Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): The combined effort by this year's Challenge field for this past weekend, or week #12, was an abysmal collapse of epic proportions, as the field posted its second-worst numbers in the history of the competition for both overall points scored on a regular-season outing and the fewest parlay wins within its combined parlay combinations for a single weekend of handicapping. But that's not to say that this past weekend was totally void of an intensely suspenseful handicapping by the league's handicappers. Far from it, especially as it pertained to the two tightest divisional races presently taking place in the competition, that of the Hail Mary division and the Red Zone division. With that being pointed out, the tightest of the two divisional races is the one going on in the Red Zone division, where Blitzkrieg is hanging on to the divisional lead by a thread: Blitzkrieg (18 pts), 7mick7 (17 pts), and rookie Matty_Ice (13 pts). As can easily be seen, all it would take for the division to be turned on its head is a 6-point parlay hit by last-place Matty_Ice and he would shockingly take the divisional lead. The same thing can almost be said about the Hail Mary divisional race, where Kr@tos has squandered an 11-point divisional lead over second-place Jets69 after week #9 had played out, but that division's pecking order has changed drastically since then. For example, after week #9's handicapping action ran its course, the Hail Mary divisional race looked as follows: first-place Kr@tos(24 pts), second-place Jets69 (13 pts), third-place dbucc (10 pts), and fourth-place rookie Kennypie86 (8 pts). Note that rookie Kennypie86 was struggling mightily back then and had trailed the divisional leader Kr@tos by a substantial 16 points. But after this past weekend (wk #12) the Hail Mary divisional race is hardly recognizable, as evident by the present divisional point standings: Kr@tos (25 pts), dbucc (23 pts), Kennypie86 (19 pts), and Jets69 (18 pts). Not for nothing, but heading into this year's all-important and highly pivotal Turkey Shoot weekend, the Hail Mary division's four handicappers are separated by just seven points, which would officially classify the Hail Mary divisional race as being "up-for-grabs", and for that matter, the Red Zone divisional race can also by classified as being "up-for-grabs".

One thing that's nearly a certainty to happen after this year's Turkey Shoot weekend runs its course is that there will be a high probability that one or both divisional races between the Hail Mary divisional race and the Red Zone divisional race will more than likely produce this season's first divisional lead change. What's more, before anybody within the Challenge field gets to thinking that a divisional lead change may not take place after this year's Turkey Shoot, one must consider the tremendous scoring opportunities that will be available for every handicapper in the league, especially when taking into account there will be three additional propositional selections, worth three points apiece, that will be required to be submitted for each of three games scheduled for Thanksgiving day. One just needs to be reminded of what happened in last year's Turkey Shoot extravaganza to get an idea about how a Turkey Shoot weekend can turn around a handicapper's fortunes. Specifically, before last year's Thanksgiving day outing, jcvike28 was in third place in last year's Run-&-Shoot divisional race, and back then he trailed the Run-&-Shoot divisional leader and rookie Jets69 by seven points. But in the ensuing Thanksgiving-day outing of last year's Turkey Shoot, jcvike had a Thanksgiving-day outing for the ages after he ripped off 21 total points scored on the first leg of last year's Turkey Shoot. He subsequently added a best-bet winner on the second leg of last year's Turkey Shoot and finished his Thanksgiving holiday with 22 unconscionable points scored, of which his mind-blowing dual-outing set the new all-time record for points scored for a Turkey Shoot weekend. Ironically, he broke his father's (Biased Nihilist) all-time record of 21 points that the Nihilist had set for the Turkey Shoot of Challenge year #7. But for jcvike, the 22 incredible points he tallied in last year's Turkey Shoot catapulted him into first place of the Run-&-Shoot division--and he never looked back! He ultimately won the divisional title after racking 49 points. Additionally, he just barely lost the regular-season championship to Vikings17 (50 pts).

While both the Hail Mary divisional race and the Red Zone divisional race will surely be transformed after this year's dual outings of the Turkey Shoot weekend, the other two divisional races, meaning the Corozal divisional race and the Run-&-Shoot divisional race, will almost certainly not see divisional leads change hands in either of the two divisional races. At the present, before the start of this year's Turkey Shoot, the Nihilist holds an 18-point divisional lead in the Corozal division over his son jcvike28, and Vikings17 holds a 10-point divisional edge over second-place Driveline in this year's Run-&-Shoot divisional race. Of course, Vikings17, who is attempting to become the first handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge to win three-consecutive regular-season championships in a row, not to mention he could also become the second handicapper besides the Biased Nihilist to win back-to-back Bookie Challenge championships should he miraculously go on to win this year's overall Bookie Challenge championship, had better be more cautious with his 10-point lead because if he flops his Turkey Shoot outings he could possibly wind up relinquishing his divisional lead to Driveline, who is a two-time Bookie Challenge champion and who has had some decent Turkey Shoot outings in the past.

However, despite the differences of the divisional leads held by the Biased Nihilist and Vikings17, both handicappers will be dueling it out in this year's Turkey Shoot to see who will come out of the holiday bonanza with the lead to perhaps capture this year's regular-season championship. Heading into this year's Thanksgiving spectacular, the Biased Nihilist and Vikings17 are in a dead heat as it concerns their league-leading point totals on the season, which is 29 points apiece. Howver, the Biased Nihilist easily holds the first-three tiebreaker edges over Vikings17, of which are #1) more best-bet wins, #2) more parlay wins within his combined parlay combinations on the season, and #3) more weeks-won. Of note, and in what should already be known by most of the league's handicappers, this past weekend, week #12, turned out to nearly be a total bust for the handicappers of the Bookie Challenge competition. As a whole, the Challenge field recorded its fourth-straight outing in which it went below a .500 winning percentage for its combined best bets, and did as much for the eighth time this season! What's really disgraceful was that the Challenge field this past weekend produced its second-worst outings in the history of the competition after the field only registered 11 points for the weekend and chalked up only nine overall parlay wins within its combined parlay combinations for the weekend. Previously speaking, the field of Challenge year #10 owns the all-time record for the lowest points scored for a regular season outing, of which was only NINE points that it tallied in week #11 of that season. As it concerns the lowest all-time output of parlay wins, the Challenge field of year #10 only managed to register SEVEN parlay wins in week #15 out of its combined parlay combinations for that particular weekend.

This past weekend the field laid four overall goose eggs and one golden goose egg, and when the Eagles played the Cowboys in the second slate of games on this past Sunday, and when the Cowboys fell behind 21-0 to the Eagles in the 2nd quarter, the Nihilist was at the precipice of adding a 5th goose egg for the Challenge field and he was also staring at his first scoreless outing of the season, of which at the time he was the only one left in the competition who had not yet produced a scoreless outing. Also, if not for the Cowboys erasing their 21-point deficit to the Eagles and defeating them, the Nihilist would have fell behind Vikings17 by one point for the battle to see who between them would possibly win this year's regular-season championship. But the Cowboys' crazy comeback to pull out a 24-21 victory enabled the Nihilist to tie Vikings17 at 29 points apiece, and the deadlock in total points allowed the Nihilist to eke out a temporary lead for this year's regular-season championship over Vikings17 (more best-bet wins 14-11). So, it should be needless to say that there is a lot hanging in the balance in this year's Turkey Shoot event. With that in mind, as it concerns the high stakes of this year's Turkey Shoot extravaganza--it's simple--the table has been set...and now it's time for the main course to be served!

• Due to the time constraints of this year's Thanksgiving holiday, this segment of the weekly review has been postponed.



• WEEKLY TICKER.......Due to the time constraints of this year's Thanksgiving holiday, this segment of the weekly review has been postponed.