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The computer models that pick NFL games have made their picks for Week 16

Cork Gaines   

The computer models that pick NFL games have made their picks for Week 16
Sports1 min read

patrick mahomes

Joe Sargent/Getty

  • Elo and Cortana have made their picks for Week 16.
  • Cortana leads the overall race, correctly picking 66% of the games this season.
  • The models disagree on two games this week.


Week 16 of the NFL season is here, and Cortana is back to make picks in a head-to-head showdown with Elo.

We looked at two popular systems used to pick NFL games: Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant, and Elo, the modeling system used by Nate Silver's data-journalism site, FiveThirtyEight.

In both cases, the computers are picking outright winners and not against the spread. Each gives a likelihood that a team will win, however, which in theory could help measure the strength of certain lines.

Cortana is having another strong season, correctly picking 66% of the games, including a 10-6 record in Week 15. Elo has nailed 60% overall.

Here are the picks for Week 16, with each team's percent chance of winning in parentheses. Point spreads are for reference, via Vegas Insider as of Thursday morning.

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