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 — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.262
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.234
Dropbacks
94
Turnover EPA
-14.8
WPA
-0.46
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
9CIN 20 -0.552 -0.527 -0.025 -11.0 0 / 1 -6.2 4 -11.4 -0.08 +2.3
12DEN 12 -0.434 -0.443 +0.009 -5.2 0 / 1 -4.3 2 -9.2 -0.11 -17.1
14TB 19 +0.010 +0.052 -0.042 +0.2 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.2 +0.00 -2.9
15ATL 41 -0.218 -0.182 -0.036 -8.9 2 / 0 -4.3 3 -3.2 -0.28 -2.8
18LAC 2 +0.167 +0.149 +0.018 +0.3 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.00 +16.9
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.