Cleveland Browns: DPD pick ’em pool Week 1 recap and standings update
By Andrew Seibt
The Cleveland Browns dropped their season opener, but some of the individuals in the DPD pick ’em pool fared a bit better in Week 1.
And just like that, Week 1 of the 2017 NFL season is in the books. The week began with an upset from the Kansas City Chiefs over the New England Patriots in shocking fashion as everyone in our pick ’em pool started with a loss, and continued Sunday afternoon as the Cleveland Browns lost yet another season opener
The week was capped off with the Denver Broncos blocking a field goal as time expired against the Los Angeles Chargers with a final score of 24-21.
Anyway, here’s how the standings shook out after Week 1’s picks:
- Thomas Moore: 12 Points
- Brandon Onda: 11 points
- Josh Dentler: 11 points
- Steven Kubitza: 11 points
- Joel Cade: 10 points
- Roger Cohen: 10 points
- Andrew Seibt: 9 points
- Derek Bryner: 9 points
- Jared Wackerly: 9 points
- Matt Stevenson: 8 points
- Clayton Braham: 6 points
- Johnathan Goehring: 6 points
- Craig Foster: 0 points
- Shane Carter: 0 points
(Craig and Shane forgot to pick their games, they didn’t incorrectly pick every game, just to clarify.)
Congratulations to site expert Tom Moore for coming out of the gates as the opening week leader of the pick ’em pool with 12 correct picks. (No, we did not put our boss in first place as a peace-offering). Tom got every pick past the 1 p.m. games correct, only missing on New England, Houston and Cincinnati.
Clayton and Johnathan wish they could have some of their picks back, as they finished with six games picked correctly. They also happened to be the only two people who picked the Browns over the Steelers this week. Coincidence?
This serves as a call for action for Shane and Craig! Get those picks in! (please)
Let’s go over some of the takeaways I took from the picks made in Week 1:
No Kansas City love?
Like I said in the intro, we were all bamboozled by the results of how Thursday night unfolded. Kareem Hunt ran rough-shot over the New England defense after a fumble on his first NFL carry. Deep down, I believe that Jared or Clayton who couldn’t make their Thursday night picks would have selected the Chiefs. But the world may never know for certain.
Matt Stevenson didn’t buy the Houston Hype
Kudos to Matt Stevenson who was the only player in our pool to choose the Jacksonville Jaguars to beat the Houston Texans on Sunday, and they did so in convincing fashion. There was not a lot of confidence in Jacksonville pulling off the upset. My co-host of the Dawg Pound Daily Podcast, Steven Kubitza, even used the Jags as his upset pick in our game predictions. So much for that, huh?
Is anyone going to pick the Jets, Bears, 49ers or Colts?
The biggest trend of the week came in the form of everyone in the league picking against the teams listed above. Aside from Johnathan Goehring picking Indy over the Rams (ouch), everyone was in the same mindset in terms of picking against the bottom barrel teams.
The Browns could be included in that conversation, but in a group of writers for the Browns, I anticipate more and more picks to favor the Browns as the season progresses.
Clairvoyant
As a tiebreaker for standing purposes, CBS asks us to submit a score prediction for the Monday Night game in terms of total combined score. Special shoutout to Josh Dentler and Matt Stevenson who correctly predicted the combined score of 45 from last nights game.
Stevenson is cleaning up in the shoutout section this week. It’s too bad we stopped giving out $100 bonuses last year for getting the MNF score correct.
Overall, it was a good first week in the NFL for our pick ’em pool. It’s not too late to join, so if there’s anyone else that would be interested in joining, the link is right here.
Next: 5 defensive takeaways from Week 1 loss
Will Tom be a wire-to-wire winner? Will Steven pick against his upset picks from our podcast? How long will Johnathan’s confidence in the Colts last? These are the questions that we will answer each week, and I’ll report back a week from today to see how things shake out in Week 2.