In his weekly column on NFL.com, writer Gregg Easterbrook frequently complains about NFL game predictions that include a final score, especially when that final score involves an unlikely combination of digits.

For seven or eight seasons now, I've been using a shareware Mac program called Pro Predictor to predict the winners of NFL games. It was last updated in 1999, so I'm pretty sure it's been abandoned, but fortunately, the programmer made "in case there are expansion teams" and "in case the divisions get realigned" provisions, so it's been humming along perfectly well. I haven't been using it for much, just Yahoo! pick-'em leagues, and this year, a football pool at the school where my mother works.

Pro Predictor does indeed make predictions that include a final score, and that score often involves an unlikely combination of digits. But this week...



I think this is the first time it's ever gotten a score exactly correct, although ti's been correct about the point spread reasonably often. For my own personal picks this week, incidentally, I went against its advice on the Giants-Eagles and Panthers-Bucs games, and won the pool at my mom's school. (As you can see from the screen shot, the computer is .695 on its picks this season. I'm .714.)