The Circa Sports Million and Circa Survivor handicapping contests already had several significant results in the books by the time the NFL Week 15 were released late Saturday afternoon.
Because of the NFL games being played on Saturday, contestants (and their proxies) had to submit plays earlier than normal than the regular 4 p.m. PT deadline if using either the Colts-Vikings or Ravens-Browns games. The Top 5 Most-Selected Teams went 4-1 last week to improve to 36-30-4 (54.5%) on the season. The top plays for Week 15 were the Bengals -3.5 at the Buccaneers (No. 1 picks are an impressive 10-4, 71.4%), Bills -7 vs. the Dolphins in the Saturday nightcap, Panthers -2.5 vs. the Steelers, Vikings -3.5 vs. the Colts in the first game on Saturday and Lions pick-’em at the Jets. So, all those who rushed to submit their picks before the 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT kickoff to include the Vikings ended up starting the weekend with a loss as they fell behind 33-0 before staging the biggest comeback in NFL history to win 39-36 in OT. However, they still didn’t cover the 3.5-point spread. Last week, Enut34-1 went a perfect 5-0 to move into first place at 49-19-1 (72.1%) as longtime leader TAIL PARTY-2 went 2-3 to fall into fourth place. Enut34-1’s plays for Week 15 are the Ravens +2.5 at Browns (already a loser as the Browns won 13-3 in Saturday’s second game), Bills -7 vs. the Dolphins, Bears +9.5 vs. Eagles, Panthers +2.5 vs. the Steelers and Raiders pick-’em vs. the Patriots. This is also the second week of the final five-week “quarter” contest within a contest with 210 starting at 5-0, including Enut34-1. In Circa Survivor, which has a record $6.133 million prize pool after starting with a record 6,133 entries at $1,000 apiece, there are 30 live entries after 40 were eliminated last week when the Top 3 most-picked teams (Seahawks, Titans and Raiders) all lost. Before the Week 15 selections were announced, 4 players had used the Vikings and had the biggest sweat of all-time with the rally from a 33-0 deficit, plus another 1 went with the Browns. That means those 5 are already onto the Week 16 gauntlet that includes one selection required on the Thursday/Saturday regular portion of Week 16 and then another play on an extra “Christmas Week” on the 4 games on Sunday/Monday. The teams selected this week are led by 16 on the Commanders in the Sunday Night Football game vs. the Giants, 4 on the Packers on Monday Night Football vs. the Rams, the 4 on the Vikings, 3 on the Saints vs. the Falcons, 2 on the Chiefs at the Texans and the 1 on the Browns vs. the Ravens.