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.

Carson Wentz — 2021

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.004
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.024
Dropbacks
552
Turnover EPA
-58.0
WPA
-0.36
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1SEA 41 -0.016 +0.007 -0.024 -0.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -8.7 -0.13 +1.1
2LA 35 +0.062 -0.036 +0.098 +2.2 1 / 0 -4.8 3 -9.0 +0.14 +0.2
3TEN 39 -0.243 -0.219 -0.024 -9.5 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.0 -0.36 -7.7
4MIA 34 +0.357 +0.292 +0.065 +12.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.8 +0.04 +13.5
5BAL 38 +0.434 +0.435 -0.001 +16.5 0 / 1 -5.6 2 -7.6 +0.58 +4.2
6HOU 22 +0.212 +0.303 -0.091 +4.7 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.0 +0.22 -1.1
7SF 28 -0.137 -0.149 +0.012 -3.8 0 / 1 -6.1 1 -6.1 -0.05 -0.5
8TEN 52 -0.274 -0.250 -0.024 -14.3 2 / 0 -12.3 1 -2.0 -1.02 -9.5
9NYJ 31 +0.410 +0.513 -0.103 +12.7 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -0.9 +0.22 +7.6
10JAX 35 -0.231 -0.090 -0.140 -8.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.6 -0.06 -5.7
11BUF 20 +0.359 +0.277 +0.081 +7.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.06 -14.3
12TB 47 +0.086 +0.021 +0.065 +4.1 2 / 1 -13.1 3 -8.6 -0.10 -5.0
13HOU 23 +0.019 +0.113 -0.094 +0.4 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.2 +0.03 +5.4
15NE 13 -0.578 -0.605 +0.027 -7.5 1 / 0 -5.1 1 -1.7 -0.09 -25.5
16ARI 30 +0.328 +0.299 +0.030 +9.8 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.6 +0.44 -2.8
17LV 28 -0.264 -0.193 -0.071 -7.4 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.8 -0.03 -2.0
18JAX 36 -0.448 -0.303 -0.145 -16.1 1 / 1 -10.9 6 -13.3 -0.25 -4.8
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.