Mike Banic scores Week 15 Armchair QB win as the overall race tightens

The fifteenth week of the Tri-City Record’s annual Armchair Quarterback competition has been contested, as our pigskin diehards attempted to pick the winner of six collegiate conference championship games and four professional games that occurred. In terms of final records, our panelists always strive to put on a winning performance, which they hope will lead to more green checkmarks (wins) than red crosses (losses) on their weekly examinations.

When all was said and done, our expert pickers all improved their outlook after a dismal week on Thanksgiving as all six of our panelists ended with winning records. This late in the season, our contest remains up for grabs with everyone still in the conversation for the overall crown!

Let’s start by recapping the games from the fifteenth week of our competition. Last week was conference championship time in college football and fans of the #2 (CFP) Michigan Wolverines tuned-in to watch the Big Ten championship game against #16 (CFP) Iowa. It was not the best game from an offensive standpoint for the Wolverines (13-0), as they managed just 213 yards of total offense. However, the defense was on point against a dismal offense, as they allowed just 155 yards and forced three turnovers. In the end, Michigan was victorious, 26-0, earning them a third straight conference title and appearance in the College Football Playoff. And, thanks to Alabama’s upset of Georgia, the Wolverines are the consensus #1 team in the nation and in playoff seeding; their gift will be a CFP semifinal against ‘Bama in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

Finally, in professional action only one of our local teams, the Detroit Lions, took the field this week, while the Chicago Bears were on their lone bye of the 2023 season. The Lions (9-3) traveled to New Orleans for a matchup with the Saints, whose 5-6 record coming in was good enough to be a co-leader in the weak NFC South. Detroit jumped out to a 21-0 lead midway through the first quarter but was forced to hang on for dear life in the Superdome, eventually bringing home a 33-28 victory to expand their lead in the NFC North to three games.

For historian purposes, the Lions and the Saints have played 27 games in the all-time series during the regular season. Who has won more? Neither team, as they are 13-13-1 against each other.

When the final whistle blew and all the scores were verified, the best mark of the stretch stood at 9-1. Only one of our panelists, Mike Banic, was blessed enough to win nine games, taking home top honors in a week where wins seemed like the talk of the show. Mike made some gutty choices on the college gridiron, as he was the lone “guru” to pick Alabama and Washington, and would’ve been perfect if not for a loss in the MAC title game by Toledo.

Not far behind, with a record of 8-2, was our other “newbie” on the panel, Maureen Ovington, which carried her to a runner-up finish at the end of the weekly proceedings. Throughout the campaign thus far, she’s had weeks where luck was not on her side, but this was not one of those weeks. Having lost the first two games in our listing (the PAC-12 and SEC championship games), she rattled off eight straight to put herself in the conversation.

Each week this season we usually have a “gaggle” of panelists that have the same record and this week it comes at the 7-3 mark. Three of our panelists: Greg Krell, Rodney Lynch, and Bill Whitney will need to duke it out in the tiebreaker to determine our third through fifth place results. They were unbeaten in their professional picks, but faltered in their quest for top honors thanks to three collegiate losses.

Because we have a tie in the weekly standings that means we had to go to the dreaded tiebreaker scenario to determine the final finisher on our weekly podium, in third, while also awarding fourth and fifth place as well. Our tiebreaker matchup, which featured the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans, went to overtime and finished with a total of 59 points. Based on their highly educated guesses, Greg, who predicted 51 total points, will take home the bronze medal in third place, while Rodney (who predicted 44 total points) will finish in fourth place and Bill (who predicted 41 total points) will have to settle for fifth place.

It’s not very often in this contest that you must report that the overall leader finishes in sixth place; but, for a second straight week, we must report that RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht will be our weekly cellar dweller, finishing with a record of 6-4. Like the previous three panelists, she was also unsuccessful with three of her collegiate picks while she was just a few plays here-and-there from a Tennessee Titan victory, a gamble that just didn’t pay off.

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 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 quarterback 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 changes in overall positioning virtually each week since our contest began. This week features the top four positions remaining the same, while the tie-for-fifth place has been broken. However, the biggest news of the stretch likely comes in the fact that the margin between the top and the bottom of the standings is getting narrower-and-narrower each time this newspaper is released.

In terms of the overall classification, RoxAnn continues to keep her grasp on the lead in the race for top honors with her overall record sitting at 100-50 through our first 150 games. We continue to have a tie-for-second place between Greg and Rodney, whose overall records stand at 99-51, with the two moving within one measly game of the overall lead. The final three positions in our race feature Bill in fourth place, with an overall record of 94-56, Mike in fifth place, with an overall record of 92-58 and Maureen in sixth place, with an overall record of 91-59. Just a few weeks back, the difference between the six panelists was double figures; it’s now down to just nine games between first through sixth place, so things are starting to get spicy!

The season continues this week with college football taking a breather prior to bowl season, besides one big game between the service academies. So, our normal ten-game slate will feature that game along with nine games from week fourteen of the professional football season. Now, here are your week sixteen games that our qualified panelists were tasked with picking:

Army vs. Navy

(Sat. in Foxborough, MA) *

New England Patriots at

Pittsburgh Steelers (Thu)

Buffalo Bills at

Kansas City Chiefs (Sun)

Detroit Lions at

Chicago Bears (Sun)

Jacksonville Jaguars at

Cleveland Browns (Sun)

Minnesota Vikings at

Las Vegas Raiders (Sun)

Philadelphia Eagles at

Dallas Cowboys (Sun)

Seattle Seahawks at

San Francisco 49ers (Sun)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at

Atlanta Falcons (Sun)

Green Bay Packers at

New York Giants (Mon)

* tiebreaker