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.

Dak Prescott — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.007
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.031
Dropbacks
307
Turnover EPA
-39.9
WPA
+1.07
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1CLE 35 -0.145 -0.190 +0.046 -5.1 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.9 +0.01 -6.6
2NO 41 -0.184 -0.211 +0.026 -7.5 2 / 0 -10.7 3 -4.9 +0.07 +1.2
3BAL 56 +0.205 +0.111 +0.094 +11.5 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.9 +0.03 -10.8
4NYG 28 +0.346 +0.391 -0.045 +9.7 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.0 +0.37 +13.1
5PIT 44 +0.264 +0.243 +0.021 +11.6 2 / 1 -12.3 2 -6.4 +0.84 +3.1
6DET 37 -0.538 -0.528 -0.010 -19.9 2 / 0 -10.3 4 -6.3 -0.16 -11.9
8SF 40 +0.047 +0.023 +0.023 +1.9 2 / 0 -6.5 2 -2.8 -0.09 +6.3
9ATL 26 -0.166 -0.132 -0.034 -4.3 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.4 -0.01 +6.6
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.