Greg Krell survives 6-4 mark, tiebreaker for Week 7 Armchair QB win

The seventh week of the Tri-City Record’s annual Armchair Quarterback competition has been contested, but we made sure to continue our long-standing tradition of challenging our knowledgeable ‘superfans’ over some ultimately tough choices on the gridiron. Our pigskin diehards attempted to pick the winner of two local high school games, five collegiate games and three professional games that occurred during week seven.

In terms of final records, our panelists always strive to put on their best performance, which hopefully leads to more green checkmarks (wins) than red crosses (losses) on their weekly examinations. When all was said and done, all our expert pickers were taken down the ringer, as none of our six panelists finished with less than four losses. As a matter of fact, three of our gurus finished with .500 records and one even finished with a losing record. At this rate, it appears that no one is safe from a touch of mediocrity!

Let’s start by recapping the games from week seven of our competition. In our local high school football games, only one of our Tri-City teams was in action on the gridiron. While Coloma (1-5) had their game against Hartford cancelled (due to the Huskies pulling out of varsity competition earlier this year), Watervliet still had a game to play, as they had a ‘Homecoming’ affair with visiting South Haven. Unfortunately, for the Panthers (2-5), the Rams were not in the mood to participate in the celebration, as they soundly took home the victory, 51-6, ending any fading hopes that Watervliet had for being in the postseason.

In collegiate action, Michigan, Notre Dame and Western Michigan all continued their seasons last week, while Michigan State had the weekend off. The results were quite mixed, with just one of the three teams ending up in the win column. In terms of final scores, #2 Michigan (6-0) traveled to Minnesota for ‘Big Ten Saturday Night’ and had their best offensive performance of the season, beating the Golden Gophers, 52-10. Meanwhile, #10 Notre Dame (5-2) made a trip to ‘Derby City’ and lost their first game against an ACC team since 2017, when they suffered defeat to #25 Louisville, 33-20, while Western Michigan (2-4) traveled to SEC-stalwart Mississippi State and played an awfully competitive game with the Bulldogs, defying the odds by losing by just thirteen points, 41-28.

Finally, in professional action, we saw the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions play week five of their seasons, and, for the first time this season, we can confirm that both teams ended in the win column! The Lions (4-1) returned to the friendly confines of Ford Field for a matchup with Carolina and got a semblance of revenge for a late-season loss to the Panthers from last Christmas, as they reigned victorious, 42-24. Meanwhile, in the nation’s capital, the Bears (1-4) were decided underdogs against the host Commanders on Thursday night, but maybe they are finally getting their act together! Chicago ended up with their first win of the season in the NFC East / North showdown, 40-20.

When the final whistle blew and all the scores were verified, it resulted in some not-so-pretty records, as the best marks of the week were a dismal 6-4. I guess our call on a symbolic shift in the competition was a little too early, but I guarantee that Greg Krell and Rodney Lynch will happily walk away knowing that they were our weekly top duo. In fact, their wins and losses were the same, so one must sit and wonder – did they copy one another?

Because we have a tie in the weekly standings, that meant we had to go to the dreaded tiebreaker scenario to determine our weekly champion and runner-up. Our tiebreaker matchup, which featured South Haven and Watervliet, finished with a total of 57 points. Based on their highly educated guesses, it was determined that Greg, thanks to his prediction of 47 total points, will take home the top step of the podium and the gold medal this week, while Rodney (who predicted 44 total points) will be disappointed to learn he’s the runner-up.

While our weekly winner and runner-up were decided by a tiebreaker, we also will have to break a tie for third, fourth and fifth place, as three additional panelists finished with matching 5-5 records. RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht, Bill Whitney and Mike Banic landed smack-dab on the .500 mark and will at-least take solace in knowing that they did not finish in the cellar. Although is it a win for any of them considering they made up no ground?

For a second time, because we have a tie in the weekly standings, it meant we had to go to the tiebreaker to determine our weekly third, fourth and fifth place finishers. Just a reminder, our tiebreaker matchup featured South Haven and Watervliet and finished with a total of 57 points. Based on their highly educated guesses, it was determined that Bill, thanks to his prediction of 42 total points, will round out our podium with his third-place finish, followed by RoxAnn (who predicted 38 total points) in fourth place and Mike (who predicted 36 total points) will have to settle for fifth place.

Unfortunately, everybody knows that each week we must have a ‘cellar dweller,’ who will take home a sixth-place finish. That ‘badge of honor’ this week belongs to Maureen Ovington, who found herself going from first place with an unbeaten record last week, to 4-6 this week and falling from the highest-of-highs to the lowest-of-lows. She took some risks with several of her picks, which hurt her; however, she did lose just two games to the field.

In case you are new to our newspaper or need a refresher on how this competition works, let’s take a moment to bring you up-to-speed. Each fall, our newspaper enlists the assistance of six local football fanatics, who should be deemed ‘superfans’ really. Each week, the six-person panel is given a list of pre-selected games from the local high school, collegiate and professional ranks, and is given the daunting task of selecting the winners of each game.

Weekly records are kept from the beginning of the high school season through Super Bowl Sunday, with each week’s edition of the paper reporting on the progress of each participant. At the conclusion of the football season, the panelist who has the best overall record will earn the right to wear the 2023-24 Tri-City Record Armchair Quarterback hat and claim bragging rights until the next season begins.

In the event there are multiple AQBs that have the same weekly or season-long record, their place in the weekly or overall standings will be determined by a weekly ‘tiebreaker’ game. In addition to trying to pick the winners of each week’s slew of games, they will also predict a total score from a specially selected game, one that usually stands out on a local or national level. The AQB that predicts closest to the actual number of points scored by both teams will receive the higher position in the standings.

In the season-long race for the hat, there have been weekly positional changes in five of the previous six weeks. That must mean that the streak will continue, right? That’s a no brainer, as we had a shuffle amongst a few of our six panelists. All we can say is – this contest is going to be interesting and tight – all season long!

In terms of the overall classification, RoxAnn continues to keep a tight grasp in the race for top honors, with her overall record standing at 49-21 through our first 70 games. She lost some ground (one game) to our new runner-up, Greg, who leaps into second place with an overall record of 46-24, while we now have a tie-for-third place between Bill and Rodney, who each possess overall records of 45-25. The final two positions in our overall race belong to Maureen in fifth place, with an overall record of 43-27, and Mike in sixth place, with an overall record of 40-30. While nine games between the top and the bottom of the standings may seem insurmountable right now, based on this week’s observations, there are still many games to go in our contest and many upsets are bound to happen in this crazy season!

The season continues this week, as week eight of the high school football season is contested across the ‘Great Lakes State,’ along with week seven of the college football season and week six of the professional football season. If you are a fan of the game contested on the gridiron, and, seeing you are loyally reading this column on a weekly basis, you must be – I know that you are excited to be watching plenty of football games with your family or closest friends right now. You may not be thrilled about the result of your favorite teams, but, hey, be excited about the future to come!

Be sure to check back each week as our panel of ardent, loyal pigskin pickers weave their way through the football season, in pursuit of their own ‘one shining moment.’ Now, here are your week eight games that our qualified panelists were tasked with picking:

Niles Brandywine at Coloma (Fri)

Parchment at Watervliet (Fri)

Ferris State at Grand Valley State (Sat) * Indiana at Michigan (Sat)

Miami (OH) at Western Michigan (Sat)

Michigan State at Rutgers (Sat)

USC at Notre Dame (Sat)

Detroit Lions at

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Sun)

Minnesota Vikings at

Chicago Bears (Sun)

San Francisco 49ers at

Cleveland Browns (Sun)

* tiebreaker