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 — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.032
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.048
Dropbacks
581
Turnover EPA
-48.3
WPA
+0.66
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1TEN 37 +0.060 +0.099 -0.039 +2.2 1 / 0 -3.0 4 -5.5 +0.11 +6.2
2CAR 40 -0.058 -0.055 -0.004 -2.3 1 / 0 -3.2 4 -6.7 -0.04 -2.0
3GB 21 -0.008 +0.004 -0.011 -0.2 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -5.7 +0.04 +9.2
4TB 39 -0.364 -0.327 -0.037 -14.2 0 / 1 -3.2 2 -4.9 -0.35 -8.3
5NE 28 +0.162 +0.123 +0.039 +4.5 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -4.4 +0.00 +10.2
6HOU 52 +0.117 +0.100 +0.017 +6.1 1 / 0 -2.5 2 -2.7 -0.04 +5.5
7JAX 57 -0.291 -0.277 -0.014 -16.6 1 / 0 -6.4 1 -0.7 -0.33 -7.4
8IND 28 +0.486 +0.483 +0.003 +13.6 0 / 1 -4.3 1 -4.3 +0.46 +6.0
9CHI 34 +0.026 +0.080 -0.054 +0.9 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.21 +4.6
10MIN 20 -0.134 -0.116 -0.019 -2.7 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.1 -0.14 -0.4
12ATL 39 -0.071 -0.033 -0.038 -2.8 1 / 0 -11.5 1 -1.0 -0.06 -1.4
13DET 24 +0.249 +0.305 -0.056 +6.0 1 / 0 -6.7 2 -4.6 +0.12 +9.7
14CAR 27 -0.366 -0.354 -0.012 -9.9 1 / 0 -2.8 1 -3.0 -0.26 +8.5
15NYG 29 +0.349 +0.343 +0.006 +10.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.4 +0.29 +11.9
16LA 43 +0.021 +0.041 -0.020 +0.9 1 / 0 -4.6 2 -5.9 -0.07 -3.0
17TB 33 +0.259 +0.280 -0.021 +8.5 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 +0.26 +4.3
18ATL 30 +0.472 +0.499 -0.027 +14.2 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.5 +0.46 +19.4
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.