Welcome to 2019 Eliminator Challenge. The rules are simple: Just pick a winner each week, and don't use the same team twice. If you win all 17 weeks (or outlast your group members), you win. You can find all the rules here.
This article will look at the top Eliminator options each week, using betting lines, ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI), trends, future schedules and anything else that will help determine the best picks. (For more on how FPI is calculated, click here and here.)
Usually, September is the hardest month to pick in Eliminator Challenge. Teams haven't separated themselves yet, and September typically has the fewest games with double-digit spreads.
That's not the case this week. For the first time in a non-strike season since the merger, two teams are favored by at least 21 points. The Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots both are facing overmatched opponents in their home stadiums. As a result, take them and move onto next week.