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 — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.029
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.035
Dropbacks
629
Turnover EPA
-70.6
WPA
+0.58
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1DEN 28 -0.192 -0.205 +0.013 -5.4 1 / 0 -4.8 2 -2.4 -0.17 +5.3
2NE 46 +0.166 +0.195 -0.029 +7.6 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.4 +0.53 +8.5
3MIA 37 -0.017 -0.022 +0.005 -0.6 2 / 0 -6.9 3 -5.3 +0.03 +6.7
4DET 60 +0.153 +0.148 +0.005 +9.2 1 / 0 -4.4 3 -3.6 +0.01 -0.8
5NYG 47 -0.142 -0.088 -0.055 -6.7 0 / 0 +0.0 7 -12.9 -0.28 -0.5
6SF 52 +0.110 +0.085 +0.025 +5.7 2 / 0 -8.0 1 -1.0 -0.13 +0.6
7ATL 29 +0.219 +0.246 -0.027 +6.4 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.3 +0.30 +6.6
8BUF 30 +0.025 +0.038 -0.014 +0.7 1 / 0 -6.3 1 -1.4 -0.04 +3.1
9LA 41 -0.145 -0.133 -0.012 -6.0 3 / 0 -21.6 7 -9.3 -0.14 +0.5
11SF 36 +0.005 -0.021 +0.026 +0.2 1 / 0 -3.3 4 -6.6 +0.14 +16.0
12ARI 36 -0.016 +0.059 -0.075 -0.6 1 / 0 -4.7 5 -10.7 +0.11 +8.9
13NYJ 34 -0.012 -0.046 +0.034 -0.4 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -8.4 -0.28 +3.1
14ARI 30 +0.169 +0.239 -0.070 +5.1 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.16 +10.5
15GB 22 -0.219 -0.237 +0.018 -4.8 1 / 0 -4.0 3 -6.7 -0.06 +22.8
16MIN 45 +0.051 +0.007 +0.044 +2.3 2 / 0 -6.5 2 -2.8 +0.09 +6.4
17CHI 26 -0.163 -0.161 -0.002 -4.2 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.6 -0.23 +8.8
18LA 30 +0.327 +0.328 -0.001 +9.8 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.5 +0.53 +6.4
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.