luckadjusted

Week 8 2025 · October 26, 2025

Jets at Bengals, Week 8 2025: who deserved to win?

The Jets beat the Bengals 39–38, but it was a coin flip: replayed with the way both teams played, the Jets win 6 of 10. Luck ran their way: judgment calls alone were worth 1.8 points to the Jets.

Before kickoff the Bengals were 66% favorites. The biggest swing (Q4, 0:32 left): the Bengals were stopped on 4th & 9, worth 27 points of win probability to the Jets.

Final

New York Jets 39
Cincinnati Bengals 38

October 26, 2025 · Paycor Stadium · Closing line: Bengals −5.5

Luck index +44 Jets lucky · −44 Bengals

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 6, Bengals win 4.

  1. 1 NYJ 27 CIN 3
  2. 2 NYJ 18 CIN 0
  3. 3 NYJ 23 CIN 10
  4. 4 NYJ 26 CIN 17
  5. 5 NYJ 27 CIN 21
  6. 6 NYJ 23 CIN 21
  7. 7 NYJ 23 CIN 25
  8. 8 NYJ 13 CIN 20
  9. 9 NYJ 17 CIN 29
  10. 10 NYJ 6 CIN 27

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 56% of them, Bengals 44%, counting the 3% still level after regulation as half each. The line is what actually happened: Jets by 1.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Jets by 17+14.3%
Jets by 9–1616.6%
Jets by 1–825.2%
Level after regulation2.7%
Bengals by 1–818.9%
Bengals by 9–1614.2%
Bengals by 17+8.1%

Where the luck was

Take the luck out

The final margin was Jets by 1. Remove the luck, one kind at a time, and it becomes Bengals by 0.2.

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.

  • E. McPherson, 26 yds made · 98% expected
  • N. Folk, 46 yds made · 84% expected
  • N. Folk, 25 yds made · 100% expected
  • N. Folk, 24 yds made · 100% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Bengals’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 97%. 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 Bengals were ahead in it, below while the Jets were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q1 13:06 The Bengals converted 3rd & 83rd & 4th downs · 36% expected +6% CIN CIN: Field goal
2 Q1 8:20 The Jets were stopped on 4th & 13rd & 4th downs · 74% expected +9% CIN NYJ: Punt
3 Q2 5:23 The Jets converted 4th & 23rd & 4th downs · 61% expected +8% NYJ NYJ: Touchdown
4 Q2 3:23 Offensive Holding on the Bengals, 10 yards, wiping out the playJudgment calls +5% NYJ NYJ: Field goal
5 Q3 14:08 The Jets converted 3rd & 73rd & 4th downs · 35% expected +5% NYJ NYJ: Punt
6 Q4 7:41 The Bengals were stopped on 3rd & 103rd & 4th downs · 32% expected +5% NYJ CIN: Punt
7 Q4 0:37 The Bengals were stopped on 3rd & 93rd & 4th downs · 34% expected +6% NYJ CIN: Turnover on downs
8 Q4 0:32 The Bengals were stopped on 4th & 93rd & 4th downs · 33% expected +27% NYJ –

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.

  • Joe Burrow (CIN QB), out (IR), replaced by j.flacco · 4.9 pts
  • Mike Gesicki (CIN TE), out (IR) · 0.5 pts
  • Tyrod Taylor (NYJ QB), out, replaced by j.fields · 1.5 pts
  • Sauce Gardner (NYJ CB), out · 1.4 pts
  • Garrett Wilson (NYJ WR), out · 1.1 pts
  • Josh Reynolds (NYJ WR), out (IR) · 0.5 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 51% · Bengals 49%

Final margin
Jets by 1
Luck in points
1.2 for the Jets
Luck-adjusted margin
Bengals by 0.2
Replay with same day's form
Jets 56% · Bengals 44% 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 8 2025 games · Jets · Bengals

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