As Circa Sports released the NFL Week 14 selections of the contestants in its two high-end football handicapping contests late Saturday afternoon, it was learned that 11 had already been eliminated in Circa Survivor with the Raiders’ 17-16 loss to the Rams on Thursday Night Football.
The weekly submission deadline for Survivor and Circa Sports Million is 4 p.m. PT on Saturdays, but entrants can put in plays early if using the Thursday night game.
The Raiders looked like a solid pick as they were in control most of the game and leading 16-3 late in the fourth quarter, but Baker Mayfield led two TD drives to pull out the victory and reduce Circa Survivor from 70 live entries to 59 heading into Sunday that are still alive for the $6.133 million prize pool.
The Seahawks were the most-selected team in Circa Survivor as 15 used them against the Panthers, followed by the Titans (12) vs. the Jaguars, Raiders (11) at the Rams, Cowboys (8) vs. the Texans, Bills (7) vs. the Jets, Bengals (6) vs. the Browns, Lions (4) vs. the Vikings, Chiefs (3) at the Broncos and 1 apiece on the Eagles and Steelers on Sunday and also 1 apiece on the Monday Night Football’s opposing teams, Patriots and Cardinals
Point spreads don’t matter in Survivor as the team just has to win straight-up, but the biggest favorites are usually the most popular teams (but as we get deeper in the season that’s not always the case since entrants can only use a team once). There were 9 that had the Cowboys, the week’s biggest fave at -17.5 vs. the lowly Texans, but only 8 used them.
Another interesting note is that 6 chose to use the Bengals and make themselves ineligible for the $1 million bonus to be paid to any contestant(s) that go undefeated until the end of the contest without using last year’s Super Bowl teams, the Rams and Bengals.
Meanwhile, Circa Sports Million heads into the “4th Quarter” with its last in-season contest running five weeks from NFL Week 14 through Week 18.
The season-long leader is still TAIL PARTY-2, who went 4-1 in Week 13 to improve to 45-17-3 (72.6%) and open up a 1.5-point lead over Enut34-1, Look Ma No Hands-1 and THE LAND-1 tied for second place. TAIL PARTY-2’s plays for Week 14 are the Vikings +2.5 at Lions, Ravens +2.5 at Steelers, Eagles -6.5 at Giants, Titans -3.5 vs. Jaguars and Seahawks -3.5 vs. Panthers.
The Top 5 Most-Selected Teams (32-29-4, 52.5%, on the season after going 2-3 each of the last two weeks) of the 4,691 contestants are the Chargers +3.5 vs. the Dolphins (No. 1 picks are 9-4, 69.2%), Bengals -5.5 vs. the Browns, Eagles -6.5 at the Giants, Lions -2.5 vs. the Vikings and Seahawks -3.5 vs. the Panthers.
Some of the most popular plays were obviously influenced by the market moves since the contest lines were locked in at 10 a.m. PT Thursday, as the Chargers are down to +3 at several sportsbooks while the Eagles have steamed to -7 and even -7.5 at some books during the time that most CSM players were submitting their picks.