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NFL Week 3 Elo Ratings And Playoff Odds

It’s been hard for me to escape the feeling that something’s off about NFL games this year. But that may be the league’s off-field problems coloring my perception of the on-field play — or the inevitable consequence of living in New York City and having the Jets and Giants force-fed into my living room. Statistically, […]

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NFL Week 3 Elo Ratings And Playoff Odds

It’s been hard for me to escape the feeling that something’s off about NFL games this year. But that may be the league’s off-field problems coloring my perception of the on-field play — or the inevitable consequence of living in New York City and having the Jets and Giants force-fed into my living room. Statistically, […]

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NFL Week 2 Elo Ratings And Playoff Odds

It’s a cliche: Every game counts in a league that plays just 16 of them. But Benjamin Morris’s findings in his debut Skeptical Football column were nevertheless striking: A Week 1 or Week 2 game can affect an NFL team’s chances of making the playoffs by as much as 20 or 30 percent. We also […]

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NFL Week 2 Elo Ratings And Playoff Odds

It’s a cliche: Every game counts in a league that plays just 16 of them. But Benjamin Morris’s findings in his debut Skeptical Football column were nevertheless striking: A Week 1 or Week 2 game can affect an NFL team’s chances of making the playoffs by as much as 20 or 30 percent. We also […]

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Skeptical Football: Go Go Andrew Luck And A Must-Win For The Pats

From a statistical standpoint, we know very little about football. Forty-six players on each team suit up per game, and most of them materially affect outcomes — yet, for most of them, only a handful of stats are recorded. The stats we do have are hopelessly entangled, as each player’s performance affects virtually every other’s. […]

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