Our Championship Games Report Card.

Predicting the result of a playoff football game is difficult enough without trying to predict the performance of the actual players. As you know we try to do exactly that. In fact, for the Best Buy game we try to go to the tenth of a point.

So how did we do this past week?

Atlanta:
We provided point predictions for 8 players. All 8 fell within their +/- ranges.
Best predictions:
- Warrick Dunn - Predicted: 15.9, Actual: 16.3
- Brian Finneran - Predicted: 2.4, Actual: 2.9
Worst Predictions:
- T.J. Duckett - Predicted: 11.2, Actual 1.4
- Michael Vick - Predicted: 15.7, Actual 7.1

New England:
There were 12 NE players for whom we projected, of those 10 wew within their +/- ranges. The other two, Deion Branch and David Givens, scored well above their projected figures.
Best predictions:
- Tom Brady - Predicted: 12.3, Actual: 16.9
- Troy Brown - Predicted: 1.4, Actual: 1.1
Worst Predictions:
- Deion Branch - Predicted: 6.6, Actual 35.3
- David Givens - Predicted: 6.7, Actual 15.9
(I guess if you are going to miss it's better to project low, after all, who could have predicted these performances, especially against the Steelers D)

Philadelphia:
We projected 10 Eagles point totals. Of those 10, 8 were within their +/- range. Once again, the two that were out of range, Dorsey levens and Chad Lewis, both scored out of range high.
Best predictions:
- Donovan McNabb - Predicted: 20.2, Actual: 19.2
- Freedie Mitchell - Predicted: 3.5, Actual: 2.0
Worst Predictions:
- Chad Lewis - Predicted: 3.5, Actual 22.0
- Brian Westbrook - Predicted: 20.4, Actual 13.5

Pittsburgh:
Out of 10 player point forecast, 8 were again within their +/- range. As with the Patriots and Eagles, the two that were outside of their range (Roethlisberger and Ward) were both outside on the high side.
Best predictions:
- Antwaan Randle El - Predicted: 5.0, Actual: 5.2
- Plaxico Burress - Predicted: 10.0, Actual: 13.7
- Jerome Bettis - Predicted: 12.4, Actual: 16.4
Worst Predictions:
- Hines Ward - Predicted: 10.6, Actual 21.9
- Ben Roethlisberger - Predicted: 12.4, Actual 22.0

And finally, the Kickers:
A. Vinatieri - Predicted: 10, Actual 12.9
D. Akers - Predicted: 9, Actual 9.5
J. Reed - Predicted: 8, Actual 9.3
J. Feely - Predicted: 6, Actual 3.3