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.

Jordan Love — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.162
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.168
Dropbacks
665
Turnover EPA
-53.4
WPA
+2.01
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1CHI 28 +0.593 +0.636 -0.042 +16.6 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.3 +0.38 -5.5
2ATL 26 +0.068 +0.101 -0.033 +1.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 -0.16 -11.9
3NO 46 +0.013 -0.042 +0.055 +0.6 1 / 0 -0.9 1 -2.5 +0.14 -7.6
4DET 42 -0.344 -0.277 -0.067 -14.5 2 / 0 -10.5 5 -6.1 -0.22 +3.4
5LV 32 -0.500 -0.461 -0.039 -16.0 3 / 0 -13.6 2 -2.2 -0.55 -16.0
7DEN 31 +0.230 +0.244 -0.014 +7.1 1 / 0 -1.6 0 +0.0 +0.24 +3.9
8MIN 45 -0.197 -0.176 -0.021 -8.9 1 / 0 -4.7 4 -6.3 -0.19 -4.0
9LA 29 +0.263 +0.276 -0.013 +7.6 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -6.4 +0.02 +11.6
10PIT 40 +0.126 +0.133 -0.007 +5.0 2 / 0 -7.0 1 -1.3 -0.22 -4.2
11LAC 43 +0.243 +0.250 -0.007 +10.4 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -5.3 +0.55 +3.7
12DET 32 +0.346 +0.399 -0.053 +11.1 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.46 +5.4
13KC 38 +0.474 +0.405 +0.069 +18.0 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -1.5 +0.40 +5.6
14NYG 41 -0.008 -0.005 -0.002 -0.3 1 / 0 -4.1 2 -2.4 -0.23 +1.1
15TB 41 +0.070 +0.096 -0.026 +2.9 0 / 1 -3.9 2 -5.1 +0.10 +11.5
16CAR 29 +0.397 +0.389 +0.008 +11.5 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.4 +0.52 -0.4
17MIN 33 +0.421 +0.425 -0.003 +13.9 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.23 +6.7
18CHI 33 +0.409 +0.457 -0.048 +13.5 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 +0.43 +15.5
19DAL 21 +1.199 +1.140 +0.059 +25.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.30 +13.1
20SF 35 +0.066 -0.004 +0.069 +2.3 2 / 0 -7.0 0 +0.0 -0.19 -1.5
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.