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 — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.357
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.344
Dropbacks
544
Turnover EPA
-38.5
WPA
+3.20
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1KC 42 -0.044 -0.059 +0.015 -1.9 0 / 1 -5.6 1 -5.6 -0.12 -3.7
2LV 34 +0.040 +0.029 +0.012 +1.4 1 / 0 -5.1 2 -2.6 +0.03 -0.6
3DAL 15 +0.700 +0.711 -0.011 +10.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.22 +4.4
4BUF 19 +0.478 +0.483 -0.006 +9.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.4 +0.13 +9.5
5CIN 43 +0.486 +0.494 -0.008 +20.9 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.4 +0.62 -0.5
6WAS 28 +0.354 +0.393 -0.039 +9.9 1 / 0 -7.1 2 -3.2 +0.33 +15.8
7TB 24 +1.035 +1.047 -0.011 +24.8 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.9 +0.46 +15.4
8CLE 39 +0.256 +0.199 +0.057 +10.0 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.6 +0.20 +4.3
9DEN 20 +1.004 +0.967 +0.037 +20.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -3.3 +0.25 +16.5
10CIN 33 +0.592 +0.596 -0.004 +19.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.92 +12.5
11PIT 36 -0.054 -0.068 +0.014 -2.0 1 / 0 -3.4 2 -1.5 -0.48 -10.7
12LAC 24 +0.367 +0.338 +0.029 +8.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -0.8 +0.41 +10.6
13PHI 39 +0.016 -0.025 +0.041 +0.6 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -5.4 -0.34 +2.7
15NYG 27 +0.879 +0.912 -0.033 +23.7 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.8 +0.36 +24.2
16PIT 24 +0.318 +0.295 +0.023 +7.6 1 / 0 -6.5 1 -2.3 +0.21 +0.8
17HOU 16 +0.579 +0.527 +0.052 +9.3 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.0 +0.09 +6.6
18CLE 31 +0.224 +0.170 +0.054 +7.0 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.01 -8.0
19PIT 21 +0.500 +0.475 +0.026 +10.5 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 +0.08 +12.8
20BUF 29 +0.149 +0.157 -0.009 +4.3 1 / 1 -10.8 2 -9.8 -0.17 +8.9
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.