luckadjusted

Week 17 2025 · December 28, 2025

Seahawks at Panthers, Week 17 2025: who deserved to win?

The Seahawks beat the Panthers 27–10 and were the better team on the day: replayed with the same form, they win 6 of 10. The Panthers had the bounces: judgment calls alone were worth 1.6 points to the Panthers.

Before kickoff the Seahawks were 68% favorites. The biggest swing (Q3, 7:54 left): the Panthers were stopped on 3rd & 4, worth 15 points of win probability to the Seahawks.

Final

Seattle Seahawks 27
Carolina Panthers 10

December 28, 2025 · Bank of America Stadium · Closing line: Seahawks −6.5

Luck index +36 Seahawks lucky · −36 Panthers

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. Seahawks win 6, Panthers win 4.

  1. 1 SEA 33 CAR 10
  2. 2 SEA 31 CAR 16
  3. 3 SEA 13 CAR 3
  4. 4 SEA 17 CAR 10
  5. 5 SEA 33 CAR 29
  6. 6 SEA 23 CAR 21
  7. 7 SEA 21 CAR 23
  8. 8 SEA 17 CAR 23
  9. 9 SEA 10 CAR 21
  10. 10 SEA 15 CAR 33

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

Seahawks win 64% of them, Panthers 36%, counting the 2% still level after regulation as half each. The line is what actually happened: Seahawks by 17.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Seahawks by 17+15.5%
Seahawks by 9–1619.6%
Seahawks by 1–828.7%
Level after regulation2.5%
Panthers by 1–820.3%
Panthers by 9–169.7%
Panthers by 17+3.8%

Where the luck was

Take the luck out

The final margin was Seahawks by 17. Remove the luck, one kind at a time, and it becomes Seahawks 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.

  • J. Myers, 48 yds made · 81% expected
  • R. Fitzgerald, 35 yds made · 93% expected
  • J. Myers, 30 yds made · 98% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Panthers’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 58%. 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 Panthers were ahead in it, below while the Seahawks were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q1 7:07 The Seahawks converted 3rd & 153rd & 4th downs · 20% expected +10% SEA SEA: Field goal
2 Q2 7:00 The Panthers were stopped on 4th & 43rd & 4th downs · 41% expected +7% SEA CAR: Field goal
3 Q2 5:33 The Seahawks were stopped on 3rd & 53rd & 4th downs · 39% expectedThe Seahawks fumbled and recovered it themselvesFumble bounces · loose balls are close to 50/50 +12% CAR SEA: Turnover on downs
4 Q2 0:26 The Seahawks were stopped on 4th & 13rd & 4th downs · 72% expected +9% CAR SEA: Turnover
5 Q3 12:06 The Panthers fumbled and the Seahawks recoveredFumble bounces · loose balls are close to 50/50 +8% SEA CAR: Turnover
6 Q3 10:35 The Seahawks converted 3rd & 93rd & 4th downs · 27% expected +8% SEA SEA: Touchdown
7 Q3 8:49 The Seahawks converted 3rd & 23rd & 4th downs · 50% expected +10% SEA SEA: Touchdown
8 Q3 7:54 The Panthers were stopped on 3rd & 43rd & 4th downs · 41% expectedThe Panthers threw an interception-worthy pass, and it was pickedInterceptions · 51% expected to stay out of the defense's hands +15% SEA CAR: Touchdown

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.

  • Trevin Wallace (CAR LB), out (IR) · 0.4 pts
  • Tershawn Wharton (CAR DT), out · 0.3 pts
  • Charles Cross (SEA T), out · 1.0 pts
  • Coby Bryant (SEA S), out · 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

Seahawks 89% · Panthers 11%

Final margin
Seahawks by 17
Luck in points
9.9 for the Seahawks
Luck-adjusted margin
Seahawks by 7.1
Replay with same day's form
Seahawks 64% · Panthers 36% 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 17 2025 games · Seahawks · Panthers

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