Cleveland Browns: DPD pick ’em pool Week 8 recap and standings update

Watching and picking other NFL games is all Cleveland Browns fans can do at this point to preserve some sense of sanity and enjoy the football season.

Our Cleveland Browns faced off against the Minnesota Vikings across the pond at 9:30 a.m. last Sunday, and to be completely honest, I would prefer they play every game for the rest of the season at that time.

The Browns are a great fluffer for the rest of the NFL schedule because they show week after week how far away from competitive football they really are. Plus I was able to be productive in my afternoon even though it felt like it was 8 p.m. at 4 p.m., but other than that I have no complaints  (aside from the team) on the London trip.

Week 8 also brought us a 40-point blowout by the Baltimore Ravens over the Miami Dolphins, as well as the Buffalo Bills showing out against the Oakland Raiders.

Aside from that, everyone picked pretty well this week, with no score being lower than an eight. Here are the current standings:

1. Thomas Moore: 76 pts (12*)
2. Steven Kubitza: 74 pts (11)
3. Joel Cade: 72 pts (11)
4. Andrew Seibt: 71pts (9)
5. Brandon Onda: 70 pts (10)
6. Roger Cohen: 70 pts (9)
7. Derek Bryner 69 pts (10)
8. Joshua Dentler: 61pts (8)
9. Matt Stevenson: 60 pts (10)

The smart people in the room picked the Ravens over the Dolphins, whereas the two people FanSided let do a Browns podcast picked the Dolphins to win.  (That would be myself and Steven Kubitza.)

If Joel had remembered to pick that game I like to think he would have too. He was probably still too excited from recording his first ever segment for the Dawg Pound Daily Podcast earlier that day, which was fantastic by the way.

Derek Bryner was the only one to choose the Browns, which puzzles me. He must really be trying to catch everyone off guard. Keep it up man, no one saw it coming. Picking against the Browns is the easiest way to get a free pick with no penalty if they lose because no one else is going to pick them to win.

Carolina and Tampa Bay didn’t play a relatively close game. Tampa Bay was a popular playoff pick coming into the season,  and I’m really not sure what to think about them at this point. One week they look great, the next it’s like this. Matt and I both picked them to win last week and it didn’t work out, I’m just curious to see what Tampa Bay team we will see moving forward.

Everyone was unanimous in picking Kansas City over Denver, which isn’t shocking considering they have an elite defense with quarterback play that is a smidge better than how the Browns have been doing.

Josh was the only one to select Houston over Seattle, and he was one heroic Russell Danger Wilson game-winning drive away from being the smartest guy in the room this week. Maybe I’ll start giving an award to someone each week and name it the “Sashi Brown Smartest Man In The Room Award” and give it to whoever picks a winning team that no one else selected.

After seeing the Raiders on Thursday Night Football and the return of Amari Cooper and Derek Carr, a considerable amount of us picked the Raiders over Buffalo and it turned out to be a blowout in the opposite direction.

Buffalo pounded the rock with LeSean McCoy and the Raiders could not keep up. The Bills are now rolling and added Kelvin Benjamin at the trade deadline so they could be a surprise team to watch out for as we move toward the playoffs.

Next: Gordon granted conditional reinstatement

Don’t forget to make your picks!