Microsoft Cortana went 10-6 in Week 2 — here are its picks for Week 3 of the NFL

Bob Leverone/AP

Microsoft Cortana — the virtual assistant predicting the outright winner of every NFL game on Bing — went 10-6 in Week 2, helping to right the ship after an uninspired 8-8 effort during the first week of the season.

Of its six misses, five came in games lost by the home team. The sixth miss was betting on the Seahawks, who fell once again to the Rams. 

Like last week, Cortana is heavily favoring the home teams. As always, the most interesting games are the ones in which Cortana disagrees with Las Vegas. This week, the only game in which that is the case is the Thursday night match-up between the Texans and the Patriots. Whereas Vegas is giving Houston a one-point advantage on the road, Cortana still thinks the Pats will secure a win. 

With the 10-6 showing in Week 2, Cortana improved to 18-14 on the year. FiveThirtyEight's Elo model is two games better through two weeks, at 20-12. 

As always, Cortana only picks the outright winner of each game. It does not make picks against the spread, though we like to include the point spread (in parentheses, courtesy of Vegas Insider) for comparison. You can find Cortana's predictions by searching "NFL schedule" on Bing.

Here are Cortana's Week 3 picks:

• Houston Texans at New England Patriots (+1) — Patriots 64% chance to win 
• Denver Broncos at Cincinnati Bengals (-3) — Bengals 61% chance to win 
• Oakland Raiders at Tennessee Titans (-1.5) — Titans 53% chance to win 
• Arizona Cardinals (-4) at Buffalo Bills — Cardinals 57% chance to win 
• Baltimore Ravens (-1) at Jacksonville Jaguars — Ravens 63% chance to win 
• Cleveland Browns at Miami Dolphins (-9.5) — Dolphins 74% chance to win 
• Washington Redskins at New York Giants (-4.5) — Giants 64% chance to win 
• Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers (-7.5) — Packers 64% chance to win 
• Minnesota Vikings at Carolina Panthers (-7) — Panthers 74% chance to win 
• San Francisco 49ers at  Seattle Seahawks (-9.5) — Seahawks 67% chance to win 
• Los Angeles Rams at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-5) — Buccaneers 52% chance to win 
• Pittsburgh Steelers (-3.5) at Philadelphia Eagles — Steelers 53% chance to win 
• New York Jets at Kansas City Chiefs (-3) — Chiefs 58% chance to win 
• San Diego Chargers at Indianapolis Colts (-3) — Colts 57% chance to win 
• Chicago Bears at Dallas Cowboys (-7) — Cowboys 55% chance to win 
• Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints (-3) — Saints 58% chance to win

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