Well, let us review:

Anybody have the balls to pick the upsets? It almost seems foolish to even take the gambles, doesn't it?

I mean, really, you guys all fell for that! I lulled you into this idea that if you picked the upsets you'd all be stupid idiots, so I could pick them all (except Pittsburgh) and run the table on you fools!

Wait... what's that? I apologize. I just got a call from groug. He wanted to tell me I only picked one upset, too. He wanted to tell me that I'm the stupid idiot here. He wanted to tell me that... whoa, hey man... I can't repeat that in the results thread. Geez. There's no need to use that kind of language. I mean, what have I ever done to him?

Anyway, at least I picked Pittsburgh. I bet all you guys who picked San Diego feel pretty dumb right about now.

Hold on again. Yeah? Oh. It's groug again. He says, "enough babbling and get on with it already." And then he apologized for what he said earlier and called me his favorite person ever. Even more favorite than his mom. I'm totally not making that up, either. Whatever. Results below.

Baltimore @ Tennessee:

1. DuikeBuike, FluLikeSymptoms (6)
2. JerseyNinerFan, DiegoAsFan, onexmanxshow49, wjackalope, albertoleecho, 49ersfan29405 (8)
3. marcello (12)

Arizona @ Carolina:

1. J2daZ (22)
2. 49ersfan29405 (30)

Philadelphia @ New York Giants:

1. francaise, howtheyscored (12)
2. groug, Dub4lif3, DuikeBuike, bablue (18)
3. J2daZ, jtoj (20)

San Diego @ Pittsburgh:

1. mikev (8)
2. illini49er (14)
3. ProfessorBigelow, LoneStranger, Fooch (16)

Which makes our playoff round 2 scoreboard look like this:

1. albertoleecho – 9
2. howtheyscored – 8
3. 49ersfan29405 – 7
3. francaise – 7
3. JerseyNinerFan – 7
6. DuikeBuike – 5
6. FluLikeSymptoms – 5
6. jtoj – 5
6. mikev – 5
10. bayboy – 4
10. groug – 4
10. Florida Danny – 4
10. J2daZ – 4
14. DiegoAsFan – 3
14. elmojad0 – 3
14. LoneStranger – 3
14. Niner Fan Lost in WI – 3
14. ro128487 – 3
19. bablue – 2
19. Dub4lif3 – 2
19. illini49er – 2
19. marcello – 2
19. Ninerfromacrossthepond – 2
19. onexmanxshow – 2
19. ProfessorBigelow – 2
19. wjackalope – 2
27. Fooch – 1
27. spenczar – 1
27. StrictlyFootball - 1

At first glance, it might not seem as though much has changed. albertoleecho and I are still hanging tight at the top. The operative word there, though, is tight. Each of us did a little bit to help our causes, but others managed to do more. 49ersfan29405 is having a brilliant postseason and finds himself tied for third only two points behind our leader. Tied with him is one familiar face in JerseyNinerFan and another total newcomer in francaise.

francaise only even stumbled upon the predictions game in round one of the playoffs, and he's immediately taken a dominant position among the players.

The second tier is no less intimidating, as we see a four-way battle just a point behind third. DuikeBuike, FluLikeSymptoms, jtoj and mikev are biting and scratching at the heels of our leaders, and find themselves well within shooting distance of even the top spot with two full weeks to play.

Interestingly enough, for the second week in a row we didn't have very loud weeks from our regular season stars. wjackalope cracked the standings for the first time in the postseason, but him, StrictlyFootball, Ninerfromacrossthepond, sfgfan, 49erLou, and Niner Fan Lost in WI are all in very tough spots going forward against our brand new breed of superstars.

Having spoken about our lovable losers, though, I think it's time to see how they did when facing each other in the tournament they earned entry into by being winners. Oh, what a difference a post-season makes!

(4) StrictlyFootball  @  (1) Ninerfromacrossthepond:

Baltimore @ Tennessee
     StrictlyFootball (20) - Ninerfromacrossthepond (14)
Arizona @ Carolina
     StrictlyFootball (x) - Ninerfromacrossthepond (x)
Philadelphia @ New York Giants
     StrictlyFootball (26) - Ninerfromacrossthepond (x)
San Diego @ Pittsburgh
     StrictlyFootball (x) - Ninerfromacrossthepond (30)

Score: StrictlyFootball - 1, Ninerfromacrossthepond - 2
Winner: Ninerfromacrossthepond

(3) albertoleecho @ (2) wjackalope:

Baltimore @ Tennessee
     albertoleecho (8) - wjackalope (8)
Arizona @ Carolina
     albertoleecho (x) - wjackalope (x)
Philadelphia @ New York Giants
     albertoleecho (x) - wjackalope (x)
San Diego @ Pittsburgh
     albertoleecho (30) - wjackalope (22)

Score: albertoleecho - 1, wjackalope - 2
Winner: wjackalope

Another week and the matchups have only gotten closer. Ninerfromacrossthepond just barely squeaked by StrictlyFootball in a matchup that ultimately came down to a 6 point decision in the very first game of the weekend. Then wjackalope continued in a string of ridiculously close matchups as albertoleecho matched him essentially score for score up until the very final game of the weekend. This was the closest we've come to needing a tiebreaker all tournament, and if wjackalope's history holds, it won't get any easier against the season's top seed.

Meanwhile StrictlyFootball will face albertoleecho in our consolation third place match (the consolation for which is a prize!). I know who I'm rooting for, but I won't tell you guys. I'll simply fudge the results a little bit in that player's favor. It's like I always say, if there's ever a time to back down from your oath of scorekeeper's integrity, it's in a third place consolation match.

To help you visualize the way this is shaping up:

And here's a link to last week's results!