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.

Desmond Ridder — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.088
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.076
Dropbacks
420
Turnover EPA
-79.0
WPA
+0.12
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1CAR 22 -0.210 -0.202 -0.008 -4.6 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -5.2 -0.09 +6.4
2GB 33 +0.087 +0.095 -0.007 +2.9 1 / 0 -4.2 1 -1.1 +0.18 -4.1
3DET 45 -0.395 -0.326 -0.069 -17.8 0 / 1 -5.2 7 -12.4 -0.22 -14.2
4JAX 35 -0.572 -0.552 -0.021 -20.0 2 / 1 -19.0 4 -9.5 -0.29 -1.6
5HOU 38 +0.424 +0.399 +0.024 +16.1 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.65 +7.6
6WAS 49 -0.232 -0.163 -0.069 -11.4 3 / 0 -13.5 3 -4.5 -0.27 -3.2
7TB 26 +0.251 +0.272 -0.020 +6.5 0 / 1 -3.1 1 -3.1 +0.30 +15.3
8TEN 17 -0.677 -0.632 -0.045 -11.5 0 / 1 -5.3 5 -11.1 -0.26 -2.8
10ARI 7 +0.130 +0.220 -0.089 +0.9 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.01 +11.2
12NO 21 -0.075 -0.131 +0.056 -1.6 2 / 0 -10.2 0 +0.0 -0.02 -4.0
13NYJ 30 -0.044 -0.126 +0.082 -1.3 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.6 -0.16 -11.2
14TB 43 -0.084 -0.055 -0.029 -3.6 1 / 0 -6.0 3 -4.6 -0.13 -3.3
15CAR 20 +0.156 +0.156 +0.000 +3.1 1 / 0 -4.3 0 +0.0 +0.05 -2.9
17CHI 4 -0.748 -0.690 -0.058 -3.0 1 / 0 -3.6 0 +0.0 -0.00 +2.0
18NO 30 +0.282 +0.229 +0.053 +8.5 1 / 0 -4.5 0 +0.0 +0.35 +3.5
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.