Week 8 Survivor Recap: The Chalk Holds as 11,841 Players Advance

Week 8 is finished and lo and behold… most of ya’ll survived! For what seems like the first time all season the teams that we thought would win actually did win and 11,841 of the 13,733 players that started the week – roughly 86% – will move on to make a pick in Week 9 of Hard Rock Bet’s $2 Million NFL Survivor contest.

However, while the popular picks DID win, it wasn’t an easy sweat – no, no, not by any stretch of the imagination. Let’s comb through the Week 8 results below.

The Most Popular Picks for NFL Survivor Week 8

The Week 8 ownership condensed on a few key spots in a way that we hadn’t seen yet this season.

Cincinnati Bengals – 3,573 Picks / 27% Pick Rate ✅

The Bengals drew the largest pick rate, 27%, of any team during any week of the Hard Rock Bet contest so far… and it nearly went horribly wrong.

In what turned out to be a sensational football game the now 1-7 Tennessee Titans pushed the Bengals (5-2) to the brink.

The fourth quarter saw four consecutive touchdown drives with Cam Ward and Joe Burrow putting on a show. The Titans scored to take the lead with just 3:46 left on the clock but the Bengals drove the length of the field to tie it up with a little over a minute remaining.

In overtime, the Bengals got the ball first, put together a 7-minute TD drive, and then held on defense to lock up the win and save 27% of the remaining contestants from a devastating loss.

Jacksonville Jaguars – 2,560 Picks / 19.4% Pick Rate ✅

This was the easiest sweat of the week. The Jaguars absolutely demolished the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 42-7. It was never close either, with Jacksonville opening up a 28-0 half time lead.

If you jumped on the Jags it was a clean win – congrats.

New England Patriots – 1,810 Picks / 13.7% Pick Rate ✅

The Patriots always seem to struggle in Miami and this game was no different. New England got there in the end, running out a 24-19 winner over the Dolphins, but it wasn’t always pretty.

Miami took a 13-3 lead into half time but ultimately weren’t able to hold on. Drake Maye tossed three touchdowns in the second half and the defense held on to secure the win, moving nearly 2,000 players on to the next round.

Patting myself on the back

It’s been a rocky start for everyone, but for the first time I went a perfect 3 for 3 on my Week 8 picks. In my Week 8 Survivor Strategy piece I made the case for my top plays of:

• The LA Rams
• The Cincinnati Bengals
• The Washington Commanders

… and all three won. I also faded the Cowboys…

908 Players Lose on Cowboys Collapse

The biggest banana peel of the week was the Dallas Cowboys. If you read my Week 8 Survivor Strategy article I included a section called “Do NOT Take the Dallas Cowboys for Week 8 Survivor“. Now, to be clear I thought they would find a way to win the game – and they should have – but the logic centered more around needing them later on, specifically the difficult Thanksgiving slate.

Regardless, it was a tough loss for Dallas backers with more than 900 entries lost on the Cowboys’ collapse, representing 6.9% of the remaining field.

Week 9 Winner’s Share: $168.90

We lost a total of 1,892 players during Week 8, meaning the value of each remaining entry has increased to $168.90. That’s the $2 million prize pool evenly split amongst the 11,841 remaining entries.

There are a lot of picks left to be made with the Hard Rock Bet contest running through Week 17 – and keep in mind both Week 12 and Week 16, Thanksgiving and Christmas, require two selections.

Go lock in a pick now for Week 9 – you can always change it later. The easiest way to lose is not to play. I’ll be back later this week with Week 9 strategy and ownership information. Until then, if you’re still in – enjoy it!