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 — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.106
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.103
Dropbacks
560
Turnover EPA
-63.3
WPA
+0.73
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1HOU 26 -0.158 -0.170 +0.012 -4.1 1 / 1 -9.4 4 -10.2 -0.04 +11.4
2CIN 33 +0.369 +0.376 -0.006 +12.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.41 +5.8
3IND 35 -0.221 -0.207 -0.014 -7.7 0 / 1 -5.2 4 -9.1 -0.35 +0.8
4CLE 22 +0.420 +0.312 +0.107 +9.2 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.6 +0.04 +19.6
5PIT 42 -0.333 -0.315 -0.018 -14.0 1 / 1 -10.7 4 -10.4 -0.56 -3.4
6TEN 31 +0.151 +0.189 -0.038 +4.7 1 / 0 -4.5 1 -1.6 +0.17 +4.9
7DET 27 +0.892 +0.936 -0.044 +24.1 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.23 +11.1
8ARI 31 -0.252 -0.161 -0.091 -7.8 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -4.8 +0.04 -0.9
9SEA 26 -0.180 -0.130 -0.050 -4.7 0 / 1 -5.6 1 -5.6 -0.04 +15.5
10CLE 26 -0.129 -0.227 +0.097 -3.4 2 / 0 -9.8 3 -5.0 -0.30 -7.4
11CIN 29 +0.277 +0.284 -0.008 +8.0 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.6 +0.25 +7.0
12LAC 34 -0.121 -0.105 -0.016 -4.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.3 +0.10 -12.7
14LA 46 +0.261 +0.274 -0.014 +12.0 1 / 0 -2.5 2 -1.9 +0.59 -1.7
15JAX 27 -0.140 -0.132 -0.008 -3.8 1 / 0 -5.8 3 -5.9 -0.01 +3.2
16SF 37 +0.207 +0.133 +0.074 +7.7 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.3 -0.04 -1.7
17MIA 22 +1.323 +1.318 +0.005 +29.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 +0.46 +23.6
20HOU 25 +0.179 +0.156 +0.023 +4.5 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -2.3 +0.11 +11.4
21KC 41 -0.066 -0.123 +0.057 -2.7 1 / 1 -9.7 4 -10.9 -0.33 -5.5
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.