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.

Russell Wilson — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.043
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.015
Dropbacks
401
Turnover EPA
-34.5
WPA
-0.49
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
7NYJ 30 +0.334 +0.292 +0.042 +10.0 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.1 +0.12 -1.6
8NYG 31 +0.069 +0.121 -0.052 +2.1 0 / 1 -4.4 4 -9.1 +0.03 +11.8
10WAS 31 +0.193 +0.236 -0.043 +6.0 1 / 0 -0.2 3 -4.7 +0.33 -2.7
11BAL 40 -0.206 -0.290 +0.084 -8.2 1 / 0 -5.0 4 -6.7 -0.11 +1.7
12CLE 33 +0.293 +0.237 +0.056 +9.7 0 / 1 -4.2 4 -9.1 +0.10 +26.7
13CIN 40 +0.378 +0.388 -0.010 +15.1 1 / 0 -8.3 2 -2.2 +0.42 +12.3
14CLE 27 +0.030 -0.021 +0.050 +0.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.2 -0.18 -1.7
15PHI 24 -0.209 -0.244 +0.035 -5.0 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.8 -0.31 -1.1
16BAL 35 -0.103 -0.188 +0.085 -3.6 1 / 0 -8.2 3 -4.0 +0.09 +17.2
17KC 42 -0.355 -0.366 +0.011 -14.9 1 / 0 -4.3 5 -9.6 -0.33 -2.5
18CIN 35 -0.176 -0.154 -0.022 -6.2 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -4.0 -0.58 -9.4
19BAL 33 +0.341 +0.246 +0.095 +11.3 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -5.0 -0.06 +12.8
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.