CS&T/AllsportsAmerica Super Bowl Predictions!!!

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica

CS&T/AA's Prediction: Baltimore Ravens


By Marion P. Jelks, CS&T/AA blog editor 

Opinions, opinions, opinions. Everyone has one and everyone thinks their's is high and mighty and we're no exception. Below are several different prognostications from different sports writers, celebrities and wild sources. So, we might as well stick our two cents in and give you our opinion. This is a tough game to predict. I think the 49ers have a better team, but the Ravens appear the team of destiny. CS&T/AA is picking the Baltimore Ravens. Why? Because we're from the old school and we believe experience is the best teacher. The Ravens might have a little age on the 49ers and thought to be over the hill but again, the experience factor will make up for that. We just like the Ravens. Aw heck, what do we know, we're just fans like everyone else but we just have a gut feeling about this. We could be wrong but I don't think so. Now we know why the game must be played and by Sunday Night as Paul Harvey says, "We'll know the rest of the story..." Good luck and may your team win. We're 99 and 64/100% sure that our team will!!! 

Computer’s pick after 50,000 Super Bowl simulations? San Francisco 49ers 28, Baltimore Ravens 21.

By Kristian Dyer

Now all that's left are the commercials.

No need to watch the Super Bowl for the actual game, at least not with PredictionMachine.com having run 50,000 simulations of Sunday's Super Bowl matchup and determining that the San Francisco 49ers will beat the Baltimore Ravens by a likely score of 28 to 21. The simulations gave the edge to the 49ers run and pass offense over the Ravens defense and perhaps most importantly, an edge to the 49ers run defense in stopping the Ravens rushing attack.

From the 50,000 simulations, PredictionMachine.com had the 49ers winning 66.9 percent of the time. But while a touchdown spread and a relatively narrow game is the most likely winning margin for the 49ers, there is a 38.6 percent chance that San Francisco wins by more than 10 points. In other words, the simulation likes the 49ers an awful lot.

What else does the computer foresee happening?

Other predictions include the 49ers rushing for 167 yards in the game with running back Frank Gore topping 89 yards on 19 carries and quarterback Colin Kaepernick running six times for 38 yards. The Ravens will be limited to 98 yards of rushing offense with the prediction model clearly favoring a 49ers defense that was No. 4 in the league during the regular season against the run.

The model also has Kaepernick winning the game’s MVP award, giving him a 37.3 percent chance to win.

Of course, the game could come down to coaching decisions, especially late in the game. According to the simulations, PredictionMachine.com doesn’t give an edge to either head coach, rating the brothers ‚ 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh and Ravens head coach John Harbaugh — as “a wash” in their individual matchup in calling the game.

Just how good is the website at making these predictions? Last year’s model predicted the New York Giants to beat the New England Patriots 52.5 percent of all simulations and the year before that called the Green Bay Packers over the Pittsburgh Steelers by an even larger margin.

No word yet on the commercial front from PredictionMachine.com but we don’t need any simulations to know that if Kate Upton is in it, we’re liking it.

Nate Silver's Superbowl Pick: San Francisco 49ers

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Sure, Nate Silver was on-point during the 2012 election, but before you place your bets behind the bespectacled number genie, remember that he predicted that this would be a Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl — and that he's gotten a little better at the politics game than anything else. But in a column for The New York Times Magazine published online today, Silver breaks down his latest mumbo-jumbo over S.R.S. rankings and something called the Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, which is exciting if you're a statistician groupie — just not if you're a Baltimore Ravens fan. In the end, Silver seems to call it for San Francisco 49ers:
Those rankings find that while the 49ers had the better offense and defense, the Ravens had the best special teams in the league this year. If they do pull off the upset, on the heels of Steve Weatherford’s game-changing performance for the Giants in last year’s Super Bowl, perhaps it will be time for a new cliché: punters win championships. But don’t count on that. Now, that should make Niners fans happy, and keep the bookies on edge. (Most lines have the 49ers by about 3.5 or 4 points.) After all, this guy got the election beyond right and he did more or less tell us that the BCS championship would be a bust. But the Electoral College isn't football, and Mitt Romney is not Ray Lewis. And on January 10, Silver didn't even have the Niners in the big game when pressed by ESPN. He had Seattle and New England: So, yeah, that happened. And Silver has been a bit off his game with more fantasy statistical models since he messed up the Oscars a few years ago. His stats magic didn't help him at the Aussie Millions poker championship, where you thought his number-crunching skills would translate well:

Busted out of #AussieMillions a bit ago. KK vs. AA all in before flop. I had KK. Lots of chips flying around all day. Fun while it lasted.
— Nate Silver (@fivethirtyeight) January 30, 2013

So, yeah, it appears that betting on the Super Bowl by way of Nate Silver comes at your own risk.

Super Bowl XLVII: 9 Wacky Ways of Predicting the Winner.

By Nick Carbone

1. Madden NFL 13 – Ravens

2. Tecmo Bowl – 49ers

3. Computer Simulation – 49ers

4. Chicken Wing Bones – 49ers

5. Clairvoyant Camel – Ravens

6. Orangutan – 49ers

7. Dr. Dre – Ravens

8. Joe Montana – 49ers

9. NFL Beat Writers – 49ers

Verdict: In our extremely unscientific survey of extremely unscientific predictions, the San Francisco 49ers come out on top, 6 wins to 3. Those would be tough odds to overcome — if they meant anything at all. We’ll see how the real teams do on Sunday.

Please let us hear your opinion on the above articles and pass them on to any other diehard fans that you think might be interested. But most of all, remember, Chicago
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