luckadjusted

Week 4 2025 · September 28, 2025

Browns at Lions, Week 4 2025: who deserved to win?

The Lions beat the Browns 34–10, and it was no fluke: replayed with the way both teams actually played, the Lions win 10 of 10.

Before kickoff the Lions were 77% favorites. The biggest swing (Q2, 4:36 left): the Browns were intercepted on a well-placed throw, worth 9 points of win probability to the Lions.

Final

Cleveland Browns 10
Detroit Lions 34

September 28, 2025 · Ford Field · Closing line: Lions −10

Luck index +4 Lions about even · −4 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. Browns win 0, Lions win 10.

  1. 1 CLE 6 DET 9
  2. 2 CLE 20 DET 26
  3. 3 CLE 13 DET 23
  4. 4 CLE 13 DET 25
  5. 5 CLE 15 DET 30
  6. 6 CLE 9 DET 26
  7. 7 CLE 17 DET 38
  8. 8 CLE 17 DET 41
  9. 9 CLE 3 DET 33
  10. 10 CLE 0 DET 38

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

Browns win 4% of them, Lions 96%, counting the 1% still level after regulation as half each. The line is what actually happened: Lions by 24.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Browns by 17+0.1%
Browns by 9–160.5%
Browns by 1–83.0%
Level after regulation0.7%
Lions by 1–87.6%
Lions by 9–1617.6%
Lions by 17+70.6%

Where the luck was

Take the luck out

The final margin was Lions by 24. Remove the luck, one kind at a time, and it becomes Lions by 14.2.

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.

  • J. Bates, 48 yds made · 78% expected
  • J. Bates, 58 yds made · 62% expected
  • A. Szmyt, 33 yds made · 95% expected
  • A. Szmyt, 56 yds missed · 66% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Lions’ chance of winning

As low as 32% 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 Lions were ahead in it, below while the Browns were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q1 10:18 The Browns converted 3rd & 43rd & 4th downs · 40% expected +7% CLE CLE: Touchdown
2 Q1 5:41 The Browns converted 4th & 13rd & 4th downs · 61% expected +8% CLE CLE: Touchdown
3 Q2 14:20 J. Bates made 48-yard field goalKicks · 78% expected for him, 10 of 15 from 45+ before +6% DET DET: Punt
4 Q2 6:17 The Lions were stopped on 3rd & 113rd & 4th downs · 26% expectedJ. Williams dropped a catchable passDrops · 9 drops on 116 catchable balls before this +6% CLE DET: Punt
5 Q2 6:10 The Browns fumbled and recovered it themselvesFumble bounces · loose balls are close to 50/50 +8% CLE CLE: Turnover
6 Q2 4:36 The Browns were intercepted on a well-placed throwInterceptions · 0% expected to stay out of the defense's hands +9% DET CLE: Punt
7 Q3 1:34 The Browns were stopped on 3rd & 163rd & 4th downs · 16% expectedI. Bond dropped a catchable passDrops · 0 drops on 7 catchable balls before this +9% DET CLE: Missed field goal
8 Q4 14:03 The Browns were stopped on 3rd & 73rd & 4th downs · 29% expectedJ. Jeudy dropped a catchable passDrops · 16 drops on 256 catchable balls before this +7% DET CLE: Opp 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.

  • Levi Onwuzurike (DET DE), out (IR) · 0.3 pts
  • Marcus Davenport (DET DE), out (IR) · 0.3 pts
  • Jack Conklin (CLE T), out · 1.0 pts
  • Martin Emerson (CLE CB), out (IR) · 0.4 pts
  • Dawand Jones (CLE T), out (IR) · 0.3 pts
  • Cameron Mitchell (CLE CB), out · 0.2 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

Browns 1% · Lions 99%

Final margin
Lions by 24
Luck in points
9.8 for the Lions
Luck-adjusted margin
Lions by 14.2
Replay with same day's form
Browns 4% · Lions 96% 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 4 2025 games · Browns · Lions

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