# Seahawks 20, Chiefs 3: Pundits Picked the Right Side but Missed the Rout by Double Digits

*Published 2026-10-26 — MissedTakes*

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

Seattle's 20-3 win over Kansas City settled 23 graded calls from 19 pundits, and the majority had the right side: 11 picked the Seahawks against 8 for the Chiefs. Nobody predicted a margin anywhere close to 17 points, though. The nine pundits who named a final score all pictured something close, and every one of them missed the actual gap by at least 13 points. The average grade across all 23 calls landed at 54 out of 100, middling for a week where the better side won more often than not.

## How did the pundits split on this one?
Eleven of the 19 voices with a live pick took Seattle; eight stuck with Kansas City, and all eight lost. That split makes this a cleaner test than a unanimous week: most pundits had the right side, but nearly as many backed a Chiefs team that was about to lose by 17.

![Eleven pundits sided with Seattle, eight didn't](/posts/visuals/071ac102-4cd7-4a0a-8a57-3b8679ec1200.png)

Some of the Seattle side's picks were made well before kickoff. [Greg Auman](/pundits/greg-auman) wrote on October 2 that "Seattle should put Kansas City in the loss column, finally," and [John Breech](/pundits/john-breech) flagged this exact matchup as the Chiefs' probable first loss as far back as August 19 and 20. [Nick Wright](/pundits/nick-wright) and [Gregg Rosenthal](/pundits/gregg-rosenthal) also had Seattle, with Rosenthal simply noting, "I like the Seahawks winning Monday night." Since the home team was already the safer side on paper, these winner-only calls earned no skill credit above the baseline; getting the "who" right didn't mean getting the "by how much" right too, which is where the week's real separation shows up.

## Who came closest on the score?
Nobody got especially close. [Chris Simms](/pundits/chris-simms) and [Eric Williams](/pundits/eric-williams) tied for the nearest call, both off by 13 points. Simms picked Seattle late, saying, "Let's make it 21 to 17." Williams made his call all the way back on September 9, months before the season had revealed much about either team, writing, "Seahawks 28, Chiefs 24." That distance in time is why Williams' call scored better on skill (20.71) than Simms' (17.29) despite similar accuracy: predicting a Seahawks win with that much season left to play is a harder call to get even partly right.

| Pundit | Score call | Seahawks margin called | Off by |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| [Chris Simms](/pundits/chris-simms) | Seahawks 21-17 | +4 | 13 |
| [Eric Williams](/pundits/eric-williams) | Seahawks 28-24 | +4 | 13 |
| [Jared Dubin](/pundits/jared-dubin) | Seahawks 20-17 | +3 | 14 |
| [Richard Sherman](/pundits/richard-sherman) | Seahawks 30-27 | +3 | 14 |
| [Mitchell Eisenstein](/pundits/mitchell-eisenstein) | Seahawks 20-19 | +1 | 16 |
| [Tyler Sullivan](/pundits/tyler-sullivan) | Chiefs 24-23 | -1 | 18 |
| [Jordan Dajani](/pundits/jordan-dajani) | Chiefs 23-21 | -2 | 19 |
| [Pete Prisco](/pundits/pete-prisco) | Chiefs 23-17 | -6 | 23 |
| [John Breech](/pundits/john-breech) | Chiefs 27-20 | -7 | 24 |

![No score call landed within 13 points of the final margin](/posts/visuals/93b9f51f-206a-4b75-968a-b58794a21a92.png)

Mitchell Eisenstein's call deserves a second look even at 16 points off: he had Seattle's final score exactly right (20), just not Kansas City's (he said 19, not 3). [Richard Sherman](/pundits/richard-sherman) called it "30-27, Seattle Seahawks winning at Lumen Field and getting back the respect they deserve as the reigning Super Bowl champs," which captured the winner and the shape of a tight game that never materialized.

## Which pundits missed this one, and how badly?
Every pundit who took Kansas City lost, and the predicted scores show how far off the Chiefs backers were. [Matt Harmon](/pundits/matt-harmon) said simply, "I think Kansas City, you know, gets this one on the road in Seattle." [Nate Tice](/pundits/nate-tice) agreed: "I'm going with the Chiefs, but I still think the Seahawks are a very good team." [Sam Monson](/pundits/sam-monson) was blunter: "We're gonna go with the Chiefs." Among the score-callers, [John Breech](/pundits/john-breech) leaned on a revenge-game narrative around Kenneth Walker, predicting "27-20 over Seahawks" and separately calling it "the Kenneth Walker revenge game"; both calls graded at 26.19 accuracy, the Chiefs' worst outcome of the week shared with [Pete Prisco](/pundits/pete-prisco) (23.81) and [Jordan Dajani](/pundits/jordan-dajani) (14.29). [Tyler Sullivan](/pundits/tyler-sullivan) had the week's weakest score call at 11.9 accuracy, on top of a separate wrong winner pick, for a clean double miss.

## Did this fit these pundits' usual form?
John Breech's miss reversed his own earlier read. He had Seattle winning this exact matchup twice in August, then switched to Kansas City twice in October and lost both times. Across his full published record, Breech is an established, middle-of-the-pack forecaster (55.49% accuracy over 180 graded calls), and his score-prediction work specifically sits right around neutral (4.52 average skill). This result fits that pattern rather than standing out from it.

Richard Sherman's near-miss sits inside a broader record that leans positive: 182 graded calls, 60.67% overall accuracy, and a stronger 75.81% specifically on score predictions. Eric Williams, by contrast, is a thin sample so far (five graded calls, 53.81% accuracy), which makes his standout skill number here encouraging but not yet a trend worth leaning on.

## What does this loss change about how pundits see these two teams?
Season-long, pundits have been far more reliable calling Chiefs games (93.2% accuracy on 74 graded winner picks) than Seahawks games (28.7% accuracy on 129 graded picks), and this loss is the one several forecasters specifically flagged months ago as Kansas City's likely breaking point. It also extends an older pattern: last season's preseason win-total consensus undershot Seattle's actual win total by an average of 5 wins across 7 calls, while overshooting Kansas City's by an average of 6.4 wins across 9 calls, the same season Seattle went on to win the Super Bowl. Full team and pundit records are on the [Seahawks](/nfl/teams/seahawks) and [Chiefs](/nfl/teams/chiefs) pages, and the [leaderboard](/nfl/leaderboard) tracks who has been right most often all season.