# Falcons 29, 49ers 20: 17 of 24 Pundits Had the Wrong Winner

*Published 2026-10-25 — MissedTakes*

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

The [Atlanta Falcons](/nfl/teams/falcons) beat the [San Francisco 49ers](/nfl/teams/49ers) 29-20 in Week 7, snapping the 49ers' perfect start. We tracked 26 graded calls on the game, winner picks and final-score predictions, and the field got the winner wrong far more often than it got it right: 17 of 24 pundits picked San Francisco. The three pundits who came closest on the score all picked the Falcons, and even they missed the final margin by six points.

## How did the pundits split on Falcons-49ers?

Seventeen of 24 pundits picked the 49ers to win; only seven picked the Falcons, who then won outright, 29-20. That's a lopsided lean toward the unbeaten road team, and it was wrong. Across all 26 graded calls on the game, the average accuracy score was 47 out of 100, below a coin flip once you count how confidently the field backed the wrong side.

![Only 7 of 24 Pundits Picked the Falcons to Win](/posts/visuals/eb568939-1869-4d26-ade8-2530c9faae37.png)

## Who called the Falcons' margin closest?

Three pundits tied for the closest score prediction, all picking the Falcons by 3 points, six points off the final margin of 9. [Eric Cohen](/pundits/eric-cohen) had it "a 27-24 upset in Atlanta," published October 23. [Mitchell Eisenstein](/pundits/mitchell-eisenstein) wrote "But give me Atlanta. Give me Atlanta, 27-24," on October 21. [Grant Cohn](/pundits/grant-cohn) went lower-scoring but the same margin: "Final score prediction: 49ers 16, Falcons 19," on the morning of the game. All three beat the field's baseline for score calls badly enough to post positive skill scores (+13.06 each), this wasn't just picking the favorite, since San Francisco was 6-0 and the road team.

Four other pundits called the Falcons straight up without a score attached and went 100 percent accurate doing it, but their skill score came back at zero: picking the home team needed no real insight here, since Atlanta was already the side a coin flip would take. [Jose Sanchez](/pundits/jose-sanchez), ["Stanford Steve" Coughlin](/pundits/stanford-steve-coughlin) and [Sam Monson](/pundits/sam-monson) made that call during the week; [Nick Winkler](/pundits/nick-winkler) locked it in on September 9, as part of a full 2026 schedule projection, weeks before San Francisco's unbeaten run even started.

## Which misses cost the most?

Sixteen pundits predicted a 49ers win, and none of their score calls landed closer than 11 points off the final margin. [Gerald Thomas, III](/pundits/gerald-thomas-iii) missed by the widest margin among score calls, projecting "49ers 37, Falcons 23," 23 points off the actual gap. [John Breech](/pundits/john-breech) had the 49ers winning 34-24, published October 20. [Ralph Vacchiano](/pundits/ralph-vacchiano) went further than a score, writing that Atlanta's "hopes will probably get dashed next Sunday at home against the 49ers," with the Falcons falling to 2-5, the opposite of what happened.

Two pundits took the heaviest hit of the week, missing twice on the same game. [Jared Dubin](/pundits/jared-dubin) picked the 49ers straight up on October 23 and then predicted a 49ers 26-16 score the day before, drawing a steep negative skill score on both. [Jordan Dajani](/pundits/jordan-dajani) did the same, backing San Francisco on the outright pick and projecting a 49ers 22-20 final. And [Jarvis Landry](/pundits/jarvis-landry) locked in a 49ers loss call back on September 4, the one 49ers skeptic in the group, but on the wrong side of this result, since he predicted San Francisco's defeat coming elsewhere in the schedule, not in Atlanta beating them outright as it played out.

![No Score Pick Landed Within Six Points of the Final Gap](/posts/visuals/33e206b5-f217-4d9e-b94a-69218718838b.png)

## Does this fit these pundits' season-long records?

Eric Cohen's correct call keeps a small sample strong: his overall accuracy sits at 78.57 percent across just six graded calls, so one more hit matters more than it would for a high-volume pundit. John Breech's miss here (his score prediction graded at 47.62 percent accuracy) tracks close to his season-long number, 56.06 percent accuracy across 173 graded calls, so this result didn't move his established record much either way. Jared Dubin's double miss is a rougher result: his overall accuracy was already a middling 51.35 percent across 93 graded calls, and two more sub-50 grades from the same game pull that number further down rather than standing out as an outlier.

## What does the result change about these two teams' seasons?

San Francisco entered Week 7 unbeaten; a Week 7 simulation from John Breech on October 21 had the 49ers as the NFC's No. 1 seed at 6-0, and that outlook just got harder to defend after a road loss to a division rival. Atlanta, meanwhile, has multiple division-title pickers already on record this season, Chris Long, Carter Bahns, Mike Renner, Rich Eisen and Stephen Oh's simulation among them, all naming the Falcons for the NFC South before this result, and a win over the league's last unbeaten team is the kind of evidence that argument needed. For the fuller picture on both clubs, see the [49ers team page](/nfl/teams/49ers), the [Falcons team page](/nfl/teams/falcons) and the [pundit leaderboard](/nfl/leaderboard).