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
KC L 22–40 -19.5fav 1.5 -0.36 → -0.31 +0.02 → -0.06 -0.25 6%raw 1% 0% – 51% 3 / 1
@ PHI W 40–22 +19.5dog 1.5 +0.02 → +0.03 -0.36 → -0.41 +0.43 99%raw 99% 49% – 100% 1 / 3

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
Jalen Hurts PHI KC 24 +0.614 +0.587 +0.028 +14.7 1 / 0 -2.5 2 -2.3 +0.16 +9.4
Patrick Mahomes KC PHI 41 -0.316 -0.347 +0.031 -13.0 2 / 1 -17.1 6 -11.8 -0.30 -3.1
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.