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Joshua SchulmanSep 19, 2026

Schulman endorses the view that the Chiefs will beat the Colts in their Sunday night matchup, calling ESPN's heavy lean toward Kansas City a fair assessment.

Published in writing · Sports IllustratedRead the original

100Hit · out of 100
Chiefs 33–30What happenedColts at Chiefs
100A naive guessthe same call, no knowledge
100This callout of 100
0Skillafter difficulty

What Joshua Schulman said

However, this feels like a pretty fair assessment from the matchup predictor.
Our reading: Kansas City Chiefs to beat Colts
Where it was published
Sports Illustrated
The piece
ESPN Matchup Predictor Forecasts Chiefs vs. Colts Sunday Night Matchup
The original
Read the original
  1. SaidSep 19
  2. PlayedSep 20
  3. GradedSep 21

How the call scored

a naive guessbetter than naive

One checkable claim, graded on its own against what actually happened.

The call scored 100 out of 100, against 100 for a naive guess at the same calls.

The call is scored 0 to 100 against what happened, on its own, by the published methodology. The naive guess is what knowing nothing would have scored on the same call; the gap, weighted by how hard the call was, is the skill.

Game calls show that game’s closing betting line under their grade: a dated fact from nflverse, for context and never part of a grade. MissedTakes takes no bets and earns nothing from any sportsbook.

  1. Game Outcome PicksKansas City Chiefs

    Kansas City Chiefs to beat Colts

    What happenedChiefs 33–30Colts at Chiefs
    100Hit · naive 100
    100this call100a naive guess0better than naive1.94difficulty0skill

    Closing line (Sep 20): Chiefs by 6 · favorite pick, Chiefs 70%.

    How this was scored
    won:
    KC
    score:
    30-33
    skill:
    0
    they picked:
    KC
    season:
    2026
    accuracy:
    100
    baseline:
    100
    the naive pick:
    KC
    difficulty:
    1.94
    weeks in the season:
    18
    weeks left when called:
    17
    Think this is wrong?

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