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.

Joe Burrow — 2026 Every split →

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.242
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.223
Dropbacks
229
Turnover EPA
-22.8
WPA
+0.94
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1TB 36 -0.060 -0.073 +0.013 -2.2 1 / 0 -7.5 1 -2.8 +0.01 +6.4
2HOU 36 +0.063 -0.015 +0.079 +2.3 0 / 0 +0.0 5 -6.0 +0.03 -6.5
3PIT 38 +0.407 +0.386 +0.022 +15.5 0 / 1 -4.1 1 -4.1 +0.28 +8.9
4JAX 56 +0.200 +0.132 +0.068 +11.2 2 / 0 -11.2 2 -2.9 +0.05 +9.8
5MIA 32 +0.328 +0.436 -0.108 +10.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.15 +8.2
7BAL 31 +0.581 +0.587 -0.006 +18.0 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -0.6 +0.40 +15.5
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 2026-10-28 11:05 UTC, from nflverse. Write-up: backtests/nfl_game_quality/FINDINGS.md.