After 34 days, 11 playoff games, and hundreds of entry picks from 57 contestants, the winner of this year's NFL playoff contest is Jim A.! He scored a total of 3,290 points throughout the four weeks of the contest and correctly guessed the victors of 9 of the 11 playoff games, including the Super Bowl victor. Jim A. started off slowly in WEEK 1 with an initial ranking of 29th place, but he steadily climbed up to the top of the leaderboard. He was truly the underdog, never coming in 1st place for the week or overall, until the very end. Congrats to him on winning the top cash prize of $143!
Alvin C. finishes in 2nd place with 3,160 points, winning the 2nd place prize of $56. Finishing in 3rd place is last year's contest winner, Matthew A., with a total of 3,105 points. He wins the 3rd place prize of $28. Twelve contestants round out the Top 15, each winning $5: Jessica T., David S., Jason L., Paul M., Jami L., Maria V., Rowenna S., Marilen M., Bill C., Jen C., Stu H., and Michael D. Only Jami L. and Marilen M. joined Jim A. in correctly guessing the victors of the most playoff games (9 of 11).
Overall, both Jason L. (54th to 6th) and Paul M. (55th to 7th) improved the most in the rankings, each jumping up 48 places from WEEK 1 to WEEK 4. Other contestants who made big comebacks were Michael D. (50th to 15th), Edwin A. (52nd to 23rd), Bill C. (40th to 12th), and Phuc A. (48th to 24th). There were a total of 34 contestants who were in the overall Top 15 at some point during the contest, half of which were in the Top 15 for at least two weeks. Only 3 contestants stayed in the overall Top 15 for the entire contest (David S., Jessica T., and Maria V.).
23 contestants correctly predicted that the Baltimore Ravens would be crowned Super Bowl champions -- the Ravens had to overcome a momentum-killing power outage and a furious San Francisco 49ers comeback. The contestants who scored the most points for WEEK 4 were: Jason L. (1,800 pts), Alvin C. (1,750 pts), Jim A. (1,625 pts), Rob N. (1,550 pts), Jami L. (1,525 pts), and Jessica T. (1,525 pts). Two sets of married contestants (Jason L./Jami L. and David S./Rowenna S.) finished in the Top 10 for WEEK 4 and earned the 50-point Spouse & Family Bonus.
Twelve of the Top 15 contestants correctly picked the Ravens to win -- that's how important the Super Bowl victor was in determining this contest's winners. In an alternate universe where the 49ers completed their comeback and won the game, the Top 3 contestants would have been Maria V. in 1st, Jen C. in 2nd, and Michael D. in 3rd!
Check out the updated Contestants and Leaderboard pages to check out everyone's final ranking and point total. Click on a contestant's photo to open his/her final profile stats for the entire contest.
Here are the correct answers to the questions for WEEK 4:
Q1: Winner of coin toss = Baltimore Ravens
Q2: 1st play of the game = Run (F. Gore for no gain)
Q3: 1st penalty of the game = San Francisco 49ers (V. Davis, illegal formation)
Q4: Jersey number of player who scores 1st TD of the game = Odd (A. Boldin, #81)
Q5: Longest yardage score = Touchdown (56-yd TD by J. Jones vs. 38-yd FG by J.Tucker)
Q6: 1st sack of the game = Baltimore Ravens (C. Kaepernick sacked for -10 yds)
Q7: Successful 2-pt conversion? = No (C. Kaepernick pass to R. Moss is incomplete, attempt fails.)
Q8: TD return of punt, kickoff, interception or fumble? = Yes (J. Jones TD kickoff return for 108 yds)
Q9: Higher 3rd down conversion percentage = Baltimore Ravens (9-16, 56% for BAL vs. 2/9, 22% for SF)
Q10: Referee's call reversed? = Yes (SF challenged first down ruling, and play was reversed)
Q11: Higher yards/punt avg = Andy Lee (53.0 yds/punt vs. S. Koch's 47.0 yds/punt)
Q12: More tackles & sacks = Patrick Willis (10 tackles vs. R. Lewis's 7 tackles)
Q13: Higher yards/carry avg = Frank Gore (5.8 yds/carry vs. R. Rice's 3.0 yds/carry)
Q14: Higher yards/catch avg = Michael Crabtree (21.8 yds/catch vs. A. Boldin's 17.3 yds/catch)
Q15: Higher passer rating = Joe Flacco (124.2 rating vs. C. Kaepernick's 91.7 rating)
Q16: Super Bowl XLVII Victor = Baltimore Ravens 34, San Francisco 49ers 31
Q17: Margin of victory = 1-7 points
Q18: Combined total score Over/Under 47.5 pts? = Over
T1: Combined score total = 34 (BAL) + 31 (SF) = 65 points
T2: Combined passing yards = 274 (BAL) + 286 (SF) = 560 passing yards
Over last the few days I've tried to be as thorough as possible, double- and triple-checking the final results of this contest. But there's always the possibility for human error, even when using an Excel spreadsheet to make all the calculations. So to give everyone a chance to review the accuracy of this contest's final results, I will wait one week before sending the Top 15 contestants their cash prizes (via their choice of Paypal or check). During this time, if anyone finds any errors/discrepancies in the entry picks or leaderboard scores, please let me know right away. You will have until Thursday, February 14 at 10pm CST to inform me of any errors. After that time, I will award the winning contestants their prizes, and this year's contest will officially come to a close.
I hope you had as much fun with this contest as I did, and I look forward to doing it again next year. 'Til then, thanks for playing and God bless!
-- Gerard Carandang
