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 — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.091
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.094
Dropbacks
695
Turnover EPA
-60.4
WPA
+1.26
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1MIN 35 +0.010 +0.026 -0.016 +0.4 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.3 +0.16 -3.0
2CHI 34 +0.343 +0.390 -0.047 +11.7 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.54 +15.6
3PHI 28 +0.059 +0.058 +0.002 +1.7 1 / 0 -3.1 2 -2.0 -0.24 -2.5
4NO 34 +0.294 +0.232 +0.061 +10.0 1 / 0 -4.1 1 -2.1 +0.25 +15.1
6DET 38 -0.285 -0.218 -0.066 -10.8 1 / 0 -5.2 1 -0.9 -0.21 -10.5
7ATL 45 -0.024 +0.013 -0.037 -1.1 1 / 0 -3.7 3 -4.1 -0.34 -1.9
8BUF 45 +0.010 -0.024 +0.034 +0.4 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.3 -0.16 -2.6
9HOU 32 +0.353 +0.331 +0.023 +11.3 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -0.3 +0.50 +2.7
10TEN 32 +0.211 +0.246 -0.035 +6.7 1 / 0 -1.7 3 -4.3 +0.23 +2.6
11SF 49 -0.122 -0.188 +0.066 -6.0 1 / 1 -9.9 4 -10.0 -0.16 +2.4
12IND 36 -0.225 -0.209 -0.016 -8.1 1 / 1 -9.9 6 -11.2 -0.15 -0.0
13CAR 30 -0.129 -0.123 -0.006 -3.9 1 / 0 -2.2 1 -2.1 -0.06 -11.7
14ATL 30 +0.044 +0.082 -0.038 +1.3 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.4 +0.29 -17.8
15GB 33 +0.718 +0.711 +0.007 +23.7 0 / 1 -5.7 5 -10.4 +0.59 +14.2
16JAX 37 +0.351 +0.350 +0.001 +13.0 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.8 +0.18 +7.2
17NO 36 +0.227 +0.168 +0.059 +8.2 2 / 0 -7.5 2 -3.2 -0.10 -0.9
18CAR 35 -0.235 -0.228 -0.007 -8.2 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.8 -0.33 -3.7
19PHI 40 +0.297 +0.288 +0.009 +11.9 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -8.9 +0.08 -4.2
20DET 46 +0.025 +0.084 -0.059 +1.2 2 / 0 -7.4 4 -8.1 +0.19 -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.