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 — 2025

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.253
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.253
Dropbacks
508
Turnover EPA
-32.5
WPA
+4.56
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1DET 22 +0.492 +0.458 +0.035 +10.8 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.28 +13.1
2WAS 33 +0.124 +0.202 -0.078 +4.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.1 +0.25 +10.4
3CLE 30 +0.031 -0.031 +0.062 +0.9 1 / 0 -5.8 5 -9.1 -0.06 -2.7
4DAL 44 +0.385 +0.488 -0.103 +16.9 0 / 1 -2.8 1 -2.8 +1.21 +15.0
6CIN 27 +0.216 +0.272 -0.057 +5.8 1 / 0 -5.6 1 -0.8 +0.19 +6.6
7ARI 30 +0.134 +0.202 -0.068 +4.0 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.0 +0.32 -3.0
8PIT 38 +0.601 +0.588 +0.013 +22.9 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.70 +13.5
9CAR 38 +0.074 +0.155 -0.081 +2.8 1 / 0 -4.5 1 -1.6 +0.34 +9.1
10PHI 38 -0.130 -0.212 +0.082 -5.0 0 / 1 -3.5 3 -5.9 -0.41 -6.5
11NYG 27 +0.346 +0.386 -0.040 +9.3 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -0.7 +0.56 -1.8
12MIN 22 +0.356 +0.250 +0.107 +7.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.5 +0.10 +4.4
13DET 30 +0.581 +0.545 +0.036 +17.4 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.43 +0.9
14CHI 26 +0.314 +0.309 +0.006 +8.2 1 / 0 -4.5 1 -2.4 +0.16 +12.0
15DEN 43 +0.090 -0.012 +0.103 +3.9 2 / 0 -5.8 3 -5.9 +0.16 +6.8
16CHI 13 +0.015 +0.007 +0.007 +0.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.04 -2.2
19CHI 47 +0.390 +0.383 +0.007 +18.3 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -0.9 +0.37 +2.5
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.