Game quality

What each result was worth beyond the score. Every play is graded by EPA (expected points added), then adjusted for who it came against: a defence's rating is what it allowed to everyone else that season, so a big day against a bad defence counts for less. Season views include playoff games.

Games

Adj margin = offence minus defence EPA per play after the opponent adjustment. Win exp = how often a team with that adjusted margin wins; a 55% win was a coin flip that landed. Win prob range = lowest and highest in-game chance, which is where blown leads and comebacks show.

TeamScorevs lineOff EPA/playraw → adj Def EPA/playraw → adjAdj marginWin exp Win prob rangeTurnoverslost / forced
SF L 7–31 -21.5dog 2.5 -0.46 → -0.44 +0.08 → +0.00 -0.44 1%raw 0% 0% – 50% 3 / 0
@ PHI W 31–7 +21.5fav 2.5 +0.08 → +0.15 -0.46 → -0.53 +0.68 100%raw 100% 50% – 100% 0 / 3
CIN L 20–23 -1.0dog 2.0 +0.02 → +0.01 +0.05 → -0.10 +0.11 78%raw 42% 9% – 58% 2 / 1
@ KC W 23–20 +1.0fav 2.0 +0.05 → +0.07 +0.02 → -0.04 +0.11 76%raw 58% 42% – 91% 1 / 2

Quarterbacks this week

Click a column to sort. Schedule = what the opponent adjustment added (+ = faced a tough pass defence). Turnover and sack EPA are what those plays cost; sacks are shared with the line.

QuarterbackTeam Opp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
Patrick Mahomes KC CIN 46 +0.182 +0.161 +0.021 +8.4 0 / 1 -6.0 3 -7.9 +0.24 +2.3
Jalen Hurts PHI SF 26 +0.011 -0.025 +0.037 +0.3 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.0 -0.03 -2.6
Joe Burrow CIN KC 46 -0.050 -0.040 -0.010 -2.3 2 / 0 -4.5 5 -7.2 -0.04 +8.1
Josh Johnson SF PHI 15 -0.095 -0.135 +0.040 -1.4 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.8 -0.05 -5.5
Opponent adjustment. A unit's rating for a game is its average over its other games that season, blended with 16 games' worth of prior (league average plus half of last season's gap from it; 24 games for pass defence, which is noisier). Early in a season that leans on last year; by midseason it is mostly this year. Chosen by how well it predicts a held-out game: it cut that error by about a quarter against no shrinkage, and adjusted numbers agree between odd and even weeks more than raw ones do (team EPA margin r 0.52 → 0.55, defence 0.32 → 0.36, QB EPA/dropback 0.47 → 0.49, 2016–2025).
Win expectancy is a logistic fit of wins on EPA margin over 6,036 completed games (it names the winner 86.5% of the time). These describe what happened; one game is not a forecast. Play-by-play credits the quarterback with every sack and dropback, so a bad line shows up in his numbers. Seasons 2016–2026, built 2026-09-14 01:25 UTC, from nflverse. Write-up: backtests/nfl_game_quality/FINDINGS.md.