# Steelers 27, Browns 6: 22 of 28 Pundits Picked Pittsburgh, None Called the 21-Point Margin

*Published 2026-11-02 — MissedTakes*

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

## Did Any Pundits Take Cleveland Seriously?

Not many. Of the 28 pundits with a graded pick on [Pittsburgh](/nfl/teams/steelers) at [Cleveland](/nfl/teams/browns), 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.

![Only Six Pundits Backed the Browns](/posts/visuals/6b4cbe21-eddd-4655-b615-c9ac2952f8e1.png)

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](/pundits/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](/pundits/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](/pundits/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](/pundits/danny-parkins) | Oct 30 | Browns straight up | -161 |
| [Matt Harmon](/pundits/matt-harmon) | Oct 29 | Browns straight up | -161 |
| [Tyler Sullivan](/pundits/tyler-sullivan) | Oct 29 | Browns straight up | -161 |
| [John Breech](/pundits/john-breech) | Oct 27 | Browns 23-20 | -70.82 |
| [John Breech](/pundits/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](/nfl/teams/steelers) this season sit alongside Cleveland's [24](/nfl/teams/browns), while Bryan DeArdo's [80.96 MissedTakes Score](/nfl/leaderboard) still leads the board.