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 — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.204
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.203
Dropbacks
421
Turnover EPA
-42.5
WPA
+2.23
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1JAX 40 +0.044 +0.108 -0.064 +1.8 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.8 +0.09 -7.7
2BUF 26 -0.433 -0.410 -0.023 -11.3 3 / 0 -15.7 1 -2.8 -0.19 +3.3
8ARI 39 +0.155 +0.224 -0.069 +6.0 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.5 +0.25 +3.9
9BUF 29 +0.606 +0.605 +0.001 +17.6 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.5 +0.45 +21.3
10LA 31 -0.060 -0.049 -0.010 -1.8 1 / 1 -8.6 3 -8.3 +0.06 -3.3
11LV 37 +0.691 +0.663 +0.027 +25.6 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.9 +0.55 +10.6
12NE 42 +0.285 +0.311 -0.026 +12.0 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.8 +0.21 +3.4
13GB 53 +0.260 +0.225 +0.035 +13.8 0 / 0 +0.0 5 -8.4 -0.01 +8.4
14NYJ 47 +0.490 +0.444 +0.046 +23.0 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +1.02 +3.3
15HOU 43 -0.174 -0.206 +0.032 -7.5 3 / 1 -18.2 3 -8.1 -0.35 -0.8
16SF 34 +0.193 +0.166 +0.027 +6.6 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.15 +0.8
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.