Football Contest: Week 9

2012 Topps Football has been showing up discounted in all forms lately: retail packs, rack packs, hanger boxes, blasters, etc.  When I saw retail packs for $1 Target and rack packs for $3 at Wal-Mart, I couldn't resist.  This won't be the only 2012 Topps week.

For this week, I've got 7 retail packs and 1 rack pack.  That's 120 cards total, tied with Week 4 for the most cards we've had in one week.

The Rams beat the Patriots last week to join them as the only 1-loss teams out there.  Both of those teams have their bye week this week.  Additionally, the Jets (3-5) and 49ers (6-2) also have the week off.

At the end of last week's post, I noted the playoff picture, including tiebreakers.  Here's another look.

AFC
1. Patriots (7-1)
2. Texans (5-2)¹
3. Broncos (5-2)
4. Ravens (4-3)²
5. Dolphins (5-2)
6. Bengals (4-3)<sup>3

1</sup>Texans def. Broncos in Week 3.
²Ravens def. Bengals in Week 1.
³Bengals def. Jaguars in Week 4.

NFC
1. Rams (7-1)
2. Lions (5-2)⁴
3. Falcons (5-2)
4. Giants (5-3)
5. 49ers (6-2)
6. Bears (4-3)<sup>5

4</sup>No head-to-head. Both .666 in-conference record. No common opponents. Lions have higher strength of victory than Falcons.
⁵Bears, Eagles, Cowboys tied.  Eagles have better in-division record than Cowboys.  Bears have better in-conference record than Eagles.

Topps flagship set works pretty well for this contest since there are a lot of inserts and a lot of base cards for pretty cheap.  Here are some of this week's inserts:

Sorry, these are still boring undefined inserts that only get 1 point.

These, on the other hand, are pretty nice...2 points each.  Phil Simms looks like a giant...

These are 2 point inserts.  For multi-team cards, I'm awarding those points to each team. That means the Bills, Dolphins, and Chiefs get 2 points each.

 

These are still awesome...3 points.

Enough of that...let's get into the games:

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS 6, SAN DIEGO CHARGERS 2
>>> The Fouts insert is nice, but it's the only card the Chargers got.  The Chiefs added 4 base cards to their half of the Paramount Pairs insert.

DENVER BRONCOS 4, CINCINNATI BENGALS 2
>>> 4 base cards against just one RC.

BALTIMORE RAVENS 8, CLEVELAND BROWNS 5
>>> The Ravens had one more base card and one more RC than the Browns.

GREEN BAY PACKERS 7, ARIZONA CARDINALS 2
The Packers finally show up with a decent number of base cards.

HOUSTON TEXANS 9, BUFFALO BILLS 9
>>> The Bills put out a great effort to force a tiebreak, but unfortunately ran into the best card of the week.  Texans get the W. I was originally pretty skeptical about the Camo parallels, but I have to say they're really nice looking in person.

#015/399

MIAMI DOLPHINS 13, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS 6
>>> Miami just raked in the points in this matchup: 3 base cards, 3 RC, Immortal Marino, Paramount Pairs...while the Colts relied on two Andrew Luck RCs and a Coby Fleener RC.

DETROIT LIONS 9, JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS 5
>>> These two teams were tied until a Gold Broyles RC showed up:

#1345/2012

TENNESSEE TITANS 6, CHICAGO BEARS 2
>>> 4 base cards and 1 RC beats 2 base cards easily.  The Bears have been really up and down this year.  After starting 0-7, the Titans have won two in a row...playoff run?

WASHINGTON REDSKINS 4, CAROLINA PANTHERS 1
>>> Washington was in need of a win and pulled one out going into a bye week.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS 3, OAKLAND RAIDERS 3
>>> Both teams scored a field goal, but I had to give the tie to the Bucs as one of their cards was on my 2012 Topps Football want list, and one of the Raiders cards was a punter.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS 7, MINNESOTA VIKINGS 2
>>> A week after reaching .500, the Vikings fall back below with a loss to the now 2-7 Seahawks.  Seahawks had my favorite card this week:

#1510/2012 and a former Hokie

NEW YORK GIANTS 10, PITTSBURGH STEELERS 8
>>> The Steelers finally had a great performance, but unfortunately ran into a capable Giants team led by a David Wilson (former Hokie) RC and this sweet David Wilson insert:

DALLAS COWBOYS 3, ATLANTA FALCONS 3
>>> This wasn't the most exciting matchup, but I needed two Cowboys for my set, so they get the tiebreak win.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS 4, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 2
>>> 4 base > 2 base...easy enough.

Bye Week Teams:
Patriots 6
Rams 4
49ers 5
Jets 9, including the Namath QB Immortals above and this Namath reprint:

The week scoring average was 5 points, so the Jets are the only team that really overachieved with a bye.

Updated standings:

With the Bears and Eagles losing, the Cowboys take over the second Wild Card spot in the NFC.