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.

Derek Carr — 2021

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.058
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.052
Dropbacks
722
Turnover EPA
-101.7
WPA
+2.97
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1BAL 57 +0.158 +0.165 -0.007 +9.0 1 / 0 -5.3 3 -4.7 +0.80 -3.4
2PIT 39 +0.595 +0.529 +0.066 +23.2 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.0 +0.67 +9.8
3MIA 46 +0.206 +0.144 +0.062 +9.5 1 / 0 -11.7 3 -5.8 +0.75 -1.8
4LAC 38 -0.213 -0.199 -0.014 -8.1 1 / 0 -4.1 4 -6.8 -0.10 -2.4
5CHI 39 -0.232 -0.238 +0.006 -9.1 1 / 0 -3.1 3 -2.5 -0.18 -6.8
6DEN 29 +0.590 +0.569 +0.021 +17.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -1.8 +0.37 +9.7
7PHI 34 +0.530 +0.539 -0.010 +18.0 1 / 0 -4.3 0 +0.0 +0.42 +17.8
9NYG 47 -0.167 -0.156 -0.011 -7.8 2 / 1 -14.7 1 -4.2 -0.22 -3.2
10KC 37 -0.027 -0.001 -0.026 -1.0 1 / 0 -2.6 2 -2.6 +0.05 +1.4
11CIN 29 -0.329 -0.307 -0.022 -9.5 1 / 1 -11.8 2 -8.0 +0.02 +3.3
12DAL 42 +0.274 +0.185 +0.089 +11.5 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.3 +0.21 -2.2
13WAS 41 -0.022 -0.015 -0.007 -0.9 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.8 -0.31 +6.2
14KC 49 -0.090 -0.061 -0.028 -4.4 1 / 1 -8.5 4 -8.7 -0.08 +5.2
15CLE 39 -0.019 -0.026 +0.007 -0.7 1 / 1 -8.3 2 -6.4 +0.25 +2.3
16DEN 27 -0.190 -0.193 +0.003 -5.1 1 / 1 -11.7 2 -7.2 -0.21 +5.3
17IND 33 +0.184 +0.171 +0.013 +6.1 2 / 0 -7.6 2 -2.7 +0.51 +10.0
18LAC 40 -0.142 -0.130 -0.012 -5.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.9 +0.11 -6.0
19CIN 56 -0.006 +0.008 -0.014 -0.4 1 / 1 -8.1 3 -8.8 -0.08 -6.1
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.