luckadjusted

Week 16 2025 · December 21, 2025

Jets at Saints, Week 16 2025: who deserved to win?

The Saints beat the Jets 29–6, and it was no fluke: replayed with the way both teams actually played, the Saints win 9 of 10.

Before kickoff the Saints were 68% favorites. The biggest swing (Q4, 12:52 left): the Jets were stopped on 3rd & 5, worth 12 points of win probability to the Saints.

Final

New York Jets 6
New Orleans Saints 29

December 21, 2025 · Mercedes-Benz Superdome · Closing line: Saints −6.5

Luck index +14 Saints about even · −14 Jets

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. Jets win 1, Saints win 9.

  1. 1 NYJ 21 NO 14
  2. 2 NYJ 19 NO 21
  3. 3 NYJ 21 NO 26
  4. 4 NYJ 9 NO 17
  5. 5 NYJ 10 NO 20
  6. 6 NYJ 3 NO 16
  7. 7 NYJ 3 NO 17
  8. 8 NYJ 10 NO 28
  9. 9 NYJ 6 NO 27
  10. 10 NYJ 13 NO 41

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

Jets win 14% of them, Saints 86%, counting the 1% still level after regulation as half each. The line is what actually happened: Saints by 23.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Jets by 17+0.8%
Jets by 9–163.0%
Jets by 1–89.8%
Level after regulation1.0%
Saints by 1–825.4%
Saints by 9–1622.4%
Saints by 17+37.6%

Where the luck was

Take the luck out

The final margin was Saints by 23. Remove the luck, one kind at a time, and it becomes Saints by 17.4.

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.

  • N. Folk, 29 yds made · 100% expected
  • C. Smyth, 35 yds made · 94% expected
  • C. Smyth, 49 yds made · 76% expected
  • N. Folk, 36 yds made · 96% expected
  • C. Smyth, 36 yds made · 93% expected
  • C. Smyth, 61 yds missed · 59% expected
  • C. Smyth, 50 yds made · 74% expected
  • C. Smyth, 39 yds made · 90% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Saints’ chance of winning

As low as 38% and as high as 100%. 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 Saints were ahead in it, below while the Jets were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q1 7:44 The Saints converted 3rd & 53rd & 4th downs · 37% expected +7% NO NO: Field goal
2 Q2 15:00 The Saints were stopped on 3rd & 63rd & 4th downs · 34% expected +10% NYJ NO: Field goal
3 Q2 14:23 C. Smyth made 49-yard field goalKicks · 76% expected for him, 2 of 3 from 45+ before +7% NO NO: Turnover on downs
4 Q2 0:34 The Saints converted 3rd & 43rd & 4th downs · 42% expected +7% NO NO: Missed field goal
5 Q3 12:16 The Jets were stopped on 3rd & 63rd & 4th downs · 34% expected +8% NO NYJ: Punt
6 Q3 10:44 The Saints were stopped on 3rd & 53rd & 4th downs · 37% expected +7% NYJ NO: Punt
7 Q3 0:47 The Saints converted 3rd & 53rd & 4th downs · 37% expected +8% NO NO: Touchdown
8 Q4 12:52 The Jets were stopped on 3rd & 53rd & 4th downs · 38% expectedThe Jets fumbled and the Saints recoveredFumble bounces · loose balls are close to 50/50 +12% NO NYJ: Turnover

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.

  • Cesar Ruiz (NO C), out · 0.5 pts
  • Alvin Kamara (NO RB), out · 0.4 pts
  • Devaughn Vele (NO WR), out (IR) · 0.3 pts
  • Justin Fields (NYJ QB), out, replaced by b.cook · 1.4 pts
  • Andre Cisco (NYJ S), out (IR) · 0.4 pts
  • Mason Taylor (NYJ TE), out · 0.4 pts
  • Azareye'h Thomas (NYJ 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

Jets 2% · Saints 98%

Final margin
Saints by 23
Luck in points
5.6 for the Saints
Luck-adjusted margin
Saints by 17.4
Replay with same day's form
Jets 14% · Saints 86% 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 · Jets · Saints

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