The twenty-second week of the Tri-City Record’s annual Armchair Quarterback contest has come and gone, but we made sure to continue our long-standing tradition of challenging our knowledgeable ‘super fans’ over some ultimately tough choices on the gridiron. Our diehards attempted to pick the winners of the four professional football divisional round games that graced the docket in the second weekend of the NFL playoffs.
With four games on the slate for our pickers last week there still were a plethora of different outcomes that could happen, which will often separate the ‘best’ from ‘just good’ in our weekly standings. This week’s results saw five of our six astute panelists finish with a winning record, which included an unbeaten mark and a four-way tiebreaker needed to finish the podium.
Let’s start by recapping the games from week twenty-two of our competition. The football season is quickly winding down, and we came into the week with just seven games remaining in the entire football season. Last week saw the divisional round of playoff games, and the four winners of those games have moved on to compete for a conference championship this coming weekend.
In those divisional games, on Saturday, Jan. 21 Kansas City defeated Jacksonville, 27-20, while Philadelphia defeated the New York Giants, 38-7. On Sunday, Jan. 22, Cincinnati defeated Buffalo, 27-10, while San Francisco defeated Dallas, 19-12.
When the final whistle blew and all the scores were verified, the best record on the panel stood at a perfect 4-0. For the fourth time this season Taylor Prestidge (with a little help from her friends) ascended to the top of the podium, as our weekly top picker. The only gamble in her picks was a bold choice, taking Cincinnati over Buffalo, as the Bengals were underdogs on the road. This is the first time in a while that one of our panelists was perfect.
Four of our remaining panelists: RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht, Tim Hildebrand, Bill Whitney and Greg Krell, all finished with matching 3-1 records, and will have to go to the tiebreaker scenario to determine their positions in our weekly standings. RoxAnn, Tim and Bill were perfect on Saturday, before suffering their loss Sunday when Buffalo went down at home. Greg chose the New York Giants who were soundly defeated on Saturday night.
Because we have a tie between the four panelists, we now must go to the dreaded tiebreaker scenario to determine places two through five in our weekly race. The tiebreaker game this week was the Dallas Cowboys – San Francisco 49ers matchup, which finished with 31 total points. None of our four panelists came within eleven points of the final result, but thanks to her projection of 42 total points, RoxAnn did enough to take home runner-up honors. She will be joined on the podium by Tim (who projected 44 total points) in third place.
The remaining two positions, as determined by our tiebreaker, went to Bill (who projected 52 total points) in fourth place and Greg (who projected 59 total points) will take home fifth place.
In a surprising sequence of events, Rodney Lynch, who came into the week near the top of the overall standings, only managed a 2-2 record, and is this week’s ‘cellar dweller’ as our sixth-place finisher. Like RoxAnn, Tim and Bill before him, he was guilty in selecting the Bills, but also was the lone panelist that selected the Cowboys over the 49ers. The Cowboys lost by just seven points, so he might look back on the week with questions of ‘what if’.
In case you are new to our newspaper or need a quick refresher on how this contest works, let’s take a moment to bring you up-to-speed. Each fall our newspaper enlists the help of six local football fanatics, who could be deemed ‘super fans’, really. Every week our six-member 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 from each game.
Weekly records are kept from the beginning of the high school season right on 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 2022-23 Tri-City Record Armchair Quarterback hat.
In the event there are multiple Armchair Quarterbacks 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 correctly pick the winners of each week’s games, they will also predict a total score from a specially selected game, usually a game that 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, no position changes took place since our last update. Only one of our panelists gained a game in the win column over the others, while one of our panelists lost a game in the loss column. And, while the race remains very tight in the battle for second place, with three panelists separated by just two games, our year-long champion was decided last week, and it’s a familiar face taking home the crown.
In terms of the overall classification, RoxAnn Rodney-Isbrecht will be your Armchair Quarterback champion for the second consecutive season. Through 209 games, her overall record stands at 145-63-1, a winning percentage of nearly 70 percent. Despite the championship being decided, as we mentioned, the race is on for second place. Rodney, with an overall record of 137-71-1, remains in the runner-up spot by one game over Tim who is in third place, as his overall record stands at 136-72-1. Bill is right on Tim’s coattails, just one game back in fourth place with an overall record of 135-73-1. The final two positions belong to Taylor in fifth place, with an overall record of 133-75-1 and Greg in sixth place, with an overall record of 128-80-1.
The season continues with week twenty-three of our contest, which will feature the two professional football playoff games on Sunday. These games will decide which two teams will represent their respective conferences in Super Bowl 57 on Sunday, Feb. 12. Hopefully our readers are continuing to enjoy this great fall tradition – because, after all, this contest is all about everyone having some fun!
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-three game selections:
Cincinnati Bengals at
Kansas City Chiefs
(AFC Championship - Sun) *
San Francisco 49ers at
Philadelphia Eagles
(NFC Championship - Sun)
* Tiebreaker
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