Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): The 11-year handicapping veteran of the Bookie Challenge competition who goes by the username 7mick7 has three main Bookie Challenge monikers: The Irish Hustler, Mick Balls, and his disparaging moniker of "The Mush". This past weekend that comprised two outings of this year's annual Turkey Shoot weekend, the Mick showed his ass and took down this year's Turkey Shoot extravaganza, ultimately being credited with a "week-won" after leading all scorers with a total of 12 points for the two combined outings. And that's the reason why the Mick's moniker of "The Mush" is being portrayed in a good light, because "The Mush Showed His Tush", or showed his ass. What's funny is how close 7mick7 actually looks like "The Mush". All one has to do is take a gander at the photo on the right and see how 7mick7 is virtually a doppleganger for "The Mush", right down to the flat ivy cap! But the most important take away from 7mick7's Thanksgiving day outing was that his 12-point scoring barrage served as the impetus that turned the Red Zone divisional race upside down, because Mick Balls didn't just nudge the previous divisional leader Blitzkrieg out of his one-point divisional lead--but he threw him off the Red Zone's divisional top spot with such a force that Blitzkrieg spiraled down hard into the division's basement and abruptly found himself in last place and trailing the new divisional leader 7mick7 by 10 points (29 pts vs 19 pts). Additionally, because now third-place Blitzkrieg also trails second-place rookie Matty_Ice, albeit by only one point (20 pts vs 19 pts), Blitzkrieg has now been also extricated from the division's wild-card slot and could be flirting with a lowly playoff qualification of an "at-large participant" if he's not careful.

Interestingly, the upheaval that took place in the Red Zone division after the completion of this year's Turkey Shoot was a harbinger that had been prophetically predicted in last week's weekly review, of which the Nihilist wrote that it was going to be highly likely that this year's first divisional lead change was going to take place in either the Red Zone divisional race or the Hail Mary divisional race. As it pertains to the Hail Mary divisional race, its divisional leader Kr@tos held a precarious two-point lead over second-place dbucc, a 6-point lead over third-place rookie Kennypie86, and a 7-point lead over last place Jets69. Subsequently, and as amazing as it came to be, this year's first divisional lead change did come to fruition, thanks to the topsy-turvy changes that took place in the Red Zone division after this past weekend's holiday event. However, some unforeseen changes occurred in both the previously mentioned Hail Mary divisional race and this year's Run-&-Shoot divisional race, in which Vikings17 enjoyed a very comfortable 10-point lead over second-place Driveline ahead of this year's Turkey Shoot weekend. Consequently, the divisional fortunes of the two divisional leaders, meaning Vikings17 in the Run-&-Shoot division and and his son Kr@tos in the Hail Mary division, each saw their respective divisional leads get flipped around, so to speak. Specifically, Vikings17 had held a double-digit lead over second-place and former two-time Bookie Challenge champion Driveline ever since the start of this year's Run-&-Shoot divisional race, while Kr@tos had held a 10-point divisional lead at the start of this year's Hail Mary divisional race. But as it turned out after this year's Turkey Shoot weekend, its now Vikings17 who has seen his divisional race tighten, thanks in large part to the 6-point parlay winner Driveline nailed down on Thanksgiving day. After this year's Turkey Shoot, Viking17's divisional lead over Driveline is now only a seven-point lead (33 pts vs 26 pts). Conversely, Kr@tos tallied eight points on his outing on Thanksgiving day and presently leads now second-place rookie Kennypie86, of all participants, by eight points (33 pts vs 25 pts).

All in all, this year's Turkey Shoot weekend got off to a propitious start for most of the handicappers in the league, as the handicappers of the competition combined to score 71 total points on Thanksgiving day, or the first leg of the Turkey Shoot weekend. Of note, 48 points out of the 71 points registered on Thanksgiving day came via propositional points. But, in a strange happenstance, the handicappers of the Challenge field produced a paltry total of just three points for the rest of the weekend, or on the second leg of this year's Turkey Shoot weekend. So it must be kept in mind that most of the scoring was done on Thanksgiving day, and with that being said, the top scorers for the combined outings of the holiday weekend were 7mick7 (12 pts), the Biased Nihilist (8 pts) Kr@tos (8 pts), and jcvike28 (8 pts). The big losers over the Thanksgiving weekend, notwithstanding both dbucc and Theopholis, both of whom failed to post any selections on Thanksgiving day, were Blitzkrieg (1 pt scored) and Jets69 (1 pt). Contrarily, but surprisingly, most of the handicappers from the Challenge field did extremely well with their respective prop picks, to include both of this year's rookies, Matty_Ice (7 prop pts) and Kennypie86 (4 prop pts). In the case of Matty_Ice, he was very fortunate to have connected on two of his propositional selections. He was luckily awarded a bonus point on top of the three prop points for exactly selecting Green Bay's 45-yard field goal versus Detroit and he also won three prop points for coming closest to the longest FG kicked in the game between Cincinnati and Baltimore, of which his prediction for that game was a 54-yard FG by Cincy. Fortunately for Matty_Ice, if it were not for his two correctly selected prop picks, he would have goose egged his entire holiday weekend.

Whereas a handful of handicappers won a combination of propositional points and best-bet winners, only Driveline hit a 6-point parlay winner on Thanksgiving day, and as it turned out, his parlay hit was the only one tallied for the entire Turkey Shoot weekend. To say the least, it's not easy trying to connect on a 6-point parlay hit by utilizing only the team sides of the pointspreads and the corresponding over/under selections for each of the three games, but that's what Driveline, aka the "Fisher of Winners". precisely managed to pull off. His brilliant parlay combination consisted of the following picks: the GB/Detroit game to go over 49 pts, Dallas to cover its +3 spread versus K.C., and the Cincinnati/Baltimore game to go under 52 points. Don't look now, and as already mentioned in this weekly review, the former two-time Bookie Challenge champion is presently just one 6-point parlay hit and one best-bet winner away from taking the Run-&-Shoot divisional lead away from Vikings17. What has to be remembered is that Driveline only has to end up in a tie in total points with Vikings17 to lead the division by a tiebreaker over Vikings17, and that's because Driveline is tied with Jets69 for the league's top best-bet record (both at 17-11-0 Win% .607) and would easily get the better of Vikings17, whose best-bet numbers are presently at 11-17-0 (win% .393).

In sum, and to reiterate, the handicappers of the Challenge field did fairly well in the opener of this year's Turkey Shoot weekend, but it was 7mick7 who had the critical season-changing outing of the highly pivotal Thanksgiving holiday weekend, as he was able to break away from both Blitzkrieg and rookie Matty_ice and open up a substantial 9-point lead over now second-place Matty_Ice and a 10-point lead over now third-place Blitzkrieg (7mick7 29 pts vs Matty_Ice 20 pts and Blitzkrieg 19 pts). Furthermore, and what's almost as important as his 9-point divisional lead in the Red Zone division, with 29 points accrued this season the Irish Hustler only trails the Biased Nihilist (37pts) by a PERFECTA outing for the race to win this year's regular-season title, and he also trails both Vikings17 and Kr@tos by four points each (Vikings17 33 pts and Kr@tos 33 pts vs 7mick7 29 pts). In the case of the Biased Nihilist, the self-proclaimed "Greatest Handicapper of All Time", he continues to be the only handicapper in the competition who has yet to produced a scoreless outing this season (no goose eggs nor golden goose eggs). After this past weekend, the Nihilist was able to open up the largest point-total lead (4 pts) in the quest to seize this year's regular-season championship. But hey, who knows? There still remains five regular-season outings to be handicapped, and anything can happen in just a couple of weeks of a Bookie Challenge competition--so imagine what could happen in five weeks? In other words--stayed tuned!

• THE DONALD MISSES CRITICAL TURKEY SHOOT WEEKEND, IS STILL DEALING WITH HEALTH PROBLEMS! The only handicapper who missed both legs of this year's Turkey Shoot weekend was dbucc, who unfortunately had another health issue wreak havoc on his life. This time around, dbucc had prepared all sorts of favorite dishes to bring to a Thanksgiving-day outing that he had planned to have with his children, but just before leaving to attend the family gathering, dbucc had a slight heart attack, but not of the serious kind. Regardless, his "slight" heart attack was serious enough for him to once again be admitted to a New Jersey hospital. By the grace of God, however, after being released from the hospital after Thanksgiving day, dbucc logged in to the competition's message board late on this past Sunday morning. He logged in too late as it turned out because he posted his selections for the second leg of this year's Turkey Shoot weekend after Sunday's posting deadline was posted. As a consequence of missing out on the dual outings of this year's Turkey Shoot, dbucc, who before the start of this year's Turkey Shoot weekend only trailed the Hail Mary divisional leader Kratos by just two point (25 pts vs 23 pts), dropped down to third place in the division and now trails divisional leader Kr@tos by 10 points and he also trails the now second-place rookie Kennypie86 by two points after the holiday weekend ended. Of course, the newcomer Kennypie86 is just two points ahead of dbucc for the division's wild-card slot, and even though dbucc is a battle-tested and hardened veteran of the league--the Donald had better not take the surging rookie lightly.



• WEEKLY TICKER................The 6-point parlay hit that Driveline belted out on Thanksgiving day was his 21st career parlay hit for regular-season handicapping and it was his 23rd all-time for both the regular season and postseason combined, Incidentally, he now ranks 5th all-time among all participants who presently qualify for all-time records..................Oddly, both of this year's rookies--kennypie86 and Matty_Ice--have both on the same weekend gained respective wild-card slots within their respective divisional races atter this year's Turkey Shoot weekend. In the process, the battle to see who'll win this year's Rookie-of-the-Year honors finally got competitive and will be worth the price of admission to watch who'll come out with the year's greenhorn honors.................