Steelers 27, Browns 6: 22 of 28 Pundits Picked Pittsburgh, None Called the 21-Point Margin
Drafted by a language model from MissedTakes' graded data, then reviewed and approved by Ben Garves before publishing. How our posts are made
Did Any Pundits Take Cleveland Seriously?
Not many. Of the 28 pundits with a graded pick on Pittsburgh at Cleveland, 22 took the Steelers and six took the Browns, and Pittsburgh won 27-6, a 21-point margin. Across the 34 graded calls on this game, the average accuracy was 65.
That split was not unanimous, but it was not close either. Pittsburgh covering the winner pick by a margin of better than three to one would have looked safe going in. The 14 pundits who went further and predicted a final score had a median call of the Steelers by 3.5 points, well under the eventual 21-point margin.
Whose Score Call Came Closest to 27-6?
Chris Simms came closest among the 14 score predictions, calling it Steelers 24-14 on October 30: "I like Pittsburgh in this game. To win... I'm gonna go twenty four fourteen here." A margin of 10 points still missed the real 21-point margin by 11, but it was the largest Steelers margin anyone named before kickoff, and it carried the highest MissedTakes Score of any call on this game: 36.52, well clear of picking the home team and nothing more. For a pundit whose overall record sits at 52.93 accuracy and a -7.38 MissedTakes Score across 77 graded calls, this was one of his better days.
Jared Dubin was next closest, calling it "20-13 over Browns" twice on October 29, a margin of seven that missed by 14 and scored 25.02 on the MissedTakes Score. Bryan DeArdo, who tops the overall leaderboard, picked the Steelers by four ("Steelers 20, Bro[wns 16]") and missed by 17, a correct winner call that still fell well short of his 80.96 season score, which is built mostly on other prediction types.
Who Picked the Browns to Win?
Six pundits backed Cleveland, and all six were wrong. The table below lists each one's call.
| Pundit | Date | Call | MissedTakes Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danny Parkins | Oct 30 | Browns straight up | -161 |
| Matt Harmon | Oct 29 | Browns straight up | -161 |
| Tyler Sullivan | Oct 29 | Browns straight up | -161 |
| John Breech | Oct 27 | Browns 23-20 | -70.82 |
| John Breech | Oct 3 | Browns 19-16 | -80.49 |
| Gennaro Filice | Oct 4 | Browns 17-16 | -89.21 |
| Green Light with Chris Long | Oct 2 | Browns 20-16 | -76.14 |
Danny Parkins kept it simple: "Game's in Pittsburgh. Steelers are the favorite. Again, we're just doing this straight up. I'm going small on the Browns." Matt Harmon's reasoning was about variety rather than evidence: "I'll go Cleveland just because we've been samey this whole time... So I'll go for the Browns just to be different." Tyler Sullivan pointed to travel as a factor: "I do wonder if the Steelers will be a little gassed in this contest after flying back from Paris."
John Breech is the name that shows up twice. He picked the Browns in an early-October column and again in a late-October one, 19-16 and then 23-20, both wrong. His 201 graded calls carry a 58.47 overall accuracy, and his game-outcome picks specifically average just 44.5 across 45 graded calls. Both picks here fall into that same weaker column.
What Are Pundits Saying About the Rest of These Two Seasons?
Pittsburgh's season-win-total calls cluster around 9-8: Breech has had the Steelers there since mid-October, projecting them "outside looking in" at the playoffs, while Nick Wright took the other side in September with a 6-11 call. Cleveland's calls run wider. Breech had the Browns at 5-12 in September before raising that to 8-9 by late October, and Mike Florio said on October 19 that "the Browns will likely be jockeying for a playoff berth after Thanksgiving." Pittsburgh's 29 graded win-total calls this season sit alongside Cleveland's 24, while Bryan DeArdo's 80.96 MissedTakes Score still leads the board.