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Regular season · week 3 · Sunday, Sep 27, 8:20 PM ET

Los Angeles RamsatDenver BroncosEXPERIMENTAL

Empower Field at Mile High

Los Angeles RamsDenver BroncosSaved on this device
Research matchup

82°F · 12 mph wind from the SE · 2% chance of rain · partly cloudy — not used by the model; no weather term enters the numbers below.

Simulation story

5 chapters · read from the published artifact
› Loading the matchup model› Reading the outcome distribution from 10,000 simulated games› Preparing the score scenariosPress Play to step through what the model expects, chapter by chapter, or read the report below.

LAR @ DEN

Los Angeles Rams at Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High.

model nfl-regular-season-public-v110,000 simulated gamesproduced Sep 24, 3:52 PM ET
Simulation

What our model expects

10,000 simulated games · model nfl-regular-season-public-v1

Projected score

LAR 21 — 25 DEN

the middle of our simulated outcomes, not a call on the exact final

Win chance

LAR 43.2% · DEN 53.9%

how often each side won in 10,000 simulations · ties 2.9%

Total points (both teams)

46

8 in 10 simulations landed between 29 and 63

DEN winning margin

+3

a minus means LAR wins by that much · 8 in 10 between -14 and 19

Model details

From the margin-of-victory Elo win head, published exactly as evaluated on held-out 2006–2021 — no shrink toward 50% is applied, and no claim to out-predict the sportsbook market is made. Generated 2026-09-24T19:52:17Z under model nfl-regular-season-public-v1 and frozen pre-kickoff; every forecast is settled against the official result.

Projected scorecard

expected statistical summaries · not one simulated game
LAR 21 — 25 DENwin chance LAR 43.2% · DEN 53.9%total 46 (29–63)margin +3

LAR

Likely TD scorers

Davante Adams 48.1% · available role uncertain

Puka Nacua 46.6% · questionable

Kyren Williams 45.1% · available role uncertain

Passing

Matthew Stafford 242 pass yds (133–399) · available role uncertain

Rushing leaders

Kyren Williams 47 rush yds (11–126) · available role uncertain

Blake Corum 38 rush yds (8–113) · available role uncertain

Receiving leaders

Puka Nacua 7 rec · 82 yds · questionable

Davante Adams 5 rec · 67 yds · available role uncertain

Terrance Ferguson 3 rec · 26 yds · questionable

DEN

Likely TD scorers

RJ Harvey 36.9% · questionable

J.K. Dobbins 28.4% · questionable

Jaylen Waddle 27.4% · available role uncertain

Passing

Bo Nix 214 pass yds (119–351) · available role uncertain

Rushing leaders

J.K. Dobbins 44 rush yds (10–120) · questionable

RJ Harvey 23 rush yds (4–77) · questionable

New arrivals · not in these numbers

Per game at their previous club — history, not a projection.

Jaylen Waddle 3.8 rec · 54 yds/g at MIA

Receiving leaders

Jaylen Waddle 5 rec · 57 yds · available role uncertain

RJ Harvey 3 rec · 28 yds · questionable

Courtland Sutton 3 rec · 33 yds · available role uncertain

pass interceptions · First/last/2+ touchdown — withheld, with the exact bar each failed
  • pass interceptions: RESEARCH_ONLY
  • First/last/2+ touchdown: DISABLED — no ordering model and no calibration receipt of their own; never derived from anytime probabilities
Range

How wide the outcomes are

the 10th to 90th percentile of each team's simulated score

TeamLow (10th)ProjectedHigh (90th)
Los Angeles Rams102133
Denver Broncos132536
Exact score

The likeliest final scores

from an event-based simulation of touchdowns and field goals, solved onto the median margin and total above

Score (LAR – DEN)Chance
24–270.73%
20–170.71%
17–200.69%
20–230.66%
27–240.63%
23–200.59%

No single scoreline is likely — these are the most common of hundreds. The projected score above is derived from the medians and answers a different question: the middle of the distribution, not its most common point.

Key numbers

How often it lands on 3, 7, 10 or 14

football's margins pile up on those four — this is the one thing a normal-draw model cannot show you

MarginThis gameLast 3 regular seasons
Decided by exactly 310.4%14.2%
Decided by exactly 76.9%8.3%
Decided by exactly 105.6%4.2%
Decided by exactly 144.9%4.4%
Any of the four27.9%31.1%

The right-hand column is what actually happened across 816 regular-season games (2023, 2024, 2025) — the same finals this engine was fitted to. It gets the shape right, with 3 the most common margin by a distance, and it is not calibrated to the number: it puts less weight on 3 and more on 10 than those seasons did.

LAR touchdowns
2.5
DEN touchdowns
2.6
LAR field goals
1.7
DEN field goals
1.8
Tied after regulation
3.9%
Comparison

Us versus the sportsbooks

two independent reads, shown side by side

No current sportsbook capture covers this game.

Player projections · 22 modelled

The player board

Every modelled player, with his availability. Players listed out carry no volume projection.

Every receiving family for one player on one row, ranked by expected receptions.

PlayerTeamAvailabilityReceptions (10th–90th)Rec yards (10th–90th)TD chance
Puka NacuaLARquestionable7 (2–13)82 (36–155)46.6%
Davante AdamsLARrole uncertain5 (2–10)67 (26–136)48.1%
Jaylen WaddleDENrole uncertain5 (1–10)57 (21–119)27.4%
RJ HarveyDENquestionable3 (1–7)28 (7–66)36.9%
Terrance FergusonLARquestionable3 (0–6)26 (4–66)25.7%
Courtland SuttonDENrole uncertain3 (1–7)33 (9–78)22.4%
Kyren WilliamsLARrole uncertain2 (0–4)16 (0–46)45.1%
Colby ParkinsonLARquestionable2 (0–4)18 (0–51)17.4%
Evan EngramDENrole uncertain2 (0–5)22 (1–58)15.9%
Pat BryantDENrole uncertain2 (0–5)22 (1–59)15.4%
Jonah ColemanDENquestionable1 (0–3)9 (0–35)23.1%
Troy FranklinDENrole uncertain1 (0–4)14 (0–45)12.6%
Tyler BadieDENrole uncertain1 (0–3)11 (0–40)11.2%
Marvin Mims Jr.DENquestionable1 (0–4)13 (0–43)11.1%
Tyler HigbeeLARrole uncertain1 (0–3)8 (0–35)9.7%
Konata MumpfieldLARrole uncertain1 (0–3)7 (0–32)9.3%
Lil'Jordan HumphreyDENrole uncertain1 (0–3)8 (0–35)8.6%

New arrivals · not in the simulated numbers above

Per game at their previous team — history, not a projection.

PlayerTeamAvailabilityLast clubPer game (prior club)
Jaylen Waddle WRDENactive uncertainMIA · 17g3.8 rec · 54 yds
Families not shown, and the exact bar each failed (2)
  • pass interceptions: RESEARCH_ONLY
  • First/last/2+ touchdown: DISABLED — no ordering model and no calibration receipt of their own; never derived from anytime probabilities

Scoring outlooktop 6 of 22 by TD chance · full list in the board’s TD tab

  • 48.1% Davante Adams · LAR · available role uncertain
  • 46.6% Puka Nacua · LAR · questionable
  • 45.1% Kyren Williams · LAR · available role uncertain
  • 36.9% RJ Harvey · DEN · questionable
  • 28.4% J.K. Dobbins · DEN · questionable
  • 27.4% Jaylen Waddle · DEN · available role uncertain

Anytime-scorer probability means scoring a touchdown — never throwing one. Void if the player does not play; questionable players carry their state above.

Reading key

What these numbers mean

Projected score
The middle outcome across every simulated game — not a prediction of the exact final.
Win chance
How often each side won across the simulations, after the calibration described above.
80% range
Eight in ten simulated games landed inside this band. Real games land outside it too.
pp (percentage points)
The plain difference between two percentages. A gap is a difference, not an advantage.
Experimental
Published while its out-of-sample record is still accumulating. Every forecast is frozen before kickoff and graded against the official result.
Provenance

Where this came from

model
nfl-regular-season-public-v1 v2
simulations
10,000
input hash
ef63bb60316b7675
generated
2026-09-24T19:52:17Z
kickoff
2026-09-28T00:20Z
state
UPCOMING
Player-family model provenance (4 published)
  • Rushing yards: Share-level model: cleared every bar when re-tested on 2014–2021 (14,502 player-games) — a second look at seasons examined once before, not a blind test. Each week's forecast is frozen before the first kickoff and graded; its blind 2026 record is still accumulating (111 graded player-games so far).
  • Receiving yards: Share-level model: cleared every bar when re-tested on 2014–2021 (27,134 player-games) — a second look at seasons examined once before, not a blind test. Each week's forecast is frozen before the first kickoff and graded; its blind 2026 record is still accumulating (200 graded player-games so far).
  • Receptions: Share-level model: cleared every bar when re-tested on 2014–2021 (27,134 player-games) — a second look at seasons examined once before, not a blind test. Each week's forecast is frozen before the first kickoff and graded; its blind 2026 record is still accumulating (200 graded player-games so far).
  • Anytime touchdown: Opportunity touchdown model: cleared every bar on a blind test of 2014–2021 (35,128 player-games never used to build it). Probabilities condition on playing — a player who does not play settles void. Each week's forecast is frozen before the first kickoff and graded; its blind 2026 record is still accumulating (267 graded player-games so far).

Our win chances come from a team rating that weights how decisively teams win. Tested on 4,281 past games it had never seen (2006–2021), it scored 0.629 on log loss (lower is better) — better than our previous rating's 0.642 and a coin flip's 0.693, but short of the sportsbooks' own odds at 0.610. It has NOT been shown to beat the sportsbook market. Where our win and margin ratings disagree on the favourite, the previous rating is used for that game. The 2026 season evaluation still runs under bars frozen in August, so every forecast stays experimental.

Educational and paper-only — not betting advice.

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