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 — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.196
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.171
Dropbacks
630
Turnover EPA
-68.3
WPA
+2.53
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1LAC 45 +0.604 +0.602 +0.002 +27.2 1 / 0 -3.4 0 +0.0 +1.27 +0.7
2NE 31 +0.407 +0.363 +0.044 +12.6 1 / 0 -2.6 1 -1.9 +0.17 +8.0
3DEN 26 +1.021 +1.014 +0.006 +26.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.36 +16.5
4BUF 40 -0.078 -0.111 +0.033 -3.1 1 / 0 -4.8 4 -9.4 +0.09 +6.4
5NYG 30 -0.072 -0.068 -0.004 -2.1 2 / 0 -16.4 1 -1.2 +0.09 +9.3
6CAR 31 +0.523 +0.520 +0.003 +16.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.51 +6.5
7PHI 35 -0.112 -0.110 -0.002 -3.9 1 / 0 -4.1 3 -2.7 -0.04 +6.3
8NE 47 +0.310 +0.268 +0.042 +14.6 1 / 0 -3.8 2 -3.0 +0.24 -0.7
9KC 37 +0.073 +0.014 +0.059 +2.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.1 -0.27 -1.7
11LV 40 +0.091 +0.119 -0.028 +3.6 1 / 0 -2.8 1 -0.8 +0.00 +9.0
12NYJ 31 +0.232 +0.144 +0.087 +7.2 2 / 0 -8.1 2 -3.5 +0.05 +5.2
13WAS 24 +0.772 +0.820 -0.048 +18.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.27 +8.5
14TEN 38 -0.242 -0.196 -0.046 -9.2 0 / 1 -5.7 5 -12.2 -0.46 +2.1
15NYJ 27 +0.433 +0.342 +0.091 +11.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.7 +0.06 +13.5
16DAL 38 +0.228 +0.192 +0.036 +8.7 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.9 +0.38 +1.9
17BAL 42 +0.041 -0.033 +0.074 +1.7 2 / 0 -9.9 3 -4.2 +0.09 -5.1
18BUF 27 +0.082 +0.046 +0.035 +2.2 2 / 0 -3.6 0 +0.0 -0.07 +0.5
19KC 41 -0.287 -0.340 +0.053 -11.8 1 / 0 -3.1 2 -2.4 -0.22 -16.1
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.