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 — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.133
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.119
Dropbacks
477
Turnover EPA
-62.4
WPA
+1.06
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1PHI 35 +0.121 +0.080 +0.040 +4.2 1 / 0 -3.5 1 +0.4 +0.06 -10.0
4MIN 56 -0.047 -0.090 +0.042 -2.6 3 / 0 -14.0 1 -1.6 -0.04 -1.3
5LA 28 -0.034 -0.027 -0.008 -1.0 1 / 0 -5.9 2 -4.5 +0.13 -12.4
6ARI 32 +0.402 +0.464 -0.062 +12.9 1 / 0 -3.5 0 +0.0 +0.17 +4.2
7HOU 36 +0.019 -0.017 +0.036 +0.7 2 / 0 -10.8 3 -4.4 +0.01 +6.1
8JAX 22 +0.069 +0.131 -0.062 +1.5 1 / 0 -4.2 0 +0.0 -0.02 +3.3
9DET 40 -0.078 -0.077 -0.001 -3.1 1 / 0 -7.8 0 +0.0 -0.31 -0.2
11CHI 18 +0.741 +0.726 +0.015 +13.3 1 / 0 -4.0 1 -1.3 +0.54 +12.6
12SF 25 +0.295 +0.265 +0.029 +7.4 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.8 +0.03 -2.2
13MIA 28 +0.470 +0.452 +0.017 +13.1 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.07 +7.0
14DET 21 +0.329 +0.319 +0.010 +6.9 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.6 +0.37 +2.5
15SEA 27 +0.390 +0.399 -0.009 +10.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.26 +13.3
16NO 28 +0.153 +0.116 +0.037 +4.3 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.12 -4.4
17MIN 34 +0.067 +0.022 +0.045 +2.3 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.5 -0.07 +1.8
18CHI 12 -0.238 -0.233 -0.005 -2.9 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.08 -12.0
19PHI 35 -0.122 -0.157 +0.036 -4.3 3 / 0 -8.5 2 -3.5 -0.19 -5.4
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.