Back in the throttle for Wildcard Weekend.  It lived up to it's reputation and followed it's historic form.  Saturday's games were wild, surprising and close while Sunday's games were semi predictable duds.  If you rode the historical trends you did well, if not you could be facing elimination.

There was a slight a change made in the middle of the week to the BIT contest.  It was pointed out Playoff Pool contestants were allowed in the free for all tournament in the past.  I sided with the argument, therefore you will find Playoff Pool contestants also competing in the BIT.

Wildcard Weekend prediction game results ... for the both the Playoff Pool and BIT

Playoff Pool Contest

Remember only the Top 12 high scorers from Wildcard Weekend move onto play in the Divisional Playoff round. Well how does everyone think they did?

Top Scorer(s)

ZeroIndulgence, illini49er, leaping_larry and Rabbit T excellent weekend!  You were top scorers this week and will move onto the next round.  Good work!

Eliminations

foosball4949 - You didn't show up!  You get a ticket to the big show and you no show me?  I'm disappointed in you foosball4949.  Andy Lee, punt him away.

whobob - You crashed my Top 5 board all season long leaving me with zero material left to mock you. You had a great regular season but the playoffs simply aren't your game.  Gleefully I turn you over to my elimination beast.   Andy Lee, punt him away.

these3words - Football Outsiders had you ranked as the worst predictor left in the Playoff Pool.  You didn't even pick a correct winner this week.  Proving Aaron Schatz right ... Andy Lee, punt him away.

Andrew Davidson - Had a great season but you fell short this week.  The Baltimore pick came through but it wasn't enough.  Grab David Carr's future helmet and Andy Lee, punt him away.

urnext - What is the excuse this week?  The slow start finally burned you.  Another point and you'd be moving on but alas we have to say goodbye until next weeks NFL recap. Andy Lee, punt him away.

PHUT! - I thought maybe you'd win the prediction contest.  You've been killing it the final few weeks but the streak came to an abrupt end.  Hold you head high around the Examiner, you did make it to the playoffs in this legendary contest. Andy Lee, punt him away.

The rest not mentioned get to advance to the Divisional Playoff Weekend.  A friendly reminder, the Top 8 high scores from next week will move on.  Also a reminder for those sadly eliminated, you can still participate in the BIT contest.  Scroll down below to see how rank after the 1st week.

Playoff Pool Leader Board

Playoff Pool Big Board

BIT Contest

A few demonstrated they could hang with the playoff leaders. A few playoff contestants reaffirmed they had a bad week. A few even picked the Seahawks!

Good distribution of scores after the intial round. Good news is no one ran away with it. The bad news is four games will be played next week than only three games remain for the entire season. Make your move now so you are in contention at the end.

New Orleans Saints @ Seattle Seahawks

1. bignerd (26)
2. jtoj (28)
3. beecharmer (34)
4. fortyniners (40)

New York Jets @ Indianapolis Colts

1. Haggardninja (6)
2. Ninerfromacrossthepond (12)
3. diablo21911, Rabbit T, urnext (14)
4. McTee, DuikeBuike (20)
5. fortyniners (22)

Baltimore Ravens @ Kansas City Chiefs

1. ZeroIndulgence, brooklyn49er (12)
2. groug, mikeinsp, Rabbit T (14)
3. howtheyscored, diablo21911, DuikeBuike, leaping_larry, PHUT! (18)
4. Andrew Davidson, Ninerfromacrossthepond, Yeti Monster, sf49ers123, jtoj, illini49er, Ten-Man, wjackalope (20)
5. 49erLou (24)

Green Bay Packers @ Philadelphia Eagles

1. fanoftheunderdogs (2)
2. brooklyn49er (8)
3. illini49er (12)
4. 49erLou, wjackalope, leaping_larry (14)
5. Yeti Monster, sf49ers123 (16)

BIT Leader Board

BIT Big Board

Scoring Explained

Your prediction has these same three components as the actual game score.

1) If you predict the correct winner for an individual game, we will score your prediction against the actual game. If you predict the incorrect winner for an individual game, your prediction will not be scored.

2) Ideally, you will predict the exact point differential of the actual game. Say, for example, this is 45. If you predict a score with a PD of 45, the difference between your predicted PD and the actual PD is 0 (45 - 45 = 0). The worse your prediction, the greater that difference becomes. Therefore, the closer the difference is to zero, the better.

3) Ideally, you will predict the exact point total of the actual game. Say, for example, this is 65. If you predict a score with a PT of 65, the difference between your predicted PT and the actual PT is 0 (65 - 65 = 0). The worse your prediction, the greater that difference becomes. Therefore, the closer the difference is to zero, the better.

So, assuming that you predict the correct winner of the individual game, we simply add the difference between your predicted and the actual PD to the difference between your predicted and the actual PT. The closer this total is to zero, the better your prediction is. A zero exactly will always be a perfect prediction.

pPD = Predicted Point Differential
aPD = Actual Point Differential
pPT = Predicted Point Total
aPT = Actual Point Total
x = Subscore

|pPD - aPD| + |pPT - aPT| = x

That total becomes your subscore for each individual game. These subscores are then ranked, and the five best (including ALL ties) are awarded points. Perfect predictions are awarded 10 points. If the highest subscore for a particular game is not a perfect prediction, it is awarded 5 points. Points then follow in descending order, so that all of the second best predictions get 4 points, the third best all get 3 points, and so on.