Greg Krell wins Week 21 AQB contest, seven games remain

The twenty-first week of the Tri-City Record’s annual Armchair Quarterback competition has been contested, as our pigskin diehards attempted to pick the winner of the six professional football wild card playoff games that occurred. When all was said and done, just two of our expert pickers received a positive report card. The remainder of our gurus were not that far behind on this tough playoff test. Our contest has just three weeks of games remaining now, and this competition is officially in the final stages!

The only games remaining in our contest are from the National Football League, but our local fans are not being left out of the postseason fun! That’s because our beloved Detroit Lions made the playoffs, and hosted Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams in a wild card matchup at rowdy Ford Field. The more than 62,000 in attendance, as well as countless fans watching on NBC, were on the edge of their seats all night long.

In the end, the game was separated by just one point, with the Lions scoring the 24-23 victory, ending a nine-game postseason drought and earning their first playoff win since the 1991 season. Thanks to a Green Bay victory over Dallas, they will do it all over again next week. Detroit hosts a second home playoff game, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to town next weekend. Also earning playoff victories this past weekend were the Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs.

When the final whistle blew and all the scores were verified, the best mark of the stretch stood at 5-1. That record belonged to our beloved “gambler,” Greg Krell. He will stand alone on the top step of the podium this week, with props from this writer! Like four of our other gurus, he did pick a Dallas victory, which was his lone blemish. However, he was one of two to take Houston and the only one to pick Tampa Bay.

Just one game back of our weekly champion was the current overall leader, RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht, whose 4-2 mark was worthy enough of the runner-up spot on our weekly podium, solidifying her lead as we race down the final stretch. She was another one of our “celebrity pickers” to not believe in the Green Bay Packers, while she also was doomed by the poor play of the Eagles on Monday night, which turned out to be the one-loss difference.

We typically have a tie between panelists at some point; the tie for this edition will come at the 3-3 mark, as our remaining gurus – Rodney Lynch, Mike Banic, Bill Whitney and Maureen Ovington – will dual it out in the tiebreaker for the final spot on the podium, along with the final three places. Our tiebreaker matchup, which featured the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams, finished with a total of 47 points, which happens to be the tiebreaker number for the third week in succession!

Based on their highly educated guesses, Maureen picked 47 total points right on the number, which earned her third-place honors, while Mike was just one point away, as his pick of 48 total points will score him a fourth-place finish. However, our final two panelists, Rodney and Bill, each were one additional point off, as both picked 49 total points, which means we had to go to a coin flip to determine our final two positions.

Our coin flips always go in alphabetical order, meaning Bill was heads and Rodney was tails; the flip landed on tails, giving Rodney fifth-place recognition this week, while Bill will, unfortunately, have to settle for sixth-place, and be our weekly “cellar dweller.”

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 season-long race for the hat, this week we see one position swap between two of our panelists, but it is one that changes the complexion of our race for the final podium, while the overall lead remains at the same level as the previous week. With just seven games left in our season, time is running out for significant shifts to take place.

In terms of the overall classification, RoxAnn remains the leader in the race for top honors, with her overall record sitting at 137-69 through our first 206 games. The shift in our podium race occurs in the second and third positions, as Greg jumps into the overall runner-up spot, with his overall record of 134-72 leaving him three games back, while Rodney fell one spot to third place, with his overall record of 133-73 leaving him just one game back of second place, and four games out of the lead.

The final three positions in our race feature Mike in fourth place, with an overall record of 124-82, Bill in fifth place, with an overall record of 123-83 and Maureen in sixth place, with an overall record of 118-88. The pressure is continuing to rise, and with just a few games separating our current overall podium, one big slip-up could be the difference between the champagne victory shower or just feeling like you didn’t win!

Pigskin action continues this week, as the National Football League continues their postseason push, with the divisional round of the playoffs on tap this weekend. So, our four-game slate will feature those games. Hopefully, your favorite team(s) are still alive in the playoffs; if not, find a team to root for (LIONS) over the next few weeks and enjoy the ride!

Now, here are your week twenty-two games that our qualified panelists were tasked with picking:

Green Bay Packers at

San Francisco 49ers (Sat.)

Houston Texans at

Baltimore Ravens (Sat.)

Kansas City Chiefs at

Buffalo Bills (Sun.) *

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at

Detroit Lions (Sun.)

* tiebreaker