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.

Jared Goff — 2021

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.031
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.046
Dropbacks
529
Turnover EPA
-56.4
WPA
+0.70
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1SF 62 -0.099 -0.110 +0.012 -6.1 1 / 0 -7.5 3 -4.4 -0.12 -3.7
2GB 37 +0.009 -0.015 +0.025 +0.3 1 / 0 -3.5 1 -2.2 +0.21 +8.7
3BAL 32 +0.087 +0.098 -0.011 +2.8 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -5.0 +0.22 +4.9
4CHI 42 +0.128 +0.114 +0.014 +5.4 0 / 1 -5.4 4 -10.0 -0.03 +1.0
5MIN 40 -0.348 -0.352 +0.004 -13.9 1 / 1 -11.3 4 -10.9 -0.12 -1.7
6CIN 43 -0.170 -0.151 -0.019 -7.3 1 / 0 -3.0 1 -1.6 -0.39 -2.8
7LA 36 +0.071 -0.030 +0.102 +2.6 2 / 0 -7.8 2 -3.4 -0.13 -4.7
8PHI 40 -0.317 -0.288 -0.029 -12.7 0 / 0 +0.0 5 -11.8 -0.13 +7.9
10PIT 29 -0.377 -0.419 +0.042 -10.9 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -5.8 -0.03 -13.7
12CHI 26 +0.050 +0.037 +0.013 +1.3 0 / 1 -5.1 1 -5.1 -0.01 +11.2
13MIN 42 +0.112 +0.097 +0.015 +4.7 1 / 1 -8.2 3 -7.7 +0.62 -3.4
14DEN 41 -0.206 -0.209 +0.003 -8.4 1 / 0 -4.5 2 -4.0 -0.09 -4.1
15ARI 28 +0.517 +0.483 +0.033 +14.5 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.0 +0.27 +6.9
18GB 31 +0.377 +0.344 +0.032 +11.7 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.3 +0.43 +7.4
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.