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November 15, 2012 - by Matt Woods
Update Fri 11/16, 5 PM ET: Our office pool pick sets have now frozen for the week as a result of the NFL game tonight, but on account of Jay Cutler’s still-evolving injury status, our odds source has yet to release betting odds for the Monday Night Football game between Chicago and San Francisco.
Our model predictions rely on the Vegas line to drive injury-related prediction adjustments, and as a result, our NFL game winner office pool pick pages are “unaware” of the Cutler injury. Especially if Jay Cutler doesn’t end up playing, current indications are that San Francisco may end up being a favorite of around 5-7 points, based on a line released by BetOnline.
We would play this game conservatively and definitely pick San Francisco to win based on what we know now. Likewise, we would not make Chicago at top play in aggressive strategies. Given the uncertainty, we’d probably just keep San Francisco as the pick to win with moderate to moderate-low confidence points across the board, and slide all the other picks up.
For against the spread pools, if you think 70%+ of your pool will go with San Fran, and they are 5-7 point favorites (70% are picking SF -5 on Yahoo! so far), as of now we’d probably fade the public and take Chicago plus the points, with relatively low confidence.
If your picks aren’t due today, the best move is always to wait as long as possible to pick. Hopefully a line will be released by Saturday, and we’ll update this post again with a final recommendation.
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Carolina’s QB has endured a rocky sophomore campaign (see Cam Newton’s passing stats), throwing more interceptions than touchdowns while fumbling nine times. This week’s matchup, however, could provide him with an excellent chance to get back on track as Tampa Bay ranks 30th in NFL opponent yards per pass attempt (7.9).
While about 75% of the public has selected the Buccaneers to win this week, we see this game as close to a tossup. Consequently, picking the Panthers at home is one of the more tempting upset picks for Week 11.
Here is where our game winner pick’em strategies currently stand on ESPN (not confidence points based) heading into Week 11. Our game winner picks took a slight hit, but generally maintained their solid positions as all three reamain in the top 15% nationally. Most importantly, our Conservative strategy is contending for a top-three finish in pools of up to around 75 people or so:
Our against the spread picks, on the other hand, had an excellent week. After a Week 9 which saw huge success for popular public picks, much to our (and Vegas’s) chagrin, all three strategies improved this week. The Conservative strategy was a particular highlight going 11-3 last week (including picks we flipped due to differences in ESPN lines), and that strategy now ranks in the top 3% nationally on ESPN:
(Keep in mind that we occasionally “flip” picks if the point spread listed on ESPN is significantly different than the point spread listed on our site.)
Last week we noted that both our models and Vegas favored Detroit to win, while less than 50% of the public had picked them. Unfortunately, Minnesota prevailed 34-24 behind a stellar rushing performance by Adrian Peterson.
We also pointed out the tremendous value in picking Jacksonville and Cincinnati to pull high risk upsets last week. While Jacksonville fell short on Thursday night, Cincinnati pummeled the Giants 31-13. With only 7% of the public picking the Bengals, rolling the dice with a Cincinnati upset last week would have resulted in gaining ground on over 90% of pool competitors.
While we didn’t recommend taking either of the riskier upset picks last week other than in “swing for the fences” situations, we should note that Tennessee indeed topped Miami while the Jets lost at Seattle.
On the point spread side, we noted five picks in which 70% or more of the public was picking a particular side, and going against the public in those picks last week yielded a 3-2 result. Applying that contrarian strategy should have led to gaining quite a bit of ground on most of your pool competitors.
Here’s where you can find our computer generated picks for NFL office pools:
Also, if you haven’t read our NFL pick’em strategy series, do yourself a favor and check it out. It’ll ensure our choices here make a lot more sense.
OK, time for our handy Game Winner table, which summarizes a few teams that look like they could be smart picks for people that need to take some risks. It’s based on our detailed pick’em analysis page.
| Team | Opponent | Adj Win Odds | Public % | Value | Spread | Value Indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | at Buffalo | 51.4% | 27% | 24.4% | +1.0 | Odds-On Contrarian |
| Carolina | vs Tampa Bay | 47.0% | 25% | 22.0% | +1.0 | Low Risk Upset |
| Philadelphia | at Washington | 41.5% | 16% | 25.5% | +3.5 | High Risk Upset |
| Kansas City | vs Cincinnati | 38.2% | 13% | 25.2% | +3.5 | High Risk Upset |
| San Diego | at Denver | 25.1% | 4% | 21.1% | +8.5 | Long Shot Upset |
| Arizona | at Atlanta | 22.4% | 2% | 20.4% | +9.5 | Long Shot Upset |
There is only one odds-on contrarian pick this week, which occurs when a majority of the public picks against our projected winner, providing a nice chance to gain ground against other pool competitors without even having to make an upset pick.
Despite being a one-point Vegas underdog as of Wednesday evening, our models actually see Miami as slight favorites to win at Buffalo; however, about 75% of the public has picked Buffalo to win outright. Consequently, we see the Dolphins as a solid pick for any pool size. The game’s a toss-up but the public is shaded strongly to Buffalo.
On the upsets side, Carolina provides significant value without too much risk. We see this game as close to an even matchup while only about 25% of the public has backed the Panthers. Because of the public imbalance for what we see as a toss-up game, we also think Carolina is a solid pick for almost any pool size, unless you’re already dominating a small pool.
For riskier upsets picks, both Philadelphia and Kansas City provide a large amount of value. We give both about a 40% chance to win, while only about 15% of the public has picked either. Philadelphia is the safer of the two and provides a great chance to try to gain ground on your opponents if you want to make another upset play in addition to the Panthers.
Finally, while both San Diego and Arizona provide value as upset picks due to the extreme public imbalance, we wouldn’t recommend picking either unless you’re almost out of contention and really need to pull out all the stops to make up ground. In confidence pools, though, you may want to lower the value of their opponents, Denver and Atlanta, unless you’re already defending a good lead.
A lot of point spread based pick’em contests publish the games and associated point spreads at the beginning of the week, but give you until Sunday to submit your picks. This means a great strategy is to look for a game where the official spread in your contest is different from the current spread offered at most sports books, and take the “free points.”
In general, the edge you get from those free points is going to be stronger than any lean you have on who is favored to cover, especially if the difference is more than one point.
Below are the biggest line movements from earlier in the week, which could indicate “free points” opportunities in your pool. Highlights can also be found on on the right side of our NFL odds page.
| Team | Opponent | Opening Line | Current Line | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | at Pittsburgh | +3.5 | -3.5 | 7.0 |
| St. Louis | vs New York Jets | -1.0 | -3.0 | 2.0 |
| Washington | vs Philadelphia | -1.5 | -3.5 | 2.0 |
The massive 7-point swing in spread for Baltimore vs Pittsburgh likely is due entirely to the health of Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, who will miss Sunday’s game with a sprained shoulder and dislocated rib, making journeyman veteran Byron Leftwich the starting QB in his place.
The other major source of value in ATS pick’ems is finding teams that a huge majority of your opponents are picking, and then taking the other side. Most Vegas point spreads are pretty efficient, so if a large majority of your opponents are picking a certain team to beat the spread, that team is probably overvalued. And that means you’ve got roughly a 50/50 shot of pulling ahead of a huge chunk of your opponents by picking against them, no matter what your personal opinion is of that game.
Here are five teams where the lines for the Yahoo! ATS pick’em are the within half a point of those found at leading sportsbooks on Wednesday afternoon (or better), yet only about 25% or less of the public is selecting them to cover:
| Team | Opponent | Public Pick% | TR Cover Odds | Current Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit | vs Green Bay | 17% | 47% | +3.5 |
| Oakland | vs New Orleans | 19% | 53% | +4.5 |
| Philadelphia | at Washington | 20% | 59% | +3.5 |
| Pittsburgh | vs Baltimore | 24% | 46% | +3.5 |
| Kansas City | vs Cincinnati | 25% | 52% | +3.5 |
If the lines in your pick’em contest are the same or better as those shown above, and if you think your competitors will be picking teams in roughly the same manner as the general public (e.g., in line with the Yahoo! contest picking trends), we’d recommend playing all five of these teams, four of which are at home this week.
For advice on other games in your spread-based pick’em pool this week, check out our NFL office pool spread picks page, or our NFL ATS picks page.
As always, please feel free to ask questions in the comment section below. We’ll do our best to answer as many as possible, and we look forward to a fun and interactive college football weekly pick’em advice column this season.
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