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.

Tua Tagovailoa — 2022

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.235
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.228
Dropbacks
421
Turnover EPA
-40.6
WPA
+2.14
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1NE 36 +0.234 +0.163 +0.072 +8.4 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -6.2 +0.16 +8.0
2BAL 51 +0.502 +0.527 -0.025 +25.6 2 / 0 -6.5 1 -1.5 +0.82 +3.2
3BUF 19 +0.530 +0.456 +0.074 +10.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -0.8 +0.36 +5.5
4CIN 15 -0.023 -0.041 +0.018 -0.4 1 / 0 -2.8 1 -1.7 -0.05 -5.8
7PIT 35 +0.135 +0.159 -0.024 +4.7 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.10 -6.2
8DET 38 +0.578 +0.660 -0.082 +22.0 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.8 +0.47 +19.9
9CHI 30 +0.589 +0.633 -0.043 +17.7 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.42 +10.1
10CLE 32 +0.612 +0.561 +0.051 +19.6 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.30 +8.6
12HOU 39 +0.184 +0.202 -0.018 +7.2 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -5.7 +0.14 +3.1
13SF 36 -0.285 -0.314 +0.028 -10.3 2 / 1 -18.3 3 -11.7 -0.09 -8.2
14LAC 30 -0.250 -0.264 +0.014 -7.5 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.5 -0.29 -24.5
15BUF 33 +0.006 -0.060 +0.065 +0.2 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -4.1 -0.12 -7.5
16GB 27 +0.056 +0.035 +0.021 +1.5 3 / 0 -13.0 2 -2.7 -0.08 +3.5
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.