The "experts" didn't expect this upset victory. The predictors said it was a done deal and they knew how it would turn out. But when it came time to do the counting, one side was shocked and the other was elated.

I'm talking about my fantasy football game this past weekend. Did you think I was talking about something else? No, the election is over. While the Democrats might try to learn something from the outcome (after losing control of the presidency while failing to gain the House or Senate), I'm more concerned with what I need to learn after my own shocking result.

In short, I lost. It's not a hope-killing loss for the playoffs. I'm still second in the standings in a league where eight teams (out of 14) make the playoffs. So I'm not trying to over-dramatize the results.

Still, I should mention that I was projected to score 122 points, and I coughed up 64. That's barely half. I didn't play someone on the bye. Nobody got injured early in the game. It was just that almost everyone on my team, from Andrew Luck to Jarvis Landry to Devonta Freeman, all had mediocre games.

Now, these things happen. And sometimes they all happen on the same week. But the same question people were asking after the election is the one I asked just a day earlier: How was the forecast so wrong?

I have no idea what the pollsters are going to do, but I know about my team. The part of your league's website that predicts scores is not only useless, but detrimental to your fantasy fortunes. Whatever formulas they use to give you an idea of how your team will do are meaningless. Nothing matters except what happens at the kickoff. The predictions mean nothing.

Sounds like Fantasy Football 101, right? Sure. But Human Psychology 101 dictates that we all seek positive reinforcement. And when that number in the corner indicates that Player A is better than Player B, it's natural to want them in the lineup to boost up your overall number. You want to see a high predicted score. You want the forecast to show you beating your opponent. Even if it doesn't matter, having that number climb gives you a false sense of security, and can influence decisions.

Did that happen on election night? Did one side think they had things almost wrapped up? Did it influence ad buys and campaign stops? I have no idea. But if you went on a political website that shows odds in real time, you saw the odds completely flip over the course of a couple of hours.

And guess what? That's exactly what happened on Sunday for my fantasy team. The site said I'd win by nearly 60, then 55, then 45, then 30. Then 27, then 20. You know how this ends, right? By the end of the night I was going to lose by double digits.

Looking back, I think I had what I considered the best lineup from my roster. But would I have made different calls if it looked like a tossup, or if there was no predictor at all? I hope not. But really, we'll never know.

But I know this: I'm not looking at those numbers again. Whatever decisions I make won't be affected by them, because I won't know what they are. Whatever influence they had might have been minimal, but now it will be zero. And I think I'll be better off as a result.

In this game, we want as much information as possible, as quickly as possible. But I think there's some information we simply don't need. We don't need to see what a computer model says about our team versus our opponent. Our job is to set the best lineup possible regardless of the opponent. What we think matters. Our gut feeling matters. A website's predictor doesn't matter at all. But seeing your team estimated to lose big isn't a good feeling, and there's temptation to change things around to eliminate that feeling. And the opposite is true if you're predicted to win. Best to ignore it completely. Even if you think it's not influencing your decision, your subconscious might be avoiding a bad feeling, or pursuing a good one. Don't let it happen.

This week a lot of people will be second-guessing what went wrong, and wondering why they put stock in something that let them down. Fortunately for me, I don't have to wait four years for another shot. I get to try again this weekend. And I will learn from my mistakes. Maybe you'll learn something from my mistakes, too. Good luck this week.

Do you pay attention to estimated scores on your league's website? has it ever influenced you one way or the other? Share your thoughts below.