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.

C.J. Beathard — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.072
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.077
Dropbacks
60
Turnover EPA
+0.0
WPA
-0.06
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
3HOU 2 +0.228 +0.213 +0.015 +0.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.00 +28.1
10SF 2 -0.491 -0.549 +0.058 -1.0 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.00 -25.2
13CIN 12 +0.068 +0.076 -0.008 +0.8 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -1.5 -0.11 +19.9
16TB 17 -0.076 -0.047 -0.029 -1.3 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.2 -0.01 +7.2
17CAR 27 +0.196 +0.192 +0.004 +5.3 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.2 +0.05 +8.5
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.