It’s an annual rite of fall. The NFL season flies by — Week 9 is the official halfway point — and most teams are now what we believe they are.
Week 8 was a perfect example, by the far the best week picking games for everyone … including me.
Over half of the 353 entries picked 10 more games correctly out of the 15. In this day and age, that’s pretty good.
There were some tough “coin flip” like Eagles-Bengals and Commanders-Bears and most people had both right.
My 11-win week normally is dominant. Not this week. There were 52 entries that picked more winners.
And mind you, I got the Patriots game correctly. Most entries (201) picked the Jets.
Anyway, we are starting to get a feel for the really good (Chiefs, Lions and Bills), the good (Ravens, Texans and Packers) and the really bad (Jets, Patriots, Saints, Panthers, Titans, Browns and Raiders).
As for the rest of the league … who the heck knows!
Week 9 is going to be a difficult one with eight of the 15 games being close (point spreads 3.5 points or less).
The Patriots at the Tennessee Titans would be a lot easier if Drake Maye was playing, which I don’t believe he will.
As for Week 8, all of the winners had 12 or more winners and were within 2 points of the Patriots point total (25), the first and important tiebreaker.
The second tiebreaker (amount of correct picks) was also needed, with 13 wins beating out 12 wins in some cases.
Good luck on Sunday. We are all going to need it.
Week 8 winners
Glen Romel of Lawrence
Bill Camasso of Haverhill
Robert Kemp of Lawrence
Robert Casey, of Hampstead, N.H.
George Lucey, of Haverhill
Michael Groves of Hampton, N.H.
Robert Dennis of Salem, N.H.
Kenneth Boardman of Salem, N.H.
John Hanagan of Haverhill
Bryan Perry of North Andover