luckadjusted

Week 14 2023 · December 10, 2023

Bills at Chiefs, Week 14 2023: who deserved to win?

The Bills beat the Chiefs 20–17, but it was a coin flip: replayed with the way both teams played, the Bills win 5 of 10. Luck ran their way: injuries alone were worth 1.8 points to the Bills.

Before kickoff the Chiefs were 56% favorites. The biggest swing (Q4, 1:25 left): Offensive Offside on the Chiefs (Kadarius Toney), 5 yards, wiping out the play, worth 92 points of win probability to the Bills.

Final

Buffalo Bills 20
Kansas City Chiefs 17

December 10, 2023 · GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium · Closing line: Chiefs −2

Luck index +47 Bills lucky · −47 Chiefs

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. Bills win 5, Chiefs win 5.

  1. 1 BUF 34 KC 12
  2. 2 BUF 38 KC 23
  3. 3 BUF 13 KC 3
  4. 4 BUF 32 KC 27
  5. 5 BUF 27 KC 25
  6. 6 BUF 21 KC 24
  7. 7 BUF 13 KC 20
  8. 8 BUF 42 KC 52
  9. 9 BUF 14 KC 30
  10. 10 BUF 20 KC 44

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

Bills win 53% of them, Chiefs 47%, counting the 6% still level after regulation as half each. The line is what actually happened: Bills by 3.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Bills by 17+11.6%
Bills by 9–1614.9%
Bills by 1–822.1%
Level after regulation5.6%
Chiefs by 1–821.5%
Chiefs by 9–1613.4%
Chiefs by 17+10.8%

Where the luck was

Take the luck out

The final margin was Bills by 3. Remove the luck, one kind at a time, and it becomes Bills by 1.5.

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.

  • T. Bass, 31 yds made · 95% expected
  • H. Butker, 27 yds made · 99% expected
  • T. Bass, 39 yds made · 88% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Chiefs’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 67%. 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 Chiefs were ahead in it, below while the Bills were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q4 10:42 The Bills converted 3rd & 93rd & 4th downs · 33% expected +9% BUF BUF: Punt
2 Q4 9:46 Offensive Holding on the Bills, 10 yards, wiping out the playJudgment calls +13% KC KC: Punt
3 Q4 9:10 Offensive Holding on the Bills, 10 yards, wiping out the playJudgment calls +10% KC KC: Punt
4 Q4 5:41 The Bills converted 3rd & 63rd & 4th downs · 41% expected +14% BUF BUF: Field goal
5 Q4 2:17 Illegal Contact on the Chiefs (Jaylen Watson), 5 yardsJudgment calls · 3 flags in 1301 snaps before, position avg 1 per 216 +16% BUF BUF: Field goal
6 Q4 1:25 Offensive Offside on the Chiefs (Kadarius Toney), 5 yards, wiping out the playPre-snap flags · 1 flag in 693 snaps before, position avg 1 per 420 +92% BUF BUF: End of game
7 Q4 1:05 The Chiefs were stopped on 3rd & 153rd & 4th downs · 23% expected +10% BUF KC: Turnover on downs
8 Q4 1:01 The Chiefs were stopped on 4th & 153rd & 4th downs · 23% expected +17% BUF –

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.

  • Donovan Smith (KC T), out · 1.2 pts
  • Bryan Cook (KC FS), out (IR) · 0.4 pts
  • Drue Tranquill (KC LB), out · 0.4 pts
  • Isiah Pacheco (KC RB), out · 0.3 pts
  • Kaiir Elam (BUF CB), out (IR) · 0.4 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

Bills 78% · Chiefs 22%

Final margin
Bills by 3
Luck in points
1.5 for the Bills
Luck-adjusted margin
Bills by 1.5
Replay with same day's form
Bills 53% · Chiefs 47% 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; injuries from snap counts and injury reports.

Methodology and validation · All Week 14 2023 games · Bills · Chiefs

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