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Fickle Finger 2024 Winner

Monday, January 20, 2025 Posted by

Another season has come and gone, and another Baller can lay claim to superior football knowledge. The final results are in the table below. I’m only showing the “delta” tabulations – the difference between our guesses and the final result.

MWalsh26 Earl Copanut Eleven TomPaul
BillyBob
tennbob drock Estimated
Prophet
Tuskegee
_Brown
JAMESH
Steelers 4 3 1 2 0 1 4 2 0 7
Bengals 2 9 1 3 1 2 3 2 2 6
Browns 6 3 5 5 4 5 8 8 6 0
Ravens 0 12 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 9
Base 12 27 8 11 5 8 15 13 9 22
Bonus -1 -1
Total 12 27 8 11 4 8 15 13 8 22

This year, by popular request, I added a bonus point for the person who most closely predicted the Steelers’ final result, although you may be happy to know that it didn’t matter. TomPaulBillyBob and Tuskegee_Brown both accurately chose the Steelers final tally of 10 wins, but Mr. BillyBob blew everyone away by also accurately predicting the Ravens’ 12 wins, and missing out on the Bengals by only one point. With his bonus point, he pretty much lapped the field with a total score of 4. There was a three way tie for second place between Tuskegee_Brown, Copanut, and tennbob, but I think we can give the edge to Tuskegee_Brown for more accurately predicting the Steelers’ record.

Last place goes to Earl, who took a big hit for not submitting guesses for the rest of the division, but on his Steelers pick he beat out MWalsh26 and drock, with their chronic underestimation of the Power of Tomlin to pull out yet another winning season. If we’re going for last place on the Steelers prediction, we’ll have to give the edge to MWalsh26, because drock edged him out on the tiebreakers. They both correctly guessed the 2nd most receiving yards (Friermuth) and exactly divined the total touchdowns thrown (21), but drock predicted Wilson would have the most starts, while MWalsh26 went with Fields.

Dishonorable Mention goes to JAMESH, who had a ghost writer submit his usual 17-0 prediction. He finished with a score of 22, which is kinda sad, until you consider that Earl finished with 27.

May we all have better luck in 2025.

 

Pickens

Wednesday, December 4, 2024 Posted by

Pickens vs Miami 2022

Pickens vs Washington 2024

Fickle Finger of Football Contest, 2024 Edition

Friday, August 30, 2024 Posted by

Make your 2024 season predictions below. Same rules as previous seasons. Entries must be submitted by midnight before the season opening game.

Please include (1) W/L predictions for each Steelers game, (2) season records for each team in the division, and (3) tie breakers. If you fail to submit the tie breakers, you lose the tie.

Here is your prediction template. Good luck.

01 – @ATL
02 – @DEN
03 – LAC
04 – @IND
05 – DAL
06 – @LVR
07 – NYJ
08 – NYG
09 – Bye
10 – @WAS
11 – BAL
12 – @CLE
13 – @CIN
14 – CLE
15 – @PHL
16 – @BAL
17 – KC
18 – CIN

Standings (wins):
Steelers –
Bengals –
Browns –
Ravens –

Tie Breakers:

  • Who has the most starts: Russell Wilson or Justin Fields?
  • Who has the second most number of receiving yards on the season?
  • # touchdowns thrown.

Edit 9/2/24: We’ll add a tweak to the scoring this year. To give extra weight to the Steelers wins predictions, we’ll add a bonus point for the person who comes closest on that metric. The way our scoring works (lowest score wins), this means a point will be subtracted from the overall score.

Training Camp/FNL 2024

Friday, August 30, 2024 Posted by

Friday Night Lights opened with a different feel for us…rain was not expected. The Steelers arrived late, but got right to the autograph session before practice. Muuuth darted straight for me, like he might have remembered me from last year’s camp. However, he was all business and signed for me, then off to the next. That was when I spotted Justin Fields just a few fans to my left. He came down the line and we had a chance to chat with him. I mentioned Christina worked at the High School where Jeremy Ruckert attended. Fields face lit up with a big smile, “That’s my boy!” I asked if I can get a photo with Christina so she can show Jeremey when he is back in town. He obviously obliged.

As he moved to the next group, I said, By the way, you won me my fantasy league. He just chuckled. I can only imagine he thought, well, I won’t be able to win one for you this year from the bench. Shortly thereafter Russell Wilson came by to sign, he was all business too, he didn’t have much to say. I did have a chance to talk with Mason McCormick. He sounds and looks like everything a Steeler guard should be, I hope he plays like it. JPJ came by again this year, I let others take the photos and chat with him this time. He did sign for me. Then came the guy that if he were in street clothes I would never have guessed he was a football player. I could look down upon Jaylen Warren. He was all smiles and the fans loved him. I told him to go have a monster year. He said, I’ll do my best!

From where we are, the backs on backers are too far away to see…but they are drawing the most attention and the most cheers. We miss this every year since the VIP section is on the other side of the field. I did get to see Troy Fautanu and Logan Lee go at it one on one. They both seemed to have an edge to their game. I was surprised a fight did not break out there. They’d both continue after the whistle. Hard to tell if Fautanu got the upper hand since I did not know if Lee was supposed to get by him or lock up in combat. Lee seems to be getting a ton of reps with Lowry out.

I would be surprised if he doesn’t at least make the practice squad. Also Lee worked a lot in the three man DL drills with Cam. My guess is you don’t put someone who is just a camp body in that group.

Fields gets most of the reps with Wilson and his quad watching. The play calls all seem like short or behind the line passes. Very few are downfield. Are they working on Field’s short game? I hope so…these plays will drive us crazy. Fields will have one of these passes batted down my Watt.

I mentioned a worse fate will happen the next day. JPJ and Donte Jackson are glued together. They are often followed by their baby brother, Beanie. The three amigos seem to be in step with one another. And this proves true with the depth chart coming out, and Beanie is right there with them. Beanie looks small, then again JPJ has length. Of course, Mike Hilton looked small. I am not sure Beanie has the pop Hilton had on hits…but we have time to see if he does.

This year I soaked up more of the FNL atmosphere (than getting soaked in the rain) so I did not move around much to check out 7 shots and other activity.

 

Saturday at St. Vincent began with a “Please return to your cars, a lightning strike has been reported in the area” announcement. What was interesting is the players still remained on the practice field. I did see they removed their helmets, it was mentioned somewhere that they could be conductors. The lightning stayed away, as did the rain, so we were soon let into the VIP section along the sidelines.

The team was not in full pads after FNL. They did some 11 on 11 drills early. Twice Jaylen Warren broke through the line, each time running all the way to the endzone.

Fields hits a beautiful sideline over the shoulder pass to Van Jefferson. The catch was equally as good. Tomlin breaks the team down to one on one drills which I have never seen at camp before. Dump off pass to a RB/WR and a D man has to attack and 2 hand touch him low before he gets around him. Some great one on one matchups with CAIII vs Cam Sutton. Tomlin made them run it 3 times in a row. I think CAIII won 2 of the 3. Watching CAIII, they need to get the ball in his hands in space. It is Beanie’s time to cover CAIII, he fails badly getting beat both times. He looks like he overpursues his angles.

Payton Wilson looks sharp in this drill. He gets matched up against Pickens which was not the mismatch you’d think (I guess in anticipation of our ILB covering the other team’s best receiver). He went full out at Pickens along the sidelines and just kept coming with his momentum. In his pursuit Wilson almost runs me over.

Also, Fields would sometimes just take off with the ball too. Payton Wilson also had to go against Fields. Again, it is not an easy drill for the D man.

Did I mention Mason McCormick looks like a Steeler prototype guard? Fautanu is not bad either…

Najee works on his own. He is not involved in any of the team drills.

The man of the day? Punter Cameron Johnston. Applause for a punter? Yep! Not only that, there were plenty of ooooh’s and ahhhh’s as he boomed several high and deep punts.

Overall, there were not many throws downfield. It is obviously tough to judge the running game. But it looked like a lot of short passes, swing passes…a very methodical approach. I guess if they can keep the time of position even, the D won’t wear down and they can lean on them. It is hard to judge Justin Fields, because what makes him dangerous doesn’t translate in practice. I did not see a lot of throws to the TE’s, or throws over the middle. They used CAIII a ton, but will he disappear come game day?

 

 

The 2024 Spidey Sense Award goes to…

Saturday, April 27, 2024 Posted by

Another magnificent draft by the guru team of Khan and Weidl is in the books, but as happy as we are with the results of the real draft, there were some fantastic mocks submitted by our own ballers. In fact, all of the submissions were pretty great and mostly credible, even those that came in dead last. Here are the results:

Total Points:

  1. drock – 8
  2. EstimatedProphet (mock 2) – 5
  3. copanut (mock 2) – 4
  4. EstimatedProphet (mock 1) – 2
  5. Tie (in order of submission):
    • MWalsh26 (mock 1) – 1
    • MWalsh26 (mock 2) – 1
    • copanut (mock 1) – 1
    • Earl – 1
    • TomPaulBillyBob – 1
    • Eleven – 1

Yes, drock nearly lapped the field by guessing the correct position for four different rounds, including the first three picks, and correctly guessing the selections of Frazier and Watts. Kindly, drock spared us further humiliation by not bothering to submit UDFA selections.

A couple of honorable mentions:

  • Though Mack did not submit an official mock, he gets an honorary point for applying mental pressure to the Steelers to take a center worthy of playing for the Steelers. Besides, anyone puttering around in a Steelers golf cart deserves an honorary point.
  • I’m granting a -1 point to JamesH for failing to submit a mock despite having worn out the simulator servers with endless simulations.

DISCLAIMER: I always manage to make at least one error in tabulation, so look over your mocks and compare to my evaluation to make sure I got it right. If you find a mistake in my tabulation, let me know. Although it’s pretty unlikely that I made enough mistakes for drock to lose the title, it could be that one of us cellar-dwellers might arise from the muck to claim sole possession of 5th place.

2024 Draft: Khan-nubial Bliss Edition

Sunday, April 7, 2024 Posted by

April 25th. Draft Day. The magical day of perennial hope is fast approaching. It’s a day we long for each year, usually beginning about five minutes into the first quarter of the first Wildcard game.

You have up until the day before the draft to produce your predictions: have your predictions in no later than end of day April 24th. If you submit a mock earlier than that, you may edit the mock up until the deadline (e.g., in the event of a signing or trade that wrecks your initial mock). 

Please use the following format as a template. Any deviation from this format that causes me to have to interpret your gibberish will result in unfavorable scoring, so beware.

Identify any trades if applicable
Round (Pick) – Position, Name, School
1 (17)  – WR, Moe Howard, Harvard
2 (32)  – ILB, Larry Fine, Yale
2 (49)  – OG, Curly Howard, Stanford
3 (80) – RB, Shemp Howard, Princeton
4 (120) – NT, Joe DeRita, Brown
7 (234) – SS, Joe Besser, Penn
7 (241) – PK, Emil Sitka, Allegheny County Community College
Add up to five UFAs

This year, you may submit up to two mocks: one without any trades, and one with trades.

As in the past, you will be given two points for each correct name, and one point for each correct position/round combination. For UDFA selections, you will get a point only for a specific name. I may give or take other points for special predictions or egregious failures, at my sole dictatorial discretion.

Trades: Given the difficulty and risks of predicting a trade, I will grant bonus points for a successful prediction. If you predict a trade, you will be granted bonus points as follows:

  • +1 if you correctly predict the trade partner
  • +1 if you correctly predict the Steelers pick position(s) being traded
  • +5 if you correctly predict the partner, the Steelers pick position(s) and the partner’s pick position(s)

I normally kick things off with my own predictions, but I’m not quite ready yet. There is still time for you to have the glory of being first.

Good luck, ladies and gentlemen…

Video

Thursday, April 4, 2024 Posted by

End of an era…

Friday, March 15, 2024 Posted by

Yinz Shall Not Pass!

Sunday, January 7, 2024 Posted by

In an unexpected turn of events sure to displease my fellow Ballers, copanut reclaims the Steel Balls trophy following a three year hiatus.

I must admit to being surprised, considering I had the worst prediction regarding our beloved Steelers. In fact, my guess was so bad, I did not bother even looking at my predictions once the Steelers’ wobbly wheels came off the Matt Canada bus by mid-season. But after all these years, haven’t we learned from the Steelers that we should never give up until the fat punter kicks?

I had naively guessed 13 wins, meaning every single one of you was closer to the mark than I was, including both EstimatedProphet and tennbob who correctly guessed the final result of 10 wins. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t count that the Steelers would have ended with 13 wins had Mitch Trubisky not gifted wins to three awful teams in a row. But fortunately for me, our contest is not about Steelers wins alone!

With the entire division taken into consideration, as is the rule of this contest, copanut and tennbob tied with a total score of 9. As you know, the score is the net difference between the guessed results and the actual results, so lowest score wins. Four of you came in at 10, making it a close contest all around.

Being tied at 9, the contest fell through to tie breakers.

The first tie breaker is playoff wins. We do not yet know the answer for playoff wins, but it doesn’t matter since both copanut and tennbob guessed 1 win.

The second tie breaker is the total number of touchdowns scored by Diontae Johnson, who entered the season with a two year non-scoring streak. He finished the season with 5 TDs. Copanut guessed 6 and tennbob guessed 4, so we were both off by 1, and therefore remained at a tie.

The third tie breaker is the total number of sacks by Nick Herbig, and here the tie was finally broken. Herbig notched 3 sacks. Copanut guessed 3 while tennbob guessed 5, so copanut finishes with a total score of 11, beating tennbob’s 13.

Now, it is my general habit to screw up these tallies in one or two places, so I encourage you to double check my work. If so, you may be able to pry the trophy out of my hands. The overall contest was so close that pretty much anyone could be the winner if I made a mistake.

Summary of predictions:

actual copanut eleven MWalsh26 Earl Tuskegee_Brown EstimatedProphet tennbob
Steelers 10 13 12 11 9 11 10 10
Bengals 9 11 11 12 12 13 12 11
Ravens 13 11 10 10 10 10 10 9
Browns 11 9 8 8 8 7 7 8
playoffs 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1
DJ TDs 5 6 6 7 5 5 6 4
Herbig 3 3 6 6.5 9 7 5 5

Scoring:

actual copanut eleven MWalsh26 Earl Tuskegee_Brown EstimatedProphet tennbob
Steelers 0 3 2 1 1 1 0 0
Bengals 0 2 2 3 3 4 3 2
Ravens 0 2 3 3 3 3 3 4
Browns 0 2 3 3 3 4 4 3
Standings 0 9 10 10 10 12 10 9
playoffs 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1
DJ TDs 0 1 1 2 0 0 1 1
Herbig 0 0 3 3.5 6 4 2 2
Tiebreakers 0 2 5 6.5 6 5 3 4
Total 0 11 15 16.5 16 17 13 13

Fickle Finger of Football Contest, 2023 Edition

Saturday, August 26, 2023 Posted by

Make your 2023 season predictions below. Same rules as previous seasons. Entries must be submitted by midnight before the season opening game.

Please include (1) W/L predictions for each Steelers game, (2) season records for each team in the division, and (3) tie breakers. If you fail to submit the tie breakers, you lose the tie.

Here is your prediction template. Good luck.

01 – SF
02 – CLE (Mon)
03 – @LV
04 – @HOU
05 – BAL
06 – BYE
07 – @LAR (SNF)
08 – JAX
09 – TEN (Thu)
10 – GB
11 – @CLE
12 – @CIN
13 – ARI
14 – NE (Thu)
15 – @IND
16 – CIN (Sat)
17 – @SEA
18 – @BAL

Standings (wins):
Steelers
Bengals
Browns
Ravens

Tie Breakers:

  • # Steelers playoff wins
  • # TD catches by Dionte Johnson
  • # Sacks by Nick Herbig