Gridiron Challenge: Analyzing GameTimePA staff's Week 3 predictions

With the beginning of YAIAA divisional play on the horizon, let's take a look at how the other big competition is shaping up this year.

Of course I'm referring to the annual Gridiron Picks of the Week contest among the GameTimePA.com staff.

This year, you can play along by testing your powers of prediction in the Gridiron Challenge, to compete for bragging rights and weekly and grand prizes. The Challenge lets you see how you stack up against our predictors.

Speaking of them, here are our staffers' Week 3 predictions.

Before we dive into this week's picks, let's look at how we got here.

Lyzz and Matt are tied at 28 correct predictions. In Week 1, Lyzz went out on a limb as the only staffer to pick Delone and the only one to pick York County Tech, which both lost. She also picked Fairfield in a matchup with Newport that split our staffers down the middle. Matt went with Newport and gained another point on her, as he finished at the front of the pack at 15-4.

Steve was one point behind Matt after missing a point in Eastern's win against Columbia. Lyzz, Mike and Tom were a point behind Steve at 13-6, and Brandon had a rough week, burned by being the only picker to choose Lancaster Catholic over Dallastown, as well as losing a couple other toss-ups.

The standings got shaken up in Week 2 thanks to some surprising results.

Lyzz had the best week, finishing 15-4 to pull even with Matt in the overall race. She gained a point by correctly predicting McCaskey's win against William Penn, and another when she backed Fairfield against James Buchanan.

Tom and Mike were both a point behind Lyzz for the week. Their picks were the same aside from flipping on Red Land-Carlisle and Fairfield-James Buchanan. Matt was a point back at 13-6.

Brandon and Steve matched each other for the worst week with only 12 wins. Steve was burned as the only staffer to pick York Suburban against Northeastern in the Bobcats' shutout win. Brandon was the only one to pick South Western in the Mustangs' shootout loss to Cedar Cliff, and the only one to incorrectly pick Littlestown to beat Greencastle-Antrim. Both of them also put their faith in West York, which fell to Dallastown in a wild game.

So here we are, entering Week 3.

Four games will separate the two leaders -- Lyzz and Matt, who both have 28 total wins so far. They're split on Northern York-Mechanicsburg, Dallastown-Penn Manor, Bermudian Springs-Shippensburg and Carlisle-South Western.

In two of the games where Matt and Lyzz differ, Lyzz is going the "lone wolf" route. She's the only picker to choose South Western and the only one to predict Penn Manor, so she'll either pull ahead of the pack or fall back into the crowd.

Mike is out on a limb, too, predicting Dover to get its first win against Red Land. And Tom is in a similar position as the only picker to go with Delone over St. Paul's.

Steve largely played it safe, his predictions matching the consensus with the exception of the split-down-the-middle Northern vs. Mechanicsburg matchup.

Brandon is bringing up the rear with 24 wins so far. If he hopes to catch up, he'll need a win from Northern to get the ball rolling. His other picks are largely in line with the rest of the group, but he'd gain ground on Matt, Steve and Tom if the Polar Bears can pull it out.

Head to GameTimePA.com later Wednesday afternoon to see complete preview capsules on all of the Week 3 games. And don't forget to enter the Gridiron Challenge for a shot at this week's GameTimePA T-shirt, and to keep adding to your season total to compete for the season-ending grand prize.

Check out more analysis in this week's GameTime 717 episode.