# Bears 31, Falcons 23: Five of Seven Score Callers Had Atlanta Winning

*Published 2026-10-18 — MissedTakes*

*Drafted by a language model from MissedTakes' graded data, then reviewed and approved by Ben Garves before publishing.*

Chicago beat Atlanta 31-23 in Week 6, and the pundits who picked a winner got it more right than the ones who picked a score. We've graded 25 calls this game settled. Among the 23 pundits who named a side, 16 took the Bears and 7 took the Falcons, so the pundits leaned Chicago. Among the seven who went further and named an exact score, five still had Atlanta winning at home. The average accuracy across every graded call on this game came in at 75.

## Who did the pundits like to win in Atlanta?

Chicago was the clear preference. [Derek Brown](/pundits/derek-brown) leaned Bears while calling it "a fricking toss up," [Nate Tice](/pundits/nate-tice) said he was "going Bears" despite feeling the Falcons had "really earned" his respect, [Richard Sherman](/pundits/richard-sherman) was simpler about it ("Give me Chicago in this game"), and [Connor Rogers](/pundits/connor-rogers) took the Bears "but not with a high confidence level." None of the hedging mattered once Chicago pulled away: all four scored full marks for picking the road winner.

![Sixteen of 23 pundits backed the road team](/posts/visuals/7e97c5d0-6a7a-45dc-aaa7-a3f1cf2ff23c.png)

The 16-7 split rewarded the majority. Because Chicago was the road team, every Bears pick also beat the site's naive default of simply taking the home team. That is the gap the skill number measures, and it's why outcome calls on the winning side scored well above a bare accuracy grade would suggest.

## Which score predictions came closest?

[Jared Dubin](/pundits/jared-dubin) had the tightest number in the building, calling Bears 23-17 for a predicted margin of 6, missing the final 8-point margin by just 2 points, the closest of any score call on this game. [Tyler Sullivan](/pundits/tyler-sullivan) wasn't far behind, projecting Bears 27-23 and missing by 4. Both picked the correct side and beat the field: Dubin's call (skill +110.57) and Sullivan's (+102.38) were the two most accurate score grades of the seven.

Two pundits also had this result flagged well before kickoff. [Adam Chudwin](/pundits/adam-chudwin) predicted a Bears win in Atlanta back on September 4 as part of a full-season game-by-game call, and [Jerry Markarian](/pundits/jerry-markarian) wrote on October 7 that Chicago had "been similarly impressive" to Atlanta and should "survive" the trip. Both graded as full hits once Chicago did exactly that.

## Which scorers missed the most?

Five pundits picked Atlanta to win, and all five also got the score wrong. [John Breech](/pundits/john-breech) projected Falcons 34-27 on October 13, missing the final margin by 15 points, the widest miss among the score predictions. [Pete Prisco](/pundits/pete-prisco) had Falcons 27-21 twice across two separate pieces, missing by 14 both times. [Jordan Dajani](/pundits/jordan-dajani) called Falcons 30-27, missing by 11, and [Chris Simms](/pundits/chris-simms) had Falcons 23-20, also off by 11. [Gene Chamberlain](/pundits/gene-chamberlain) came closest among the Falcons backers with a 26-24 call, still missing by 10. On the outcome side, [Eva Geitheim](/pundits/eva-geitheim) and [Mitchell Eisenstein](/pundits/mitchell-eisenstein) both took the Falcons straight up and scored zero skill, the same mark a reader would get by just picking the home team and stopping there.

| Pundit | Call | Predicted margin | Miss |
| --- | --- | ---: | ---: |
| Jared Dubin | Bears 23-17 | -6 | 2 |
| Tyler Sullivan | Bears 27-23 | -4 | 4 |
| Gene Chamberlain | Falcons 26-24 | +2 | 10 |
| Chris Simms | Falcons 23-20 | +3 | 11 |
| Jordan Dajani | Falcons 30-27 | +3 | 11 |
| Pete Prisco | Falcons 27-21 | +6 | 14 |
| John Breech | Falcons 34-27 | +7 | 15 |

![The closest score call still missed by two points](/posts/visuals/75e5e556-b685-42e8-8f27-cd8d160366e6.png)

## Does this fit these pundits' usual form?

Dubin's sharp call is an outlier for him, not a pattern. Across 71 graded score predictions, Dubin is sitting at 43.27% accuracy and a negative skill score overall, so this game's +110.57 is one of his better grades, not a continuation of a hot streak. Sullivan's game was closer to business as usual: he runs 59.85% accuracy across 79 graded score calls, and this one (90.48%) was simply a strong week within that.

Breech's miss, likewise, doesn't break new ground. He's an established pundit with 55.16% overall accuracy and a positive career skill score, and his score-prediction average specifically sits at 53.34% across 107 graded calls. Missing by 15 here pulls one result down without upending a generally middling record on exact scores. Derek Brown's correct outcome pick adds to a thin sample at this prediction type: he's now logged just a handful of graded game-outcome calls against a much larger body of work in mock drafts and fantasy calls, so one win there moves the needle more than it would for a high-volume picker.

## What does this change for the rest of the season?

Chicago's win keeps alive the stronger season-long case pundits have built on the Bears: calls on their playoff and division chances have graded well this year. Atlanta's loss does the opposite. The Falcons' division-winner and playoff-berth calls we've tracked have graded accuracy at zero so far this season, and this result doesn't give that record anything to lean on. For the full picture on both clubs, see the [Chicago Bears](/nfl/teams/bears) and [Atlanta Falcons](/nfl/teams/falcons) team pages, and check the [leaderboard](/nfl/leaderboard) for where this week's callers rank overall.