.  And someone's lurking only 5 games back...

Full Standings are after the jump.  I'll post the link on Sunday for everyone to see the picks.

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Picks Week 4

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Week 5, open until 1:00 ET Sunday

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How far into the season can we start needling Stampede Blue readers about getting beat by a Coin Flip?  If it is after 3 weeks, then I'm going to run off and hide, as I'm 2 games behind my trusty coin.  There are also 4 "experts" who have less picks correct, and 2 others that are tied at 31/48.  Make sure to take a look at the Straight Up standings to see if you are as embarrassed as I am right now.  Don't count anyone who missed a week, as they will clearly be behind the coin.

This week we had 84 players pick in the Straight Up contest, and congratulations go out to 3 players, who all got 14 games right:

• Gmachine!
• jammer6303
• JustinPugh

Overall after 3 weeks, here's the Stampede Blue Readers Leaderboard:

As far as Against the Spread goes, we had 43 players, and congratulations go out to 2 players for getting 13 games right:

• bobzilla3
• goblue

Overall after 3 weeks, the Stampede Blue Leaderboard (all trailing Bill Simmons' 35):

There are so many players this year, it's going to be tough making up a bad week, so make sure to get your picks in, and make sure they are not the same as mine.  Or just flip a coin, since it's not doing half bad. 

Full Standings are after the jump.  I'll give Shake the link to the picks to post on Sunday, as I'll be in the 300 Level of Lucas Oil Stadium.  I can't wait.

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Picks Week 3

Stampede Blue Prediction Contest Week 4, open until 1:00 ET Sunday

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