luckadjusted

Week 16 2025 · December 21, 2025

Bills at Browns, Week 16 2025: who deserved to win?

The Bills beat the Browns 23–20, and it was no fluke: replayed with the way both teams actually played, the Bills win 10 of 10. The Browns had the bounces: 3rd & 4th downs alone were worth 4.3 points to the Browns.

Before kickoff the Bills were 78% favorites. The biggest swing (Q4, 2:53 left): the Bills were stopped on 4th & 1, worth 23 points of win probability to the Browns.

Final

Buffalo Bills 23
Cleveland Browns 20

December 21, 2025 · FirstEnergy Stadium · Closing line: Bills −10.5

Luck index +5 Bills about even · −5 Browns

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 10, Browns win 0.

  1. 1 BUF 38 CLE 7
  2. 2 BUF 40 CLE 13
  3. 3 BUF 31 CLE 10
  4. 4 BUF 28 CLE 10
  5. 5 BUF 44 CLE 29
  6. 6 BUF 21 CLE 8
  7. 7 BUF 28 CLE 17
  8. 8 BUF 26 CLE 17
  9. 9 BUF 13 CLE 7
  10. 10 BUF 31 CLE 29

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 95% of them, Browns 5%, counting the 1% 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+67.2%
Bills by 9–1619.8%
Bills by 1–88.3%
Level after regulation0.8%
Browns by 1–83.0%
Browns by 9–160.8%
Browns by 17+0.1%

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 7.1.

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.

  • A. Szmyt, 24 yds made · 98% expected
  • M. Badgley, 41 yds made · 79% expected
  • A. Szmyt, 41 yds made · 80% expected
  • Extra point missed · 93% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Browns’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 71%. 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 Browns were ahead in it, below while the Bills were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q1 6:56 Offensive Holding on the Browns, 10 yards, wiping out the playJudgment calls +14% BUF BUF: Touchdown
2 Q1 3:03 The Browns were intercepted on a well-placed throwInterceptions · 0% expected to stay out of the defense's hands +10% BUF CLE: Field goal
3 Q4 13:35 The Bills were stopped on 4th & 43rd & 4th downs · 49% expected +9% CLE BUF: Punt
4 Q4 11:36 The Browns converted 3rd & 43rd & 4th downs · 42% expected +12% CLE CLE: Field goal
5 Q4 9:33 The Browns were stopped on 3rd & 33rd & 4th downs · 48% expected +10% BUF CLE: Field goal
6 Q4 7:55 The Bills were stopped on 3rd & 93rd & 4th downs · 33% expected +12% CLE BUF: Punt
7 Q4 5:08 The Browns were stopped on 4th & 23rd & 4th downs · 56% expected +15% BUF CLE: Punt
8 Q4 2:53 The Bills were stopped on 4th & 13rd & 4th downs · 77% expectedD. Knox dropped a catchable passDrops · 7 drops on 153 catchable balls before this +23% CLE BUF: End of game

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.

  • Denzel Ward (CLE CB), out · 1.1 pts
  • Jack Conklin (CLE T), out (IR) · 1.0 pts
  • David Njoku (CLE TE), out · 0.5 pts
  • Ethan Pocic (CLE C), out (IR) · 0.4 pts
  • Wyatt Teller (CLE G), out · 0.4 pts
  • Maliek Collins (CLE DT), out (IR) · 0.4 pts
  • Keon Coleman (BUF WR), out · 0.4 pts
  • Michael Hoecht (BUF DE), out (IR) · 0.3 pts
  • Matt Prater (BUF K), out · 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

Bills 91% · Browns 9%

Final margin
Bills by 3
Luck in points
4.1 for the Browns
Luck-adjusted margin
Bills by 7.1
Replay with same day's form
Bills 95% · Browns 5% 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 16 2025 games · Bills · Browns

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