Four years ago in the Deflategate scandal, data suggested that New England might have deflated footballs to reduce their fumble rate. Host Ed Feng looks back at the real surprise in New England's turnover data. Then he updates the numbers to see if New England's performance on fumble has changed since then and how it might impact the Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams.
Chris Andrews, director of the South Point sports book, joins the show to discuss the Super Bowl. He talks about being aggressive as a bookmaker, with New England in the Super Bowl as an example. He also gives his view on Super Bowl props, analytics in bookmaking and putting out early college football win totals.
Dr. Eric Eager, data scientist at Pro Football Focus, joins me for a wide ranging conversation on football analytics. We break down the two NFL conference title games by the numbers, but also get into the QB statistic that makes interesting predictions for Tom Brady vs Pat Mahomes. Throughout the conversation, Eric provides many insights, such as whether pass rush or secondary is more important, or how to do better than sacks in evaluating pass rush.
Whale Capper joins me to discuss how he uses seismic engineering to model the outcome of NFL games. Then we go through the 4 games of the NFL Divisional Playoff Round with predictions and analysis.
Host Ed Feng digs into the Alabama versus Clemson match up for the college football title game, and how this game is different from last season. Then he discusses the team with the best chances to win the Super Bowl, and whether their defense can hold up. Finally, he talks about a sleeper team to win the Super Bowl, and how the system is working against this team.