There are two kinds of people in this world, those who hate Mike McCarthy and those who bet against him. It was nice to be in the latter group for a change.

I’m doing this in part as an excuse to create a Sporcle Quiz for the first time, stealing Liss’s inspiration to do so, and because I only have a few quick takes looking at this week’s slate.

Survivor

You should read Chris Liss’s weekly Survivor Article for real analysis, including the math underpinnings for each week, but I have a few of my own thoughts.

• This is the most difficult Survivor slate in recent weeks. After the carnage of the first few weeks of the season, it’s been pretty easy to coast along until last week, when the Jets, Eagles, Patriots and Falcons knocked out a third of the remaining entries in one of my double-elimination pools. The Saints are the biggest favorite on the board, at -8.5 points in most places, followed by the Chargers at -7.5. Making matters worse, the Saints are up against the defending Super Bowl Champs in the Eagles, who are essentially in a “must-win” game after falling to 4-5 last Sunday night. There are no other teams favored by six points or higher. The next two highest favorites are Pittsburgh on the road at Jacksonville, and Arizona (!) at home against the Raiders.
• I’ve decided to rule out Arizona, for a couple of reasons. One, I can’t escape the feeling that taking them is akin to taking the Jets last week against the Bills – merely taking a team because of their opponent is not sound enough, not in a season where there don’t appear to be “special bad” teams like the Browns were last year, though the Raiders lately have put that theory to the test. But the Cardinals are just 2-7 in their own right, have scored the fewest points in the NFL this season so far (though they have a game in hand over the Bills, who score at a lower rate per game, but only barely!), and have been outscored by 101 points in total this year. Moreover, in my double-elimination pool, not a single participant has used them yet, both eliminated and among the 27 still alive. Thus, I think that their ownership rate will skew higher than 11.9% rate that they’re being picked across all pools at OfficeFootballPool.com.

The 49ers couldn’t cover Odell Beckham. Had Eli Manning gotten more air under a couple passes, Beckham might have had a monster game. Even so, it was a nice comeback by the Giants, aided by some timely defensive penalties on the final drive.

Barring significant new developments, you should not tinker with your lineups at the last minute. After all, why would the present version of you be any more competent than the one who already looked things over three days before? If anything, the current version, exposed to pre-game noise on Twitter or elsewhere, is likely more impulsive and more prone to overweighting whatever isolated factor is brought to your immediate attention.

With barely an hour to the Sunday kickoffs, we’re going stream of consciousness style with this edition of The Vampire (Football) Diaries. Considering my Count Chocula squad has taken over the league and built and unstoppable starting lineup, it seems pretty fitting to go this route. After all, there’s not much to say about strategy or player thoughts or anything around trying to win a league as a Vampire.

I’ve already won.