RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht in control of Tri-City Record Armchair Quarterback race with Week 20 win

The twentieth 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 college football national championship game, along with nine professional football games. When all was said and done five of our six gurus scored winning records on their first test of a new calendar year. The contest has just four weeks of games remaining, and our pickers are now in the closing stretch!

The college football season is now completed, as Michigan squared off against Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Houston Monday night. The Wolverines (15-0) started strong, jumping out to a two-score lead early, before the Huskies made a run to close the gap at halftime. But Michigan, over the past few years, has been a better second half team and they went on to shut the door on Washington, taking home the victory, 34-13. With the win, the Wolverines won their twelfth national championship in school history and the first since they split the title with Nebraska (in the pre-championship game era), all the way back in 1997.

In professional action of week 20, both of our local teams, the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions, took the field concluding the regular season in the NFL. Starting with the playoff-bound Lions (12-5), they hosted the Minnesota Vikings for their finale, the second meeting between the two teams in three weeks. The result was like the first meeting, with Detroit scoring the 30-20 victory, setting up a matchup this weekend with the Los Angeles Rams. Meanwhile, in Green Bay, the Bears (7-10) looked to play spoiler to the Packers playoff hopes and finish the year on a three-game winning streak. Unfortunately, Chicago ended their season with a 17-9 loss.

When the final whistle blew and all the scores were verified, the best mark of the stretch stood at 8-2. That record belongs to our defending champion, RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht, who stands alone on the top step of the podium this week to extend her lead in our season-long race for the hat. In fact, she almost went undefeated; her only losses were Indianapolis and San Francisco, games separated by a total of five points.

Typically there is a tie between panelists at some point; the tie for this edition will come at the 7-3 mark, as three of our “gurus” – Greg Krell, Mike Banic and Bill Whitney, will dual it out in the tiebreaker for the final two spots on our weekly podium, along with fourth place. All three were victors, valiant, hail in their college pick (Michigan), so their blemishes came from their NFL picks.

Our tiebreaker matchup for this week, which featured Michigan and Washington, finished with a total of 47 points, which happened to be the same total from last week’s bowl game. Based on their highly educated guesses, two of our three panelists, Greg and Mike, selected the exact same total of 51 points, which means we must go to a coin flip to determine two of the positions. Our coin flips always go in alphabetical order, so Greg was heads and Mike was tails; the flip landed on heads, giving Greg the runner-up spot, while Mike will have to settle for a third-place finish. Bill (who predicted 55 total points) will take home fourth place honors for this edition of the paper.

Just one game back of that trio was Rodney Lynch, whose 6-4 mark during the stretch was only good enough to give him a fifth-place finish. Rodney was our overall leader just a few editions ago, but has seen his stock fall in recent times, and he’s now in a dogfight to stay in the runner-up spot overall. Like everyone before him, he chose the correct winner of the CFP National Championship game, but four losses in NFL regular season finales doomed him.

Unfortunately, we always have one panelist finish as our “cellar dweller” and the title must go to Maureen Ovington, once again, as she finished this stretch of games with a 4-6 mark, earning her a sixth-place finish. She has hit a rough patch recently, as this is her second straight week of winning just four games, putting her in the hole as the season wraps up. However, it’s her first year in this contest and she’s allowed to have growing pains!

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, there have been weekly changes in overall positioning virtually each week since this contest began, which shows the fierceness of the competition. Usually, this is the point where we talk about someone making a move, but, this week, we will deviate from that truth. For this edition of the paper, the standings remain the same and with just thirteen games left in our season, time is running out for seismic shifts.

In terms of the overall classification, RoxAnn remains the leader in the race for top honors, with her overall record sitting at 133-67 through our first 200 games. Rodney, despite a two-game difference in the win column in this edition, remains in second place, with his overall record of 130-70 leaving him three games back, while Greg, who remains in third place with his overall record of 129-71, is making a late charge for one of his best ever finishes in this contest.

The final three positions in our race feature Mike in fourth place, with an overall record of 121-79, Bill in fifth place, with an overall record of 121-80 and Maureen in sixth place, with an overall record of 115-85. The race continues to see the pressure rise as the season nears its conclusion, and with just four games separating our current overall podium (eighteen games if you include the remainder of our panelists), everyone is going to be rooting for their picks that much more!

Pigskin action continues this week as the National Football League enters their playoff push with Super Wild Card weekend on tap. So, this six-game slate will feature those games. 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 twenty-one games that our qualified panelists were tasked with picking:

Cleveland Browns at

Houston Texans (Sat.)

Miami Dolphins at

Kansas City Chiefs (Sat.)

Green Bay Packers at

Dallas Cowboys (Sun.)

Los Angeles Rams at

Detroit Lions (Sun.) *

Pittsburgh Steelers at

Buffalo Bills (Sun.)

Philadelphia Eagles at

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Mon.)

* tiebreaker