The king in his chair breathes a little easier this week. Despite a so-so record of 11-4, Bob Ford gained another game over Rod Heckman and now has a two-game edge and just two more picks weeks to go, “Hot” Rod will have to get a two or three game edge on Ford in Week 12 to make this really interesting at the wire.

Yours Truly wins the gold medal for Week 11 with a 13- 2 mark, two games better than my colleagues and tying “Bossman” McCall for sixth place after his disastrous 8-7 record. Five games separate me from the Pundit Pit where I can barely hear the wailing groans from Matta and TJ Engle and Son.

The excitement builds at the top with the quest for the picks title and at the bottom to determine who will be buried in the Pit until next year.

Clash of the Titans – Part Two

Three of our area’s teams advanced into the next round of their district playoffs. Jim Thorpe rebounded from their loss to Lehighton in an impressive home win against Tamaqua and now the Olympians can get revenge when they visit Lehighton on Saturday night for the second time in three weeks. The unbeaten Indians trailed Salisbury at the half before running away to a 38-10 final.

JT coach Mark Rosenberger will certainly remind his team what they have to do better to upset the Indians in this semifinal matchup. Get more tacklers onto running back, Taquan Bradley-Chambers. Don’t give up the big pass play to wide receiver Tyler Crum and keep Tribe quarterback, Cody Scherer, in the pocket and not let him get outside where he can outrun the secondary. The Red Swarm has to play its best game of the year to move onto the finals.

When Coach Tom McCarroll’ s team lines up over the ball, you know what you’re going to get and that’s great execution of the playbook on offense and a bend, but don’t break defense.

One of these teams will deliver a second-round knockout in this heavyweight fight. The pick here is the Olympians will get revenge and after several lead changes, Justin St. Hill’s last-minute touchdown wins it before stands of frozen fans who will be treated to another thriller by these two great teams.

Hurricanes blow into Palmerton

Schuylkill Haven, with seven consecutive victories after an 0-4 start of the season, takes on Palmerton in the Class 2A championship game at Northern Lehigh. Haven has averaged an astounding 55 points a game during their winning streak so the Bombers will have their hands full stopping running back Kobe Brish and company.

When it comes to scoring points, the Bombers are averaging a half a dozen touchdowns in each of their last four straight wins in which quarterback Tekoah Guedes has thrown for nine touchdowns and over 500 yards.

Don’t be surprised if both teams live up to their nicknames and the final total points on the scoreboard surpass the century mark. By a margin of five to five, the staff obviously believes this game is a toss-up.

Seven up and crazy eights

With so many out-of-the-area playoff games between great teams to pick this week, scratch your head, flip a coin or roll the dice is the only strategy. Seven contests are even Steven, but eight games of opposing viewpoints could determine a picker’s ultimate fate,

King Ford and “Hot” Rod Heckman are different on three picks, so Ford can either extend his lead to a wide margin or find himself off the throne. With nothing to lose, TJ and Son have two differences of opinions with Sam Matta in their attempt to leave him alone in the firepit. In the middle of the pick pack, Steinmetz and Carlucci and Hurley are all throwing Hail Mary passes in their hopes of staying in the race for first place with one week to go.

Cold November weather. Playoff football frenzy. It doesn’t get much better than this!