Predict the Winners of the Big Games with Machine Learning

The residual plot above shows the prediction error of the test dataset plotted against a selected feature. We built this model just before the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs, and we wanted to test the model against 10 previous games. Of our 10 predictions, seven were correct, and two of the three incorrect predictions were very close to margin (50 percent), as seen in the table below. So, we were comfortable with this model. Next, our model correctly predicted the outcome of three out of four playoff games.