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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Divisional Round
by Matt Severance - 1/10/2013

Welcome to my final survivor pool picks column of the season - the 2013 opening weekend is only eight months away! I still very much remember opening week of this year, when the Redskins went to New Orleans and shocked the Saints, who hadn't lost a game in the Superdome in 2011. That game wiped out many people in their competitions. Hopefully you took my advice in that one: "This game scares the life out of me if I am a Saints backer. Yes, New Orleans was literally unstoppable at home last season. But all those suspensions now are in effect from the bounty scandal and I'm not sure how the Saints respond. Plus, maybe Robert Griffin III tears up that suspect New Orleans defense. Stay far away."
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Wild-Card Round
by Matt Severance - 1/3/2013

A tremendous regular season, which will be remembered mostly as Peyton Manning's stellar return from a year away, Adrian Peterson's assault on Eric Dickerson's rushing record and a rookie quarterback class that might top the famed 1983 group, is in the books. The question remains, however: Is your Survivor Pool competition also finished? Every pool I have been involved in that remains deadlocked after Week 17 has continued into the postseason.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 17
by Matt Severance - 12/26/2012

It's rather hard to believe we are entering the final week of the NFL regular season already. Hopefully my recommendations have been of some value for you in 2012 and you have already spent your winnings. But as noted last week, some competitions that remain tied after Week 17 spill into the playoffs, so I will write for the first two weeks in the postseason.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 17
by Trevor Whenham - 12/24/2012

This is a very tough week for survivor pool players. For those who are still alive, the need to pick a winner is significant. The challenges of predicting what will happen this week is even tougher than normal, though. Several teams that have made the playoffs may or may not be interested in resting their players for the playoffs. Eliminated teams could be playing for their future, or they could just be wishing it would all end. To properly predict the games this week you have to be an amateur psychologist as much as a handicapper.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 16
by Matt Severance - 12/18/2012

Can you taste that money yet? If you are still going in your survivor pool, you can almost touch it now as we enter the penultimate weekend of the NFL season. I don't know about you, but whenever I got down this far, alas not this year, I usually offered any other competitors the chance to split the winnings, call it a tie and consider the season a success. But some leagues choose to head into the playoffs if there is a tie after Week 17. Thus, I do tentatively plan to write the first two playoff weeks.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 16
by Trevor Whenham - 12/18/2012

This may be the second to last week of a long NFL season, but it is also surprisingly quite likely the easiest week of the year so far from a survivor pool perspective. There are seven teams that seem all but certain to win their games this week. Unless you have the bad luck to have all seven teams unavailable to you, then it's just a matter of picking one and having a relatively stress free week. This week's survivor pools strategy advice and predictions:
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 15
by Matt Severance - 12/12/2012

Somehow, there are still 24 teams mathematically alive for playoff spots in the NFL, but I would say that looking at the schedule Week 15 is probably the last week you can count on several teams giving maximum effort. And I mean that both at the top and the bottom of the NFL food chain.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 15
by Trevor Whenham - 12/10/2012

By this point in the year there aren't likely very many - if any - people still alive on their original survivor pool. Second chance pools are getting more and more popular, though, so as we get into the final weeks of the season the pressure to finish strong and redeem your earlier loss with a win now mounts. To help you get the season-ending
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 14
by Matt Severance - 12/6/2012

We are at the final quarter-pole of the regular season, and hopefully it still finds you competing in your survivor pool. The St. Louis Rams could have torpedoed your pool last week by shocking the San Francisco 49ers. The teams actually were 26 seconds from tying for the second time this season - ties, by the way, should be considered a loss in your survivor pools because you are picking the winner (or I suppose loser, as some unique pools do).
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 14
by Trevor Whenham - 12/3/2012

Another week of the NFL season means another week of survivor pool action. Last week wasn't the easiest of weeks because there were a few strange results. On paper, though, this week seems quite a bit more straightforward. Here is the top survivor pool strategy advice and predictions of week 14 of this NFL season:
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 13
by Matt Severance - 11/28/2012

Yes, there are still five games remaining in the NFL's regular season, but it's a good time for you to determine which teams already are giving up on this year and focusing on finding out what young players they have for 2013 and going forward.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 13
by Trevor Whenham - 11/27/2012

It's time for our weekly look at survivor pool strategy, advice, and predictions. This week's theme is straightforward - intriguing gambles. Anyone can make an obvious pick - like the Packers at home against the Vikings, or New England at Miami. It takes creativity and bravery, though, to go off the board and take a calculated risk.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 12
by Matt Severance - 11/21/2012

For the first time since the bye weeks began, every team has now played exactly the same amount of games in the NFL: 10. So we should know what every club is by now. I say "should," because it rarely works that way. And currently, a whopping 25 teams are within two games of a playoff spot with six weeks to go.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 12
by Trevor Whenham - 11/20/2012

It's time for another week of survivor pool strategy, advice and predictions. Whether you have somehow managed to survive this deep into the season with your first pool, or you are on your second or third try, you need to find the best spots you can. Luckily, there are lots of good spots available this week:
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 11
by Matt Severance - 11/14/2012

The Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams each were a potential missed field goal away from pulling huge upsets in Week 10 of NFL action and likely torpedoing your survivor pool competition. The Rams tied the 49ers in San Francisco at 24, the first "sister-kisser" in the NFL in four years. Excellent St. Louis rookie kicker Greg Zuerlein kicked a 53-yarder to win it in overtime, but the Rams were penalized five yards for delay of game.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 11
by Trevor Whenham - 11/13/2012

Whether you are still alive in your survivor pool, or fighting for glory in a second-chance (or fifth-chance) pool, you need to always be on the lookout for the games that could be safe picks and the games that absolutely should be avoided each week on the NFL schedule. Luckily, things are reasonably straightforward this week - at least compared to some weeks. In the continued hunt for winning picks, here is some survivor pools strategy advice and predictions for this week:
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 10
by Matt Severance - 11/7/2012

Not sure if you read the story somewhere, but Week 9 in the NFL was almost catastrophic for the Las Vegas sportsbooks because they lost so much money essentially due to so many favorites covering: 10 of 14 by my count (casual bettors hugely lean toward favorites). Those that didn't:: the Giants, who lost at home to the Steelers; the Raiders (who were only a one-point favorite), who lost at home to Tampa Bay; the Dolphins, who lost at Indianapolis; and the Panthers, who won at the Redskins.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 10
by Trevor Whenham - 11/7/2012

The deeper we get into the season, the harder survivor pool players need to look for picks that they can use. That means that you have to find games with small spreads that are still worth a risk. This week eight of the 14 games on the schedule have a spread of four or fewer points. Let's look at each of those eight close games to see which ones aren't as close as they seem - and could be attractive for survivor pool players as well:
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 9
by Matt Severance - 10/31/2012

It's unofficially the halfway point of the season this week as by the end of Monday night's game every team will have played at least eight of its 16 regular-season games. There were a few somewhat surprising upsets in Week 8: Bucs over Vikings, Dolphins over Jets and Browns over Chargers (who are officially dead-men walking). I warned you the first two might happen and simply didn't care much about the San Diego-Cleveland game.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 9
by Trevor Whenham - 10/30/2012

We have made it halfway through the NFL season. if you are still alive in your survivor pool then you deserve hearty congratulations. By now the obvious teams are all off the board, and it's time to gamble and find some more creative choices to give you the edge and get you the win. Heavy favorites like Green Bay against Arizona or the Texans versus the Bills would be great picks, but those teams have almost certainly been used. Thankfully, though, there are five games on the board this week that are still attractive but more likely to be usable.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 8
by Matt Severance - 10/25/2012

For the most part, the NFL is now starting to skew back toward what we mostly expected - i.e. chalk. While there were earth-shattering upsets in the first few weeks, those are becoming harder to find. The Arizona Cardinals were a big early surprise and pulled arguably the upset of the year by winning in New England. But the Cardinals are now "who we thought they were" to quote a famous diatribe from ex-Cards coach Dennis Green. Arizona started 4-0 and is now 4-3.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 8
by Trevor Whenham - 10/25/2012

We are not even halfway through the regular season, but we are very deep into the survivor pool season. Because we are down to the nitty gritty, we're going to change the format a little bit and look for the best and worst picks of the week regardless of what the odds happen to be.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 7
by Matt Severance - 10/17/2012

So why is Week 7 an important one to NFL teams? Because players who were placed on the physically-unable-to-perform list back in training camp or the preseason are eligible to be activated after their team's first six regular-season games. Obviously, clubs that already have had a bye week would have to wait until Week 8, but someone like the Ravens' Terrell Suggs could be activated this week.
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NFL Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 7
by Trevor Whenham - 10/16/2012

Last week in survivor pool action all you could really hope for is that you hadn't picked the Falcons yet. Atlanta seemed like a very easy pick against Oakland. While they made things much, much harder than they should have, they ultimately won. If you couldn't pick Atlanta, though, then things likely didn't go very well for you. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Arizona, Minnesota, Cincinnati, New England - all reasonably popular picks that found ways to lose.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 6
by Matt Severance - 10/10/2012

My top two choices in Week 5 were the Giants over the Browns - although I recommended possibly shifting off them if Hakeem Nicks sat (and he did) - and the 49ers over the Bills. Neither team had much trouble in its win, and San Francisco became the first club in NFL history to put up 300 yards passing and rushing in its blowout of Buffalo. Mark it down now: Chan Gailey will be the first head coach fired.
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Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 6
by Trevor Whenham - 10/9/2012

What did we learn last week in survivor pools? Don't trust the Packers, and the Saints aren't as bad as their record. Beyond that it wasn't a particularly challenging week - at least not compared to weeks that have come before it. This is a particularly interesting week. Most weeks we see three or four games with spreads of more than a touchdown, so we have a wide range of games to choose from that are often relatively low risk.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 5
by Matt Severance - 10/3/2012

You could call the Vikings winning at Detroit a slight upset in Week 4 of the NFL season. Maybe also St. Louis at home over Seattle, Washington winning at Tampa Bay and Chicago stomping Dallas in Big D. But none of those really were that surprising, and, in fact, it was a pretty chalk week in pro football for the first time this year. Thus, no big surprises likely were seen in your survivor pool competitions, although Atlanta, Green Bay and Arizona all easily could have lost at home against underdogs.
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Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 5
by Trevor Whenham - 10/3/2012

It was too late for a lot of people, but last week we finally had a week in the NFL that made sense from a survivor pool perspective. Baltimore, Houston, Atlanta, and Green Bay were the four most obvious picks, and they all came through with a win - albeit just barely in the case of the Packers.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 4
by Matt Severance - 9/26/2012

Crickets. That is the sound emanating from survivor pools all around the country with many already having been emptied through just three weeks of the NFL season. There have been mammoth upsets each week so far, and Week 3 was no different. I recommended Dallas over Tampa Bay (Cowboys were somewhat lucky to win) and Chicago over St. Louis, both correct, but my top choice was New Orleans at home over Kansas City.
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Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 4
by Trevor Whenham - 9/26/2012

Carnage. There is no other word to describe last week in the NFL - at least from a survivor pool perspective. The two most popular picks by far were New Orleans and San Francisco. The Saints showed just how deep their troubles run when they threw away a sure win against the Chiefs. The Niners, meanwhile, were inexplicably absent in Minnesota. Perhaps they were suffering a letdown after two nice wins against elite opponents to open the season.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 3
by Matt Severance - 9/19/2012

I would like to say I changed my mind between the posting of this column and the start of Sunday's Week 2 NFL games. I would like to say I saw a big injury and that caused me to dump my top Week 2 survivor pool pick, the New England Patriots at home over Arizona. I would like to tell you that.
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Survivor Pools Strategy Advice and Predictions: Week 3
by Trevor Whenham - 9/19/2012

Well, that sucked. In my biggest survivor pool more than 50 percent of the entrants went out thanks to the Patriots, and I was one of them. It was the perfect proof of just how hard these seemingly simple pools can be. My initial reaction to the setback was to second guess the pick. With a little distance, though, the competitive juices quit flowing quite so fast, and I realized that you can't have any regrets.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 2
by Matt Severance - 9/12/2012

By know everyone knows what happened. I also mentioned to say far away from the Eagles at the Browns, and Philadelphia frankly should have lost that game if not for Cleveland rookie QB Brandon Weeden's historically bad debut. I wasn't sold on San Diego at Oakland, and the Bolts could have been beaten if the Raiders hadn't lost their long snapper to injury (if you saw the game, you know what I mean).
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NFL Survivor Pool Strategy, Advice and Tips for Week 2
by Trevor Whenham - 9/11/2012

It was a pretty straightforward opening weekend for those who play and love NFL Survivor Pools - unless you bought in to the Saints, of course. It seems like almost everyone went for the safe choice of the Texans, though, and that one was over almost as soon as it started.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: Week 1
by Matt Severance - 9/5/2012

The opening week of a survivor pool is always a dangerous one because you just don't know which teams predicted to be playoff contenders will fall off in a given year and which expected non-contenders will have breakout seasons. For example, many thought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be a playoff club in 2011. Josh Freeman was a rising star quarterback and the Bucs had gone 10-6 the season before.
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NFL Survivor Pool Strategy, Advice and Tips for Week 1
by Trevor Whenham - 9/3/2012

The beginning of the NFL season means the start of survivor pool season. That's a very good thing in my eyes. I love survivor pools because they are a good test of your football insight, and because the stakes are high - one mistake and you are out. They are also a great place to find value if you can find pools with relatively few seasoned bettors in them. The public often approaches these pools unwisely, so if you take the time to play them properly you can have a nice edge. Fun AND profitable - the perfect combination.
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NFL Survivor Pool Picks and Advice: 2012 Prologue
by Matt Severance - 8/31/2012

Each season I do these Survivor Pool picks for Doc's, I try to come up with a different "theme." Some hit and probably more miss. Last year was pretty simple: games worth considering, too even to bother, or too close to call.
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