luckadjusted

Week 1 2026 · September 9, 2026

Patriots at Seahawks, Week 1 2026: who deserved to win?

The Seahawks beat the Patriots 13–10 and were the better team on the day: replayed with the same form, they win 8 of 10. The Patriots had the bounces: judgment calls alone were worth 3.6 points to the Patriots.

Before kickoff the Seahawks were 59% favorites. The biggest swing (Q4, 0:26 left): the Patriots were stopped on 3rd & 5, worth 70 points of win probability to the Seahawks.

Final

New England Patriots 10
Seattle Seahawks 13

September 9, 2026 · Lumen Field · Closing line: Seahawks −3

Luck index +23 Seahawks about even · −23 Patriots

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. Patriots win 2, Seahawks win 8.

  1. 1 NE 27 SEA 13
  2. 2 NE 30 SEA 26
  3. 3 NE 8 SEA 10
  4. 4 NE 17 SEA 21
  5. 5 NE 6 SEA 13
  6. 6 NE 10 SEA 20
  7. 7 NE 13 SEA 27
  8. 8 NE 14 SEA 30
  9. 9 NE 20 SEA 40
  10. 10 NE 17 SEA 44

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

Patriots win 23% of them, Seahawks 77%, counting the 4% still level after regulation as half each. The line is what actually happened: Seahawks by 3.

Show as a table
Final margin in the replaysShare of replays
Patriots by 17+2.4%
Patriots by 9–166.2%
Patriots by 1–813.9%
Level after regulation4.3%
Seahawks by 1–826.3%
Seahawks by 9–1622.6%
Seahawks by 17+24.5%

Where the luck was

Take the luck out

The final margin was Seahawks by 3. Remove the luck, one kind at a time, and it becomes Seahawks by 9.3.

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.

  • A. Borregales, 50 yds made · 70% expected
  • J. Myers, 30 yds made · 97% expected
  • J. Myers, 26 yds made · 99% expected
Bar: expected chance of a make. Filled dot: made. Open dot: missed or blocked.

When it happened

Seahawks’ chance of winning

As low as 17% 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 Seahawks were ahead in it, below while the Patriots were.
#WhenWhat happenedWin probability forNext drive
1 Q3 3:25 Illegal Shift on the Seahawks, 5 yards, wiping out the playPre-snap flags +15% NE NE: Turnover
2 Q4 11:38 The Seahawks converted 4th & 13rd & 4th downs · 73% expected +36% SEA SEA: Touchdown
3 Q4 5:45 Offensive Holding on the Patriots, 10 yards, wiping out the playJudgment calls +8% SEA SEA: End of game
4 Q4 3:49 The Patriots converted 4th & 23rd & 4th downs · 58% expected +10% NE NE: Turnover
5 Q4 3:03 Ineligible Downfield Pass on the Patriots, 5 yardsJudgment calls +9% SEA SEA: End of game
6 Q4 2:00 The Patriots converted 4th & 93rd & 4th downs · 27% expected +19% NE NE: Turnover
7 Q4 0:44 The Patriots converted 3rd & 13rd & 4th downs · 72% expected +9% NE NE: Turnover
8 Q4 0:26 The Patriots were stopped on 3rd & 53rd & 4th downs · 39% expectedThe Patriots threw an interception-worthy pass, and it was pickedInterceptions · 50% expected to stay out of the defense's hands +70% SEA –

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.

  • Zach Charbonnet (SEA RB), out (IR) · 0.3 pts
  • Nick Emmanwori (SEA S), out · 0.3 pts
  • Bryce Baringer (NE P), 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

Patriots 10% · Seahawks 90%

Final margin
Seahawks by 3
Luck in points
6.3 for the Patriots
Luck-adjusted margin
Seahawks by 9.3
Replay with same day's form
Patriots 23% · Seahawks 77% 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 1 2026 games · Patriots · Seahawks

More from Week 1 2026