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.

Joe Flacco — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.022
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.008
Dropbacks
267
Turnover EPA
-49.2
WPA
-0.45
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
4PIT 28 +0.300 +0.277 +0.023 +8.4 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.6 +0.06 +5.1
5JAX 48 +0.157 +0.217 -0.059 +7.6 0 / 1 -3.5 4 -5.6 -0.02 +8.5
6TEN 38 +0.017 +0.041 -0.024 +0.6 1 / 0 -5.5 0 +0.0 +0.04 -4.2
9MIN 30 -0.256 -0.293 +0.037 -7.7 1 / 0 -3.6 3 -3.1 -0.18 -10.5
10BUF 39 -0.341 -0.319 -0.022 -13.3 3 / 1 -23.3 4 -12.9 -0.45 +6.4
17NYG 41 +0.126 +0.177 -0.050 +5.2 2 / 1 -13.4 2 -5.7 +0.13 +7.7
18JAX 43 -0.155 -0.086 -0.069 -6.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -6.1 -0.03 -7.9
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.