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.

Josh Allen — 2021

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.162
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.164
Dropbacks
740
Turnover EPA
-68.0
WPA
+1.74
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1PIT 54 -0.062 -0.113 +0.051 -3.3 0 / 1 -3.7 3 -6.7 -0.31 -3.4
2MIA 34 +0.176 +0.113 +0.064 +6.0 1 / 0 -4.0 1 -2.3 -0.06 -2.5
3WAS 44 +0.397 +0.394 +0.003 +17.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.35 +13.9
4HOU 31 -0.032 +0.063 -0.095 -1.0 1 / 0 -7.0 1 -1.0 -0.16 +5.0
5KC 26 +0.542 +0.555 -0.013 +14.1 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.38 +3.5
6TEN 50 +0.267 +0.279 -0.012 +13.3 1 / 0 -5.8 3 -1.7 +0.59 +13.9
8MIA 42 +0.196 +0.133 +0.063 +8.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.06 +1.8
9JAX 51 -0.310 -0.171 -0.139 -15.8 2 / 0 -9.3 4 -5.2 -0.30 -0.4
10NYJ 30 +0.532 +0.632 -0.100 +16.0 1 / 0 -4.3 2 -3.8 +0.26 +16.8
11IND 36 -0.029 -0.035 +0.007 -1.0 2 / 0 -7.7 1 -1.3 +0.01 -3.4
12NO 30 +0.493 +0.381 +0.113 +14.8 2 / 0 -7.7 2 -3.2 +0.06 +15.6
13NE 32 -0.183 -0.221 +0.038 -5.9 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.0 -0.52 -8.7
14TB 57 +0.004 -0.060 +0.064 +0.2 1 / 0 -2.8 3 -4.1 -0.10 +3.3
15CAR 38 +0.187 +0.181 +0.005 +7.1 1 / 0 -3.5 4 -2.6 +0.08 -3.6
16NE 48 +0.480 +0.430 +0.050 +23.0 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.42 +4.7
17ATL 27 -0.330 -0.252 -0.078 -8.9 3 / 0 -12.2 0 +0.0 -0.13 -14.0
18NYJ 45 -0.150 -0.038 -0.112 -6.7 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.03 -8.9
19NE 25 +0.981 +0.919 +0.062 +24.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.13 +18.0
20KC 40 +0.440 +0.455 -0.015 +17.6 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.4 +0.93 +5.9
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.