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.

Kirk Cousins — 2022

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.047
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.045
Dropbacks
729
Turnover EPA
-87.2
WPA
+3.07
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1GB 33 +0.308 +0.281 +0.027 +10.2 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.2 +0.18 +5.2
2PHI 48 -0.250 -0.292 +0.042 -12.0 3 / 0 -13.1 2 -5.3 -0.13 -7.5
3DET 41 -0.117 -0.018 -0.099 -4.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.9 +0.24 -4.9
4NO 41 +0.040 -0.035 +0.075 +1.6 1 / 0 -3.6 3 -5.9 +0.10 +5.7
5CHI 42 +0.228 +0.278 -0.050 +9.6 1 / 0 -5.9 1 -1.9 +0.33 +7.5
6MIA 34 -0.125 -0.132 +0.006 -4.3 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.5 +0.00 +1.3
8ARI 39 -0.097 -0.082 -0.015 -3.8 0 / 1 -5.2 3 -9.0 +0.14 +7.7
9WAS 42 +0.013 +0.021 -0.008 +0.5 1 / 0 -2.5 2 -2.9 +0.19 -1.9
10BUF 54 +0.159 +0.090 +0.069 +8.6 2 / 0 -11.9 4 -4.8 +0.42 -2.6
11DAL 30 -0.529 -0.608 +0.079 -15.9 0 / 1 -5.7 7 -15.8 -0.27 -10.6
12NE 38 +0.382 +0.306 +0.076 +14.5 1 / 0 -6.9 1 -1.7 +0.50 +9.9
13NYJ 37 -0.071 -0.051 -0.020 -2.6 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -4.0 -0.07 -2.9
14DET 45 +0.390 +0.481 -0.091 +17.5 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.8 +0.30 +14.0
15IND 62 +0.088 +0.099 -0.011 +5.5 2 / 0 -9.5 7 -9.9 +0.66 -6.2
16NYG 51 -0.030 -0.023 -0.007 -1.5 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -4.9 +0.10 +2.3
17GB 33 -0.506 -0.522 +0.015 -16.7 3 / 1 -22.9 2 -6.9 -0.37 -7.0
18CHI 20 +0.788 +0.831 -0.042 +15.8 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.36 +23.3
19NYG 39 +0.313 +0.314 -0.001 +12.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.39 +13.7
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.