The NFL is often a very unpredictable league, and no teams exemplify that better than the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their Week 2 and Week 9 matchups play like a Dickensian "Tale Of Two Teams," with the former being a Ravens cakewalk and the latter being an aerial show featuring Big Ben and a chorus of Steelers receivers.
Survival Guide
Need help making your Eliminator selections? Check out Insider's latest tool right here.
Sign up for ESPN's Eliminator Challenge.
This week, the Ravens take on the Tennessee Titans at home in what sets up to be a blowout. You may blanch at that on the surface; after all, the Ravens just got marinated, barbecued and served over rice pilaf against the Steelers. What lies underneath the surface is what makes this appealing though: The Ravens boast the No. 6 defensive rushing efficiency (and No. 7 overall defense) while the Titans are starting a rookie quarterback on the road and possess the fifth-worst offense in the league.
Think the Ravens want to bounce back after that embarrassment? Us, too.
Each week, we at numberFire.com will be here with our projective modeling to help you survive and advance in your ESPN.com Eliminator Challenge. Our job is to provide you with the best information possible to empower smarter decision-making.
Keep in mind: We are dealing in probability. The NFL is extremely volatile, oozing with random variation -- "Any Given Sunday" certainly holds true. Upsets will happen. We will be the first to tell you that we can't be right all the time. But we are here to help you try to navigate the madness.
To help you visualize, here's our Eliminator Pool threat matrix that shows you how each team projects each week based on our model. It will be updated each week as results come in over the course of the season.
Green: Our equity-maximizing pick of the week
Red: Popular pick: This is the consensus pick by you, the player.
Brown: Max method: This finds the best matchup of the season and works backward to maximize total win percentage throughout the season.