Brady Quinn has won a game as an NFL quarterback, which pretty much destroys my faith in the essential goodness of the universe. I did not enjoy watching that game. Buffalo had every chance to win and just threw each and every one of them away. If I wanted to watch that, I would have recorded last week's 49er game.

After struggling with about 3 different segues from that initial thought, each less entertaining and significantly less thoughtful than the last, I came to realize that I really don't have anything else to say about that. But I had to tell somebody. Brady Quinn? He even made a few awfully nice throws.

So with that in mind, screw segues. Let's talk the prediction game. I actually think that this (and a future post to make the issue clear) would be a good opportunity to explain what makes it worthwhile to continue pushing for ground. And that's the playoffs. We have, what, 6 weeks before the playoffs now? And as some of you know, the playoffs usher in a brand new competition in the games.

The first is a total free for all. It's essentially a replica system of the regular season prediction games except that predictions are made for every single playoff game, everybody starts back at zero, and perfect scores only count for 5 instead of 10. Ashamed by your regular season performance? Didn't start playing until week 13 and just couldn't catch up? This will be your chance to make up for everything.

The other is a seeded playoff system that includes the top 8 finishers from the regular season games. If there are any 8th place ties, the position gets tiebroken by a complex system of me counting up how many games you won outright over the course of the season. The player with the most outright wins, takes the tiebreak and wins the 8th seed. Couldn't be simpler. Seeds are staggered, so the 1 seed faces the 8 seed in week one, and so on. Scoring is also modified to accommodate head to head matchups as opposed to the free-for-all system currently employed.

The entire system will be explained in detail as we get closer, but I'd like you to be aware that even if you don't win in the regular season, you could conceivably have two extra chances to win during the post-season. One for the free-for all, and another one for any member of the top-8.

Personally, I'm a BIG fan of the head to head playoffs. I rather enjoyed beating the snot out of everybody last year.

In any case, onto the results:

St. Louis @ 49ers:

1. jtoj, marcello (8)
2. Ninjames (10)
3. howtheyscored (12)

Cleveland @ Buffalo:

1. ro128487, StrictlyFootball (12)
2. jtoj, groug, illini49er, proudcanadian99, Niner Fan Lost in WI (14)
3. Ninjames, bondslegend

Dallas @ Washington:

1. Ninjames, Number22Drew (14)
2. bondslegend (18)
3. UnleashTheGore, sfgfan (20)

Chicago @ Green Bay:

1. Fooch, marcello (26)
2. howtheyscored (28)
3. UnleashTheGore, 49erLou (32)

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay:

1. groug, illini49er (4)
2. proudcanadian99, albertoleecho, Fooch, wjackalope (8)
3. UnleashTheGore, jtoj, Niner Fan Lost in WI (10)

Tennessee @ Jacksonville:

1. bayboy (4)
2. sfgfan, good as gold (6)
3. CB30, albertoleecho, Ninerfromacrossthepond, Niner Fan Lost in WI, Josh from Hollywood (8)

Which makes our week 11 leaderboard look like this:

1. wjackalope – 45
2. Niner Fan Lost in WI – 39
3. albertoleecho – 38
4. marcello – 34
5. Number22Drew – 32
6. proudcanadian99 – 31
7. 49erLou – 29
8. Josh from Hollywood – 28
9. jtoj – 27
9. StrictlyFootball – 27
11. Fooch – 26
11. sfgfan – 26
13. illini49er – 25
14. bayboy – 24
14. groug – 24
16. howtheyscored – 23
17. Ninerfromacrossthepond – 22
18. good as gold – 21
18. JerseyNinerFan – 21
20. SuperFly – 19
20. Vote4Gore – 19
22. Ninjames – 18
23. Mike Hawk – 16
23. sam23 – 16
25. UnleashTheGore – 15
26. CB30 – 14
27. sancho8297 – 13
28. 408 – 12
28. J2daZ – 12
28. Netsky – 12
28. ro128487 – 12
32. Rishi – 11
32. youngbuckeroo – 11
34. mojorisin’ – 9
34. montasmob69 – 9
34. shlecko – 9
37. Florida Danny – 8
38. PHUT! – 6
39. etb2 – 5
39. gatling – 5
41. Ali4President – 4
41. camwoody – 4
41. zonedogs – 4
44. BallHead – 3
44. bondslegend – 3
44. Niners_Are_The_NFL – 3
44. The Golden One – 3
44. zenbits – 3
49. Ceradecke – 2
49. KingofDucks1987 – 2
49. ProfessorBigelow – 2
52. DiegoAsFan – 1
53. jfainsf49 – 1

I think that obvious congratulations have to go to marcello, who had a fabulous week to take sole possession of fourth place. Now within five points of second and eleven points of first, he's in a really good position to make a run at this thing. And in an excellent position to seed well in the playoffs.

Other big winners this week were Ninjames, who made up a lot of ground this week and is suddenly just one perfect prediction away from our top eight, and jtoj, who has actually been making a fairly strong push over the last few weeks and may be a name to watch out for not only in the regular prediction threads, but also in the prediction results threads. If you think about it, though: the 49ers win and jtoj wins big in the same week... coincidence? Well, that is in fact the definition of the word coincidence. So, clearly, yes.

Welcome to prediction games newcomer bondslegend! You are one who might benefit from the post-season game. It would be a remarkable uphill climb to do anything significant between now and week 17, but keep playing, get the practice, play a little spoiler, and then start with the universal clean sheet in week 18.

In one of the worst things that has ever happened to me in my life, I put together my best score in weeks and made up... hold on while I carry the one... is that a two?... I think I'll just ignore these imaginary numbers... don't know where those came from... ah-ha! I made up zero ground. In fact, that crack I made last week about still being better than groug, well, after this week that only still applies if we're talking "as a person," because he's beating me in this game.

And Fooch, the sneaky monkey. I have my eye on you. I saw you sneak 5 points this week. Don't think we don't all realize what you're up to.

Linkage: Chrysostomos.