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 — 2026 Every split →

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.104
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.117
Dropbacks
230
Turnover EPA
-19.0
WPA
+0.09
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1TEN 24 +0.339 +0.406 -0.067 +8.1 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.31 +12.8
2GB 44 +0.094 +0.098 -0.004 +4.1 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -5.1 -0.03 +5.9
3DET 44 +0.229 +0.247 -0.019 +10.1 0 / 1 -4.7 5 -11.3 +0.41 +14.8
4CHI 18 -0.273 -0.270 -0.003 -4.9 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -5.7 -0.19 -11.4
5CLE 34 -0.277 -0.333 +0.056 -9.4 0 / 1 -5.8 4 -11.0 -0.62 -9.0
6NE 33 +0.222 +0.178 +0.044 +7.3 1 / 0 -3.6 3 -4.6 -0.01 +3.5
7MIA 33 +0.260 +0.370 -0.110 +8.6 1 / 0 -4.9 2 -3.7 +0.22 +11.2
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 2026-10-28 11:05 UTC, from nflverse. Write-up: backtests/nfl_game_quality/FINDINGS.md.