Football Score Prediction Game -- Final Results Up

[martyup]

This is the official results thread for the football prediction game.  Each week I will post the entry form link in a new thread.  Results will be posted here.

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GAME RULES
1. Each entry is given an error score equal to the sum of the [difference between the Stanford prediction and the actual Stanford score] and the [difference between the opponent prediction and the actual opponent score].
2. Each entry that correctly picked the winner is given 1 point for every entrant that (1) also correctly picked the winner and had a higher error score than theirs, and (2) every entrant that incorrectly picked the winner.
3. Each entry that incorrectly picked the winner is given 1 point for every entrant also incorrectly picked the winner and had a higher error score than theirs.
4. Each player that picks Stanford to lose is deducted 10 points
5. Each entry that nails the final score gets a 10 point bonus
6. Each entry that does not nail the score but correctly predicts either Stanford's or the opponents score gets a 3 point bonus
7. All entries must be submitted in the Google form, except for the first game
8. If a player enters multiple predictions, the last form entry will take precedent.
9. All entries must be submitted no later than 5 minutes prior to the official kick-off time of each game.
10. The winners will be the players with the highest scores after the last game is played, including bowl or playoff games.

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Here are the results for the SDSU game.  If you are viewing on a smartphone, turn the phone sideways (landscape) to see all columns. Great job MiamiCard and Pvtree, you both are perfect for the season!  Thanks go out to shinsengumi for helping with the spreadsheet and BostonCard and Stupac2 for great suggestions on formatting the data to display here.

User Name	Prediction	Error	Rank Points	Bonus	Penalty	Total
MiamiCard	31-10	0	64	10	0	74
Pvtree	31-10	0	64	10	0	74
Renaissance Man	27-10	4	62	3	0	65
Cowboy1	35-10	4	62	3	0	65
phogge	37-10	6	61	3	0	64
Snorlax94	31-17	7	56	3	0	59
Robinson's Heave	31-17	7	56	3	0	59
Hank 91	31-17	7	56	3	0	59
pasportsfan	31-17	7	56	3	0	59
Extra Point	27-13	7	56	0	0	56
StanfordIndians1	34-16	9	55	0	0	55
pcgoode	34-17	10	51	0	0	51
CPSteeple	34-17	10	51	0	0	51
AcesUp	34-17	10	51	0	0	51
50threunion2018	34-17	10	51	0	0	51
Mick1	31-21	11	44	3	0	47
meccam	35-17	11	44	0	0	44
81alum	27-17	11	44	0	0	44
pefloresjr	30-20	11	44	0	0	44
Publius	30-20	11	44	0	0	44
Langdude	27-17	11	44	0	0	44
pfloresjr	30-20	11	44	0	0	44
Sea Loon	30-21	12	43	0	0	43
Sonof80sCard	34-20	13	37	0	0	37
washingtonismoney	34-20	13	37	0	0	37
97fan	34-20	13	37	0	0	37
martyup	34-20	13	37	0	0	37
LeftCoast	34-20	13	37	0	0	37
CardCrimson	27-19	13	37	0	0	37
Hurlburt88	31-24	14	29	3	0	32
bbm233	31-24	14	29	3	0	32
d4cohn	34-21	14	29	0	0	29
needle	29-22	14	29	0	0	29
thunder_chik	27-20	14	29	0	0	29
CTcard	35-20	14	29	0	0	29
oman	27-20	14	29	0	0	29
rinkiedinkie	27-20	14	29	0	0	29
82lsju	32-24	15	26	0	0	26
snodfart76	35-21	15	26	0	0	26
Papa John	35-21	15	26	0	0	26
goodgrief	40-3	16	25	0	0	25
TreesAndBirds	38-20	17	16	0	0	16
djones	38-20	17	16	0	0	16
Seascapemirisd	21-17	17	16	0	0	16
2 for 2028	41-17	17	16	0	0	16
Boston Card	21-17	17	16	0	0	16
CardinalSagehen	38-20	17	16	0	0	16
Durty Nelly	38-20	17	16	0	0	16
ColoradoTree	38-20	17	16	0	0	16
PalmTree	34-24	17	16	0	0	16
JJJ	38-21	18	9	0	0	9
Indiancardinal	42-17	18	9	0	0	9
george	17-14	18	9	0	0	9
JeffInCorvallis	24-21	18	9	0	0	9
BigEasyCard	38-21	18	9	0	0	9
shinsengumi	38-21	18	9	0	0	9
justanotherfan	21-18	18	9	0	0	9
qwerty49	23-21	19	7	0	0	7
murky	43-17	19	7	0	0	7
Rodgermill	38-24	21	5	0	0	5
WhatsYourDeal	38-24	21	5	0	0	5
winflop	41-23	23	4	0	0	4
ADPinWDC	45-27	31	2	0	0	2
Cornfed	45-27	31	2	0	0	2
GoAztecs!	27-30	24	1	0	-10	-9
themtecstho	17-24	28	0	0	-10	-10

[Publius]

30
 24

[pcgoode]

34- 17 for Stanford.  USC has never lost at home under Helton, but is 8-6 on the road.  Against a top 10 Cardinal team playing at home, JT Daniels will be in for a tough afternoon.  Watch for the Stanford TE's to get lots of catches vs a depleted USC safety corps.

[d4cohn]

28-21 Stanford. I think Stanford maintains a double digit point lead for most of evening. I could see a repeat of 2016, where a new QB starting in his first road game (and Pac-12 game) got overwhelmed by a hungry Stanford defense, leading to a dominating 17 point win and the start of the Sam Darnold era. Daniels is apparently better than Browne, but if Stanford plays a reasonably good game, they should win.

[MiamiCard]

I've got the same score. Love goes for 165 / JJAW adds 120. 

Cardinal 28
u$c 21. 

28-21 Stanford. I think Stanford maintains a double digit point lead for most of evening. I could see a repeat of 2016, where a new QB starting in his first road game (and Pac-12 game) got overwhelmed by a hungry Stanford defense, leading to a dominating 17 point win and the start of the Sam Darnold era. Daniels is apparently better than Browne, but if Stanford plays a reasonably good game, they should win.

[Papa John]

Stanford 31
University of Satan's Children 24

[Snorlax94]

Just finished watching the USC-UNLV game except for garbage time; though of course, it's all kind of meaningless because how much can we really know from game 1, especially against a UNLV opponent that was 5-7 last year and not bowl-eligible. 

What scares me about USC:
#1) In terms of matchups, I don't think we'll see a team with a taller secondary that can potentially cover JJAW and our tight ends. They have 6'1" and 6' corner backs and a 6'4" strong safety. And they seem even longer than their height would suggest. UNLV attempted passes over and past the USC secondary, but USC was able to turn around and swat the balls down. The balls will have to be very accurate, float over the secondary and drop in perfectly against some of these rangy USC defenders. This could be the toughest match-up in the secondary we'll face this season, due to their height.
#2) JT Daniels played a good first game. He can throw on the run surprisingly well. Also, he and his top receiver, Amon-Ra, went to Mater Dei together so they already have chemistry and have thousands of practice reps.
#3) USC has another fleet of athletic, tall receivers, and can spread out 4 receivers testing whether you have enough fast, tall DBs to cover them, with inevitably, some 1:1 matchups. The receivers besides Vaughn and St. Brown dropped balls early, but caught them late.
#4) It's been a couple of years now for Clay Helton and the guy deserves props. I used to relish early-season games against USC because they'd be disorganized and play under their potential, and it seemed inevitable that they'd self-destruct somehow over the course of the season. USC is now the defending Pac-12 Champs and they've gone to back-to-back NY6 Bowl Games (Rose, Cotton). It's not the same USC they were just 3 years ago.

The good news about USC:
1) UNLV had some success running the ball against USC. If there is one kind of team that is my favorite kind of team for Stanford to play, it is a team that is susceptible to a running game.
2) JT Daniels, though potentially really great one day, still makes a lot of mistakes. There should've been *at least* two picks. In an LA Times story a few weeks ago, Helton mantioned how all his QBs are holding onto the ball too long, and Daniels got sacked a few times. A defender blindsided him once and swatted the ball out, but they later overturned the fumble call because Daniels was down. But in his youth, Daniels looks susceptible to get partied on in the back field.
3) True freshman QB, first away game.

The overall thought:
As usual, USC has so much talent that they have the potential to become a very scary team late in the season, or over the next few years as their QB (or qbs) develop. But I get the feeling Daniels and even St. Brown need a lot more time to master a varied, complex gameplan with reads and audibles to be able to throw a defense like Stanford's off-balance. A basic offense could become very predictable for Stanford. Darnold's maturity, strength, ability to read defenses, and ability to extend plays was critical for USC last year. I think without Darnold, USC scores 14 less than they did in the Pac 12 Title Game, so I am feeling pretty bold saying USC scores very little, 17 -- maybe less depending on the number of turnovers, which *could* be very high. And as usual, I think it is a rare team that keeps Stanford under 30 this season, and, assuming the run game is as good as I think it is (and they totally disprove what happened last week), they should score over 30 again this week.

Stanford 35, USC 17
Entered in the form

[Mick]

Stanford  31

U$C        14

[BostonCard]

I forgot what I put down, except that it was a fairly high scoring on both sides, which means it will be something like 10-6 when all is said and done.  I suck at this game.

Still not sold on our defense, and still bullish on our offense, but we will see.

BC

[BostonCard]

Jerry Palm picks Stanford as 5.5 pt favorites.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...-best-bet/

As an aside, Clayton Thorson is still QBing for Northwestern?

BC

[CardinalSagehen]

I forgot what I put down, except that it was a fairly high scoring on both sides, which means it will be something like 10-6 when all is said and done.  I suck at this game.

Still not sold on our defense, and still bullish on our offense, but we will see.

BC

We suck equally at this game, apparently!  I had 38-20 in Week 1, which was very close to the 21-point margin of victory, but I scored the same as your 21-17 pick.  Of course, I'm not trying to say that I suck any less!  

In any case, from now on, I'm going to be boring and trust Vegas blindly, with some slight rounding to keep myself in the game for exact-score bonuses. 

O/U - 56.5
Spread - 6
Implied Score - STAN ~31 - USC ~25

My Pick:
STANFORD - 31 
USC - 24

My Stone-Cold Lock: 
Free T-Shirts at the game!

Go Card!

[lex24]

Testing

[CornFed]

Last week I finished third .  .  .  . from last.  Ugh!!  But the mind is a powerful device.  I am convinced that my premise was essentially correct.  Unfortunately, I did not factor in the “start up” issues that we encountered in the first half.  Therefore, I see absolutely no reason not to repeat my prediction:

Stanford – 45
Urban Sociopathic Cretins – 27
 
I realize this is probably conservative, since it doesn’t really consider our learning curve (SC’s learning curve?  Learning?  Really?  Hahahaha).  However, I presume that it will be somewhat offset by the likelihood that SC is a bit better than SDS.
 
Go Card!!!!!!
 

[PAsportsfan]

Stanford 20

USC 14

[JPR36]

I think this is going to be a very close game that will pretty much go down to the wire. The more I read about JT Daniels, the more I think he is a quick study who will become an outstanding college QB sooner rather than later. Hope he isn't tonite, though,
Good Guys 31, Bad Guys 27.

[martyup]

DON'T FORGET, ALL ENTRIES MUST BE ENTERED IN THE FORM.  GOOD LUCK!

[pefloresjr]

Stanford beats the spread by a touchdown again.  
Stanford 40
SC 27

Cheers,
Pete F.

[BigEasyCard]

Stanford 38
USC 24

Entered in form.  Thanks Marty.

[PalmTree]

Trees pop the Trojans: 31-24

GO CARDINAL!

[GoodGrief]

What’s Your Deal Redux
We 55
They 21