The Falcons Are In Trouble But The Saints Might Be Back
Elo
The NFL is unforgiving  and every team’s misfortune creates an opportunity for someone else. Atlanta and Carolina’s inconsistencies this year have allowed a familiar division foe to become relevant again: the New Orleans Saints. After a spell of mediocrity that saw the Saints finish with a 7-9 record in each of the past three seasons  Sean Payton’s team appear to be on the rise  for now. The Saints have climbed to sixth in our NFL Rankings  with an Elo rating of 1589. At 4-2 and atop the NFC South  the Saints now have a 73 percent chance of making the playoffs and a 56 percent chance of winning the division — both of which are the best chances New Orleans has seen this season.
Though the readers registered a net loss of 14.2 points in Week 7 of our NFL prediction game — in which we invite readers to try to outsmart our Elo algorithm — they tied for their most successful week to date this season. The biggest net win of the week for readers  which also happens to be readers’ biggest net win of the season so far  came in the Saints’ 26-17 win on the road over the Packers. The readers took advantage of  Elo’s  inability to account for teams’ injuries in  its  predictions and selected a surging Saints team over an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team  gaining 20.4 points over Elo on that game.
The other double-digit net win for the readers came in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ shutout victory over the Indianapolis Colts. That means the Jaguars continued to haunt Elo for another week: Our algorithm now has a 1-6 record when predicting the outcome of games involving the Jags (that’ll teach us for joking about Jacksonville every week).
It’s not too late to try your luck against Elo  so make sure you make your Week 8 predictions.
The NFL is unforgiving  and every team’s misfortune creates an opportunity for someone else. Atlanta and Carolina’s inconsistencies this year have allowed a familiar division foe to become relevant again: the New Orleans Saints. After a spell of mediocrity that saw the Saints finish with a 7-9 record in each of the past three seasons  Sean Payton’s team appear to be on the rise  for now. The Saints have climbed to sixth in our NFL Rankings  with an [TGT] rating of 1589. At 4-2 and atop the NFC South  the Saints now have a 73 percent chance of making the playoffs and a 56 percent chance of winning the division — both of which are the best chances New Orleans has seen this season.
Though the readers registered a net loss of 14.2 points in Week 7 of our NFL prediction game — in which we invite readers to try to outsmart our [TGT] algorithm — they tied for their most successful week to date this season. The biggest net win of the week for readers  which also happens to be readers’ biggest net win of the season so far  came in the Saints’ 26-17 win on the road over the Packers. The readers took advantage of  [TGT]’s  inability to account for teams’ injuries in  its  predictions and selected a surging Saints team over an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team  gaining 20.4 points over [TGT] on that game.
The other double-digit net win for the readers came in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ shutout victory over the Indianapolis Colts. That means the Jaguars continued to haunt [TGT] for another week: Our algorithm now has a 1-6 record when predicting the outcome of games involving the Jags (that’ll teach us for joking about Jacksonville every week).
It’s not too late to try your luck against [TGT]  so make sure you make your Week 8 predictions.