After a wild Week 15, the NFL playoff picture is beginning to take shape. The Green Bay Packers, who were basically left for dead after starting 4-6, edged the Chicago Bears on the road and now control their own destiny in the NFC North. The Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans each won in comeback fashion to remain tied atop the AFC South, while the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens are set up for a showdown this week in what will likely determine who wins the AFC North.
Amid all of this, Bing Predicts continued to be reliable, correctly picking 12 out of 16 games. That's five straight weeks with a winning percentage of 75 percent or better, and since Week 11, Bing Predicts has nailed 60 out of 75 games for an 80 percent success rate.
PointAfter, a sports data site powered by Graphiq, set its sights now for Week 16, which features a full set of 16 games on Christmas weekend. Using data from Bing Predicts, we predicted each game in hopes of continuing this strong run. Bing Predicts uses web activity and social sentiment — in addition to historical player, team and match stats — to predict the outcome of NFL games. Web and social data allow Bing Predicts to capture real-time information about lineup changes and reaction to them to tune the strengths of teams.
The week begins on Thursday night, with the New York Giants visiting the Philadelphia Eagles. Christmas Eve, which falls on Saturday, features 12 games, and there are two Christmas Day games. We'll break down each game starting with the most competitive of the week and offer our analysis as we move through every matchup. In the event of ties, the earlier game was shown first. If games had the same kickoff time, we then broke ties based on each game's opening line.
Note: Also included with game predictions are the opening lines for each game, courtesy of Vegas Insider.
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