luckadjusted

Week 7 2021 · October 25, 2021

No FTN charting for this game (drops and interception-worthy throws are not modelled).

Saints at Seahawks, Week 7 2021: who deserved to win?

The Saints beat the Seahawks 13–10, but it was a coin flip: replayed with the way both teams played, the Saints win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: injuries alone were worth 5.7 points to the Saints.

Before kickoff the Saints were 67% favorites. The biggest swing (Q4, 13:46 left): Offensive Holding on the Saints, 10 yards, wiping out the play, worth 21 points of win probability to the Seahawks.

Final

New Orleans Saints 13
Seattle Seahawks 10

October 25, 2021 · Lumen Field · Closing line: Saints −6

Luck index +48 Saints lucky · −48 Seahawks

Each team’s own plays from this game, resampled into new drives 4,000 times: with the way both teams actually played, how often does this performance win? How the replay works

Ten replays. Saints win 5, Seahawks win 5.

  1. 1 NO 34 SEA 13
  2. 2 NO 34 SEA 20
  3. 3 NO 17 SEA 7
  4. 4 NO 19 SEA 13
  5. 5 NO 15 SEA 13
  6. 6 NO 19 SEA 20
  7. 7 NO 21 SEA 26
  8. 8 NO 14 SEA 23
  9. 9 NO 14 SEA 27
  10. 10 NO 0 SEA 20

Three other ways to ask

Each answers a different question, so none of them replaces the replay above.

The closing betting line, turned into a probability. What everyone knew before the game.

The line plus what this game showed, weighted by how much one game can tell. It stays close to the line because one game says little.

Every kick, fumble bounce, drop, conversion and judgment call redrawn; everything else fixed. The narrowest view of luck.

How 4,000 replays ended

Saints win 52% of them, Seahawks 48%, counting the 5% still level after regulation as half each. The line is what actually happened: Saints by 3.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Saints by 17+11.3%
Saints by 9–1616.2%
Saints by 1–820.8%
Level after regulation5.2%
Seahawks by 1–821.4%
Seahawks by 9–1614.4%
Seahawks by 17+10.7%

Where the luck was

Take the luck out

The final margin was Saints by 3. Remove the luck, one kind at a time, and it becomes Seahawks by 3.2.

Each row takes one kind of luck out of the margin. Color shows which team it helped. Luck shares are the fitted ones (how much of each component is luck).

The kicks

How likely each kicker was to make that kick (his own record, the distance and the weather), and what happened.

  • B. Johnson, 21 yds made · 99% expected
  • J. Myers, 44 yds missed · 78% expected
  • J. Myers, 50 yds made · 67% expected
  • J. Myers, 53 yds missed · 62% expected
  • B. Johnson, 33 yds made · 93% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Seahawks’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 78%. Numbers mark the biggest luck moments, listed below.

nflfastR’s in-game win probability. It ignores the betting line, so it starts near even. Shaded above the middle while the Seahawks were ahead in it, below while the Saints were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q3 8:48 J. Myers missed 44-yard field goalKicks · 78% expected for him +10% NO SEA: Punt
2 Q3 0:18 J. Myers made 50-yard field goalKicks · 67% expected for him, 14 of 19 from 45+ before +11% SEA SEA: Missed field goal
3 Q4 13:46 Offensive Holding on the Saints, 10 yards, wiping out the playJudgment calls +21% SEA SEA: Missed field goal
4 Q4 6:01 Roughing the Passer on the Seahawks (Marquise Blair), 15 yardsJudgment calls · 3 flags in 704 snaps before, position avg 1 per 530 +19% NO NO: Field goal
5 Q4 5:26 The Saints converted 3rd & 103rd & 4th downs · 28% expected +15% NO NO: Field goal
6 Q4 3:08 Encroachment on the Seahawks (Al Woods), 5 yardsPre-snap flags · 3 flags in 760 snaps before, position avg 1 per 273 +16% NO NO: Field goal
7 Q4 2:16 The Saints were stopped on 3rd & 83rd & 4th downs · 25% expected +12% SEA NO: Field goal
8 Q4 1:23 The Seahawks were stopped on 3rd & 183rd & 4th downs · 16% expected +13% NO SEA: Turnover on downs

Missing players

Key players (usually on the field for half the snaps or more) who missed this game or part of it, valued by position and quality. The same players are missing in every replay, so this counts as luck in points only.

  • Russell Wilson (SEA QB), out (IR), replaced by g.smith · 6.7 pts
  • Damien Lewis (SEA G), out · 0.5 pts
  • Chris Carson (SEA RB), out (IR) · 0.3 pts
  • Michael Thomas (NO WR), out (IR) · 1.1 pts
  • Wil Lutz (NO K), out (IR) · 0.3 pts
  • David Onyemata (NO DT), out (IR) · 0.3 pts

Adjust the assumptions

Disagree with how much of a fumble bounce or a pass interference call is luck? Change it and the coin-flip replay reruns in your browser.

Only coin-flips re-rolled

Saints 71% · Seahawks 29%

Final margin
Saints by 3
Luck in points
6.2 for the Saints
Luck-adjusted margin
Seahawks by 3.2
Replay with same day's form
Saints 52% · Seahawks 48% unchanged: why
How much of each is luck?

0% treats it as skill, 100% as pure luck. The tick is our fit.

What counts

We tested momentum on 19,000 lucky breaks and found none, so it's off by default. Why

Flip a play

Force the other outcome, in this game and in every replay: a made kick becomes a miss, a stop becomes a conversion, a flag goes the other way.

About these numbers

Play-by-play and win probability from nflfastR via nflverse; kicks valued against each kicker’s own record; drops and interception-worthy throws from FTN charting (not available for this game); injuries from snap counts and injury reports. No FTN charting for this game (drops and interception-worthy throws are not modelled).

Methodology and validation · All Week 7 2021 games · Saints · Seahawks

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