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.

Matthew Stafford — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.125
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.123
Dropbacks
589
Turnover EPA
-52.0
WPA
+1.96
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1SEA 38 +0.506 +0.544 -0.038 +19.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.56 -0.4
2SF 55 -0.031 -0.099 +0.067 -1.7 2 / 0 -9.4 1 -2.3 -0.08 -9.8
3CIN 39 -0.233 -0.216 -0.018 -9.1 2 / 0 -8.7 6 -8.6 -0.38 -6.3
4IND 42 +0.268 +0.271 -0.003 +11.2 1 / 0 -3.7 2 -3.4 +0.30 +1.6
5PHI 41 -0.062 -0.062 -0.000 -2.5 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -6.2 -0.01 -7.5
6ARI 25 +0.056 +0.140 -0.084 +1.4 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -5.2 +0.26 +3.3
7PIT 32 -0.090 -0.079 -0.011 -2.9 1 / 0 -7.3 2 -2.8 -0.01 -19.7
8DAL 24 -0.222 -0.247 +0.025 -5.3 1 / 0 -8.1 1 -2.6 -0.11 -8.3
11SEA 32 -0.199 -0.143 -0.056 -6.4 1 / 0 -3.3 1 -1.8 -0.18 -14.2
12ARI 33 +0.322 +0.400 -0.078 +10.6 1 / 0 -2.7 0 +0.0 +0.21 +12.8
13CLE 37 +0.250 +0.144 +0.106 +9.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.31 -5.1
14BAL 44 +0.206 +0.127 +0.079 +9.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.3 +0.22 +0.3
15WAS 36 +0.157 +0.219 -0.062 +5.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -5.1 +0.07 +6.3
16NO 35 +0.495 +0.430 +0.066 +17.3 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.4 +0.22 +7.6
17NYG 38 +0.022 +0.024 -0.002 +0.8 2 / 0 -8.7 4 -5.2 +0.06 +1.1
19DET 38 +0.439 +0.489 -0.049 +16.7 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.2 +0.52 +6.9
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.