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.

Geno Smith — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.057
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.064
Dropbacks
528
Turnover EPA
-41.5
WPA
+1.99
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1LA 28 -0.181 -0.157 -0.024 -5.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.0 -0.10 -1.3
2DET 41 +0.300 +0.353 -0.054 +12.3 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 +0.79 +15.7
3CAR 39 +0.164 +0.162 +0.001 +6.4 1 / 0 -2.9 2 -2.6 +0.02 +3.2
4NYG 22 -0.422 -0.415 -0.008 -9.3 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.7 -0.06 -2.5
6CIN 45 -0.096 -0.080 -0.016 -4.3 2 / 0 -8.4 4 -6.7 -0.55 +13.7
7ARI 26 +0.202 +0.280 -0.078 +5.3 1 / 0 -3.6 2 -3.9 +0.30 +12.2
8CLE 38 +0.173 +0.069 +0.104 +6.6 2 / 0 -6.8 1 -1.5 +0.07 -0.4
9BAL 32 -0.393 -0.458 +0.065 -12.6 1 / 1 -5.6 4 -7.4 -0.25 -13.3
10WAS 47 +0.039 +0.102 -0.063 +1.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.5 +0.42 +3.1
11LA 35 +0.126 +0.147 -0.021 +4.4 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.6 +0.28 +0.2
12SF 33 -0.299 -0.362 +0.063 -9.9 1 / 0 -4.7 6 -11.6 -0.33 +4.0
13DAL 40 +0.333 +0.294 +0.039 +13.3 1 / 0 -3.6 0 +0.0 +0.33 -7.5
16TEN 39 +0.248 +0.283 -0.035 +9.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.5 +0.47 +4.4
17PIT 34 +0.207 +0.212 -0.005 +7.1 0 / 1 -5.8 1 -5.8 +0.21 +6.8
18ARI 29 +0.149 +0.231 -0.082 +4.3 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.40 -10.0
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.