The Great Sobbering

Presented in its entirety - the leader board of the Waters Challenge

http://waterschallenge.com/NFL/Leaderboard.html

If you didn't have the patience to scroll all the way down there to see my entry (@iamjimcon) be assured that it's there 5 places from the basement.

To have such an appalling record associated with your name hurts a little, even if you allow yourself to pass it off somewhat. I've reminded myself a dozen times today to not join the countless on twitter with their extraordinary overreactions to the football we witnessed this past weekend. With a little contextualizing I've been able to spare myself from a mini-anxiety attack.

For example, we got a nice shock to the system as the first ESPN Monday Night Football game kicked off and the new Eagles offense was unveiled. Oh boy! Sure enough, there are a lot of people claiming Chip Kelly is god, NFL offense will never be the same again, etc.

But this little tidbit I first saw on cbssports.com could be telling:

Chip Kelly's NFL debut Offensive #s : 77 plays, 443 yards, 33 points
Steve Spurrier's NFL debut Offensive #s : 73 plays, 442 yards, 31 points

It's not as if that info is predictive, but it does encourage caution. Those numbers won't be replicated week in, week out. (Michael Vick's poor decision making will see to that!)

But anyway, I'm not going to go overboard berating myself for my week 1 picks. Shit happens. And I wasn't the only one to suffer a little this weekend.

As Dave Tuley points out over on Predictmachine.com the entries in the LVH SuperContest combined for a 1766-2986-403 (37.2%) record. That's not good. 58 entries in the Waters Challenge hit 50% or better. That means 96 others couldn't even match the flip of a coin. (E&OE on my counting the entries there!)

However I'm still optimistic I can climb my way up the leader board come January. After all we're only 5 picks into an 85 pick tourney.

The lines for week 2 will post Wednesday night, and I think there'll be some interesting ones on there with the San Fran @ Seattle and Miami @ Indianapolis being the ones I'm most intrigued by.