9/16/25
Week 2 of Professor DW’s Football Pick ’em Challenge is now in the rearview mirror but it was a very strong week for the entire field and for favorites across the NFL. Professor DW even had another strong week…but would not get the win. Everything came down to a doubleheader on Monday Night. Both RJ Wilson and Jared Kickner entered Monday night with only one miss each. RJ missed on the Seahawks win in Pittsburgh while Jared only missed the Colts upset of the Broncos thanks to a penalty that gave Indianapolis another chance at a game-winning field goal. With two Monday night games, the two agreed that the Chargers would beat the Raiders but went opposite with Jared taking Tampa Bay and RJ picking Houston. Baker Mayfield’s game-winning drive netted the Bucs the win as well as Jared who got 15 of a possible 16 games right.
The Tampa Bay win also made things very interesting in the race for second as Alexander Cornwell, William Pecson, Bob Kickner, and Wes Swick all got to 14 thanks to the Bucs win coupled with the Chargers victory. Thus, we had a five-way tie for second and the tiebreaker was invoked again. The total field goal yardage for the week was 2,504 yards thanks in large part to Brandon Aubrey of the Cowboys alone. Alexander, Wes, and RJ all went very low with the Price is Right rule but it didn’t pay off for any of them. William Pecson had a guess of 2,240 which would beat Bob’s 2,105 to give him the second-place finish.
Jared earns his first win of the season and qualifies for Professor DW’s Postseason Tournament, plus the win over the Professor who finished with 13 points this week. Jared wins $27 while William gets the consolation prize of an entry into the Postseason Tournament as well. The winner of the Postseason Tournament wins the Ticket Bonanza! That includes two tickets to the Mariners, Seahawks, Kraken, Sounders, Storm, Tacoma Rainiers, and Emerald Downs. Again, both can continue to play in the regular season to try to block out some of the spots for the tournament to up their chances of winning.
DW once again put together a solid showing with 13 points but three misses was too many. DW took a shot on Miami that didn’t pay off and also missed Indy over Denver and Philadelphia over Kansas City. Will the Professor ever win again? If this performance keeps up just maybe.
There were a couple of rare upset picks this week with both Seattle over Pittsburgh and Atlanta over Minnesota both tying for the least picked result. 26% of the entrants got those games correct but we are still waiting on the first monumental upset of the season.
Also of note, while ineligible, ESN’s intern Dominic Murphy put together a perfect week getting all 16 games correct. He was 94 yards over the total field goal yardage but it was still an incredible performance.
Week 3’s contest is up. The deadline to get your entry in is 4pm on Thursday so get signed up now. Congratulations Jared and William and best of luck to everyone this week.
Grand Prize Package
