“The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him.”
(Proverbs 18:17 NASB)
I was reminded of the above proverb when I read SI.com experts' predictions for Sunday’s Super Bowl. Each one offers his final score prediction, followed by his reasoning about why the Steelers or Packers will win, plus a personal guarantee and a predicted MVP. It makes for interesting reading. And it also illustrates how close these two teams seem to be and how hard-to-predict this game is.
In any case, I read why one guy thinks that the Steelers will win, and I am convinced. But then I read why the next guy thinks the Packers will win, and it makes perfect sense -- of course he’s right!
To further complicate things, they present us with cases by eight different experts. And, go figure, 4 of the them are picking the Steelers and 4 of them are picking the Packers.
Mike & Mike were also split in their predictions. Greeny is going with Pittsburgh, while Golic is picking the Pack.
Here is an interesting detail, though, about the SI.com predictions -- a detail which is both consistent with what I have read and heard elsewhere, as well as with my own thinking on the game: the average predicted margin of victory among those who are picking the Steelers is 4.25; the average margin of victory among those picking the Packers, however, is 9.75! The folks who believe in the Packers, therefore, are clearly more bullish on them than those who believe in the Steelers. Indeed, two of the guys are predicting a double-digit Green Bay victory.
Meanwhile, NFL.com's Gil Brandt also bears witness to how closely matched these two teams are. He takes an unusual approach to calculating the victor based on selected historical trends. By the end of his system, he envisions a tie game at the end of regulation, with the Packers eking out an overtime victory. (Personally, I could do without that kind of excitement!)
Interestingly, over at ESPN.com, a very different scenario unfolds. They offer the abbreviated predictions of FIFTY-ONE different experts, and those folks are not at all evenly divided. In that court of pundit opinion, 39 folks anticipate a Packer victory, while only 12 expect the Steelers to win.
That’s very encouraging reading, of course, but it all counts for exactly nothing when the players take the field.
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