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.

Baker Mayfield — 2021

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.013
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.011
Dropbacks
462
Turnover EPA
-60.6
WPA
-1.54
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1KC 30 +0.341 +0.359 -0.018 +10.2 1 / 0 -2.0 2 -2.4 +0.09 +14.2
2HOU 23 +0.258 +0.347 -0.088 +5.9 1 / 0 -3.9 2 -2.9 +0.24 +19.6
3CHI 35 -0.045 -0.057 +0.012 -1.6 0 / 0 +0.0 5 -12.8 -0.06 +0.6
4MIN 37 -0.155 -0.164 +0.009 -5.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -6.5 -0.16 -18.2
5LAC 33 +0.335 +0.336 -0.001 +11.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.4 +0.41 +9.5
6ARI 33 -0.169 -0.183 +0.014 -5.6 1 / 2 -14.0 5 -16.4 -0.12 +0.7
8PIT 35 +0.139 +0.083 +0.055 +4.9 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -4.2 -0.31 -3.0
9CIN 23 +0.449 +0.454 -0.005 +10.3 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -4.4 +0.14 +14.4
10NE 23 -0.192 -0.225 +0.033 -4.4 1 / 0 -6.0 2 -1.7 -0.15 -11.0
11DET 30 -0.389 -0.238 -0.151 -11.7 2 / 0 -5.8 1 -1.8 -0.23 -11.8
12BAL 39 -0.073 -0.057 -0.016 -2.8 0 / 1 -4.8 2 -6.0 -0.45 -11.1
14BAL 32 -0.069 -0.058 -0.011 -2.2 1 / 0 -5.6 0 +0.0 +0.00 +3.0
16GB 42 -0.021 -0.044 +0.023 -0.9 4 / 0 -12.9 5 -7.1 -0.52 -6.9
17PIT 47 -0.290 -0.335 +0.045 -13.6 2 / 0 -5.5 9 -13.2 -0.43 -20.2
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.