YANNI – Status – Did Not Survive (3 misses)
JJ – Status – Did Not Survive (1 miss)

Teams Used:

YANNI
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers (miss)
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Chargers
Kansas City Chiefs (miss)
Dallas Cowboys (miss)

JJ
Philadelphia Eagles
Baltimore Ravens
Dallas Cowboys
Los Angeles Chargers
Kansas City Chiefs (miss)
Washington Redskins

Overview:

JJ squeaked by in week six using the Washington Redskins in a game that is probably the only clear opportunity to do so. A fantastic (and very nail biting) survivor play that can be the difference between winning a survivor pool at the end of the season. The Redskins blew a two touchdown lead to the Ryan Fitzpatrick led Dolphins before putting the nail in the coffin with a two point conversion stop. Yanni continued to struggle as he again passed up New England and didn’t trust the Redskins enough to pull the trigger and opted to go with the Cowboys coming off of two bad losses. Dallas found themselves in an early hole and minus some key cogs in their offense in their effort to make it up. Their bid fell just short as they were also stopped at the end attempting to force overtime.

Strategy / Odds:

As is normally the case in any NFL season there have been some big surprises in how teams have played as they near the halfway point of the season. In survivor pools, if you’ve been lucky enough to avoid one of those surprisingly bad teams early on, you have a unique opportunity to use some teams that maybe weren’t on the radar when the season started. We’ve got some possibilities against the usual suspects of the Dolphins and Bengals with teams that we weren’t planning to use this early in the season. Keep in mind that if you want to play the heaviest favorite this week, it’s estimated that they’ll be played by a whopping 65% of survivor players! If there did happen to be an upset, a lot of survivor pools would be cleaned out quickly.

Here is a quick glance at the four largest spreads for the week:
(Bovada Sportsbook 10/18/19)

Miami Dolphins +17 at Buffalo Bills
San Francisco 49ers -10 at Washington Redskins
New England Patriots -10 at New York Jets
Oakland Raiders +4.5 at Green Bay Packers

Through six weeks in the season you can get an idea of a team by their record, but you can’t completely use the wins and losses to measure how good they are just yet. Are the San Francisco 49ers as strong as their undefeated record would make them seem? Is the 4-1 mark of the Buffalo Bills a true marker of their true talent and ability? We aren’t going to attempt to answer these questions directly, they’re more just to get you thinking about the teams you find impressive or weak so far this year. Ultimately, for this week it’s just got to be the Buffalo Bills. As huge favorites, what better chance to lean on a team you might otherwise have hesitations about using?

In a two miss survivor pool you’re still doing great if you’re tailing JJ throughout this season. He was very quick to make his pick this week which means he feels pretty strongly about the direction that he’s leaning. Without hesitation he went with the Bills assuming not only is it safe to go against the Dolphins, but also this is the best spot to utilize the Bills throughout this NFL season. When is the last time the Bills have been 17 point favorites in a game? We’re not digging to find out, but we’re pretty sure Jim Kelly was probably the quarterback and Bruce Smith was chasing the opposing team’s QB.

Our Picks: