In theory, picking the weekly winners of NFL games should be a pretty simple task. Whether it’s home field advantage, a team being marred by injuries, having a superstar player that just can’t be stopped, or simply having a more well-rounded football team than the opponent, anticipating a weekly check from your buddy’s pick‘em league should be no sweat.

If only it were that easy.

Sometimes the winless Buffalo Bills, having given up 78 points in the first two games of the season, roll into Minnesota and smack the Vikings in the mouth and walk away 27-6 victors. Say goodbye to your Survivor pool!

But let’s face it, nobody was picking the Bills to win that game. And more often than not, you should expect the better team(s) to win.

If you’d picked the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, and Chicago Bears to win every single game in 2018, you would’ve only been wrong four times. Not too shabby. If you’d pick the Rams or Saints, you would’ve only picked incorrectly thrice. So yeah, sometimes you just keep picking the hot teams, and sure, in spots you take a tough opponent. Going 16-0 isn’t very likely, after all.

But that’s just not CBS Sports’ analyst Jason La Canfora’s style. He goes against the grain. He blazes the trail. He picks against the Rams…a lot. NFL Pickwatch, in the event you haven’t visited, compiles weekly picks from NFL experts from various media outlets – NFL Network, ESPN, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Pro Football Focus, Bleacher Report, SB Nation, and many others.

To be fair, JLC predicted the Rams would get off to a hot 5-1 start…though he figured the Rams single loss in the first six weeks to come at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals, who won less games than any other NFL team and will be picking first overall this April.

But then something happened. Jason started picking against the Rams and it was as if, despite the continued success, he couldn’t look back.

Following the Rams 5-1 start, La Canfora picked the Rams to lose seven straight. And he’s only picked the Rams TWICE since Week 6 – meaning he’s gone 2-10 in that span.

Sure, he picked the Rams to beat the Eagles and even pegged them over the Cowboys in the divisional round – but that comes as a bit of a surprise considering he predicted them to lose to those same 3-13 Cardinals in Week 16.

What gives? Did La Canfora genuinely believe – with the opportunity to secure a first round bye on the line – that the 4-12 San Francisco 49ers, decimated by injury, were going to stop the Rams…at home? LA put 48 points in that game, by the way.

Does JLC hate the Rams? Or is he just a really poor prognosticator?

As you can see from the table above, La Canfora is picking the Patriots to win the Super Bowl. He’s not alone in that, and it appears as though the vast majority of experts (though there are many that have yet to submit their picks yet) will be going with the 5-time Super Bowl Champs.

No biggie. As I said just prior to the Rams taking on the Saints, embrace the underdog role. Let them all pick the Patriots. Spend the rest of your week listening to them blabber about experience vs. inexperience, or whatever it is they’re talking about. Because none of the noise really matters, and the Rams are 60 minutes away from possibly hoisting a Lombardi.

So lock in that Patriots’ pick JLC, because it’ll be your last of the 2018-2019 season. Speaking of which, congrats on finishing 117^th (dead last) among all experts, having gotten 52.3% of this season’s picks correct. I suppose that answers the poor prognosticator question.

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