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 — 2025

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.062
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.055
Dropbacks
338
Turnover EPA
-49.0
WPA
+1.11
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1BUF 21 +0.459 +0.419 +0.040 +9.6 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.3 +0.16 +8.7
2CLE 32 +0.363 +0.292 +0.071 +11.6 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.9 +0.07 +6.7
3DET 35 +0.345 +0.315 +0.030 +12.1 0 / 0 +0.0 7 -11.1 +0.25 +13.4
4KC 23 -0.220 -0.227 +0.007 -5.1 1 / 1 -8.5 3 -6.7 -0.11 +6.7
9MIA 25 +0.381 +0.416 -0.035 +9.5 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.2 +0.30 +18.1
10MIN 31 +0.054 -0.045 +0.099 +1.7 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.6 +0.19 -13.5
11CLE 30 -0.374 -0.428 +0.054 -11.2 2 / 0 -12.8 5 -6.5 -0.31 -8.8
12NYJ 24 -0.117 -0.003 -0.114 -2.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.9 +0.02 +1.2
13CIN 35 -0.408 -0.337 -0.071 -14.3 1 / 2 -15.2 3 -11.4 -0.51 -6.8
14PIT 35 -0.139 -0.137 -0.002 -4.9 1 / 0 -4.2 2 -4.4 -0.27 -5.0
15CIN 16 -0.058 +0.004 -0.062 -0.9 1 / 0 -3.8 4 -6.2 +0.11 +6.8
16NE 10 +0.668 +0.629 +0.039 +6.7 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.21 +7.7
18PIT 21 +0.423 +0.414 +0.009 +8.9 1 / 0 -4.6 3 -4.4 +0.99 +2.6
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.