Question

0.8 Predicting NFL wins. Consider the following model for predicting the number of games that a National Football League (NFL) team wins in a season: Wins=3.6+0.5PF−0.3PA+∈

where PF stands for average points a team scores per game over an entire season and PA stands for points allowed per game. Each team plays 16 games in a season.

a. Identify the response variable in this model. Is it quantitative or categorical?

b. Identify the explanatory variables in this model. Are they quantitative or categorical?

c. According to this model, how many more wins is a team expected to achieve in a season if they increase their scoring by an average of 3 points per game?

d. According to this model, how many more wins is a team expected to achieve in a season if they decrease their points allowed by an average of 3 points per game? e. Based on your answers to parts (c) and (d), does it seem that a team should focus more on improving its offense or improving its defense?

f. Are the data analyzed for this study observational or experimental?

Answer 1

a) Wins is response variable. As wins can in in range (1,2,3,........16) Hence it is a categorical variable

b) PF and PA are explanatory variables. PF is a quantitative variable and PA is a categorical variable.

c) Increase in number of wins if PF increase by 3 units = 0.5 x 3 = 1.5 ( approx 2 games more wins )

d) Increase in Number of wins if PA decreases by 3 units = - 0.3 x ( - 3 ) = 0.9 ( approx 1 game more wins )

e) Based on the solution provided in part c and part d. A team wins more by increasing PF. so the team should focus more on its offense

f) As the data is being collected as a result in each game and no treatment effect is applied to the observation so the data analyze here is observational data.