Friends in football,

Commish was right that the Packers and Texans would determine our survivor pool champions... I just didn't expect it'd be in THIS way.

Zach Wilson proved sixth chances are worth it. Tommy DeVito outplayed Jordan Love. The Passtronaut crash landed but the Raiders Rocket never reached orbit. And suddenly Survivor #2 is over and BIG Survivor is down to 5.

NOW, let's summon Aaron Rodgers' healing powers and examine the Week 14 wreckage...

RESULTS SUMMARY

The BIG Survivor (BFIG) results

• Survival record: 5 survive. 16 eliminated
• Worst loss: Packers (57%) to Giants
• Best Squad: FINAL! Hats off to Blindfolded Dart Throwers, who win our inaugural BIG Survivor "Best Performing Squad" title with 40 wins from their top three squadmembers

Weekly Pick'em (WeeWoo) results

• Weekly winner: The BEST we could do was 12-3, in our second worst picking week of the year. We went 7-8 on average. 20 people posted 12 wins and will split the weekly haul
• Best Squad: My God this is a tight race. "Panda Warriors" and "Bearded Clams" are knotted at 410 wins. A full FOURTEEN squads have 400 wins or more. And 38 squads have 395+
• Overall leader: Check that. THIS is even tighter. We have a new leader in @Sevdog55 (143 wins) after they posted a robust (but really) 9-6 week. But 21 people have 140 wins or more. Commish has never seen an Overall competition with this many people credibly in the race

Survivor #2 results

• Survival record: 1 survivor. 10 eliminated. See below for the crowning of our champ, @mikulis!
• Best Squad: In the end, Stonemarkers hung on for the win. Their lead kept dwindling, but with all the carnage, nobody caught up. Congrats!

Survivor #3 results

• Survival record: 20 survivors. 123 eliminated
• Best Squad(s): Ahead by one and with two of our final 20 survivors, "Tommy's Teasers" looks destined for a Best Performing Squad win

QB One-and-Done results

• Top passer: Brock Purdy rewarded his 290 pickers (third most) with 368 yards
• Weekly average: 250 yards per pick (16 yards above the average QB performance)
• Best Squad: In what's been a month-long trend, "BLOODGATE" still leads but it's now by just SEVEN yards over "Blindfolded Dart Throwers". Still several squads within striking distance
• Overall leader: @RM5589 took Purdy and thus maintained their lead
• Interval 3 leader: @James000, one of our five Jake Browning pickers in Week 13, took Purdy this week to be perfect through our 2 weeks so far. James leads by 7 yards

Loser Survivor Brought to You by The OddsBreakers results

• Survival record: 0 survivors. 3 eliminated. We'll do a Week 15 Pickoff for the crown
• Worst win: Titans (100%) beat Dolphins. The Titans were a massive underdog in that game (13.5 points). What's particularly cruel is all three won their other pick (Panthers loss, Jags loss, Eagles loss)
• Best Squad: This was decided weeks ago. "Lake Meaders" took it home

"All 32" One-and-Done results

• W/L record: 2,016-2,566. It was our worst week ever in this pool
• Overall leader: We're down to just ONE leader at 23-1. @mufc11 took the Bengals and Ravens, and has the Vikings' Week 12 loss to the Bears as their only blemish thus far. Six are right behind at 22-2
• Best Squad: "Ickey Woods All Stars" pulls in front by two!

COMMISH COMMENTARY

Standing ovation to our 2023 NFL Survivor #2 champ, @mikulis!

Their Ravens-Vikings pick duo was the ONLY duo to survive Week 14 intact.

It proves, yet again, the power of saving great teams (Ravens) and the strategic guile of avoiding the "big pick" (@mikulis had the Packers available and didn't pick them).

A SZN vet since 2019, this is @mikulis' first big win. Their previous best finish was T137 in the 2019 Weekly Pick'em.

Big ups for the win, and for going Bears-Raiders in Week 10 and living to tell the story. (Repeat after Commish: You can't win a SZN pool without a little Moxie!)

ALL five of our five remaining BIG survivors could have chosen the Packers and didn't.

So their survival is not plainly circumstance.

They stared a potential big pick in the face, channeled their deepest inner feelings about Tommy DeVito's ability to be a passable NFL quarterback, and steered away from the Pack.

That decision has already proven to be the most crucial of BFIG 2023. And it's going to win one of these five the BFIG Title Belt.

Yours in football,
The Commish