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.

Lamar Jackson — 2022

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.046
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.030
Dropbacks
352
Turnover EPA
-33.6
WPA
+0.13
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1NYJ 32 +0.116 +0.132 -0.016 +3.7 1 / 0 -2.0 2 -1.7 +0.01 -3.6
2MIA 29 +0.641 +0.615 +0.026 +18.6 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.22 +6.9
3NE 33 +0.291 +0.217 +0.074 +9.6 1 / 0 -3.3 4 -4.1 +0.04 +4.0
4BUF 31 -0.235 -0.297 +0.062 -7.3 2 / 0 -9.2 2 -2.8 -0.33 -0.2
5CIN 33 -0.160 -0.172 +0.012 -5.3 1 / 0 -2.9 1 -0.6 -0.03 +4.6
6NYG 34 -0.053 -0.047 -0.006 -1.8 1 / 1 -11.0 2 -5.7 -0.33 -7.8
7CLE 19 -0.192 -0.225 +0.033 -3.6 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.9 -0.05 -10.2
8TB 40 +0.034 +0.024 +0.010 +1.3 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.1 +0.17 +11.1
9NO 25 +0.257 +0.178 +0.078 +6.4 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -2.5 +0.22 -13.6
11CAR 36 -0.160 -0.152 -0.008 -5.8 1 / 0 -5.2 3 -4.9 -0.12 +0.2
12JAX 34 +0.184 +0.237 -0.053 +6.2 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.3 +0.50 -6.2
13DEN 6 -0.969 -0.992 +0.023 -5.8 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.8 -0.18 -2.8
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.