The computer model that nailed the NFL's 2017 season has made its picks for Week 2

pulse

September 13, 2018 8:24 PM

Two models predict who will win the games during Week 2 of the NFL season.

The computer models are back making their picks for the 2018 NFL season.
In 2017, Microsoft's Cortana correctly picked 68% of the games overall and 75% of the games over the final ten weeks.
FiveThirtyEight's Elo also had a strong showing during the regular season, correctly picking 64% of the games.

Week 2 of the NFL season is here, and Microsoft's Cortana is back to make picks in a head-to-head showdown with Elo.

We took a look at two popular systems used to pick NFL games: Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant, and Elo, the modeling system used by Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight. In both cases, the computers are picking outright winners and not against the spread. However, each gives a likelihood of a team's winning, which, in theory, could help measure the strength of certain lines.

Cortana won the regular season matchup last season, going 162-78 (68%) overall, and 111-38 (75%) over the last ten weeks (we did not track Week 17 because of the wonky nature of the final week). Elo was not far behind, going 154-86 (64%) overall.

Here are the picks for Week 2, with each model's percent chance of winning in parentheses. Point spreads are just for reference, via Vegas Insider as of Thursday morning.