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.

Jalen Hurts — 2021

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.034
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.028
Dropbacks
505
Turnover EPA
-53.2
WPA
-0.25
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1ATL 35 +0.292 +0.357 -0.065 +10.2 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.1 +0.20 +11.6
2SF 25 +0.044 +0.027 +0.017 +1.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -4.8 -0.02 -5.6
3DAL 41 -0.074 -0.152 +0.078 -3.0 2 / 0 -12.7 2 -4.7 -0.23 -3.8
4KC 51 +0.250 +0.271 -0.021 +12.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.1 +0.39 +8.7
5CAR 40 -0.244 -0.237 -0.007 -9.8 1 / 0 -2.9 2 -4.0 -0.24 -4.9
6TB 29 -0.163 -0.227 +0.063 -4.7 1 / 0 -2.4 2 -1.3 -0.08 -11.0
7LV 37 +0.052 +0.112 -0.061 +1.9 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.1 -0.02 -7.2
8DET 14 +0.016 +0.153 -0.137 +0.2 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.05 -1.6
9LAC 18 +0.315 +0.312 +0.003 +5.7 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.5 +0.23 +9.6
10DEN 25 +0.216 +0.203 +0.014 +5.4 1 / 0 -4.5 2 -2.9 +0.16 +12.9
11NO 27 +0.123 +0.020 +0.103 +3.3 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.2 +0.04 -5.5
12NYG 31 -0.581 -0.561 -0.020 -18.0 3 / 0 -11.0 1 -2.3 -0.69 -14.3
15WAS 29 +0.205 +0.207 -0.003 +5.9 1 / 1 -11.9 3 -9.5 +0.15 +11.3
16NYG 30 +0.038 +0.043 -0.006 +1.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 -0.07 -3.9
17WAS 27 +0.281 +0.280 +0.002 +7.6 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 +0.02 +6.7
19TB 46 -0.058 -0.120 +0.062 -2.7 2 / 0 -7.8 2 -2.2 -0.05 -7.5
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.