luckadjusted

Wild Card 2025 · January 12, 2026

Texans at Steelers, Wild Card 2025: who deserved to win?

The Texans beat the Steelers 30–6 and were the better team on the day: replayed with the same form, they win 7 of 10.

Before kickoff the Texans were 59% favorites. The biggest swing (Q4, 11:34 left): Return touchdown by the Texans, worth 51 points of win probability to the Texans.

Final

Houston Texans 30
Pittsburgh Steelers 6

January 12, 2026 · Acrisure Stadium · Closing line: Texans −3

Luck index +26 Texans lucky · −26 Steelers

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. Texans win 7, Steelers win 3.

  1. 1 HOU 35 PIT 10
  2. 2 HOU 26 PIT 7
  3. 3 HOU 27 PIT 13
  4. 4 HOU 20 PIT 9
  5. 5 HOU 17 PIT 10
  6. 6 HOU 21 PIT 16
  7. 7 HOU 19 PIT 17
  8. 8 HOU 7 PIT 10
  9. 9 HOU 15 PIT 23
  10. 10 HOU 5 PIT 20

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

Texans win 74% of them, Steelers 26%, counting the 5% still level after regulation as half each. The line is what actually happened: Texans by 24.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Texans by 17+22.3%
Texans by 9–1623.2%
Texans by 1–826.9%
Level after regulation5.1%
Steelers by 1–814.4%
Steelers by 9–166.0%
Steelers by 17+2.1%

Where the luck was

Take the luck out

The final margin was Texans by 24. Remove the luck, one kind at a time, and it becomes Texans by 10.8.

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.

  • C. Boswell, 32 yds made · 96% expected
  • C. Boswell, 35 yds made · 93% expected
  • K. Fairbairn, 51 yds made · 66% expected
  • Extra point missed · 88% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Steelers’ chance of winning

As low as 0% and as high as 68%. 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 Steelers were ahead in it, below while the Texans were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q1 11:17 The Texans converted 3rd & 53rd & 4th downs · 40% expected +11% HOU HOU: Punt
2 Q1 2:50 The Texans converted 3rd & 33rd & 4th downs · 51% expected +9% HOU HOU: Turnover
3 Q1 2:10 The Texans fumbled and the Steelers recoveredFumble bounces · loose balls are close to 50/50 +9% PIT HOU: Touchdown
4 Q2 2:36 The Steelers were stopped on 3rd & 83rd & 4th downs · 21% expected +10% HOU PIT: Field goal
5 Q3 10:32 The Texans were stopped on 3rd & 43rd & 4th downs · 45% expectedThe Texans threw an interception-worthy pass, and it was pickedInterceptions · 49% expected to stay out of the defense's hands +26% PIT HOU: Punt
6 Q3 0:44 The Texans converted 3rd & 153rd & 4th downs · 21% expected +16% HOU HOU: Field goal
7 Q4 13:12 K. Fairbairn made 51-yard field goalKicks · 66% expected for him, 60 of 83 from 45+ before +11% HOU HOU: Opp touchdown
8 Q4 11:34 The Steelers were stopped on 3rd & 123rd & 4th downs · 21% expectedThe Steelers fumbled and the Texans recoveredFumble bounces · loose balls are close to 50/50Return touchdown by the TexansSpecial teams +51% HOU PIT: Punt

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.

  • Broderick Jones (PIT T), out (IR) · 0.7 pts
  • Darnell Washington (PIT TE), 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

Texans 97% · Steelers 3%

Final margin
Texans by 24
Luck in points
13.2 for the Texans
Luck-adjusted margin
Texans by 10.8
Replay with same day's form
Texans 74% · Steelers 26% 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 Wild Card 2025 games · Texans · Steelers

More from Wild Card 2025