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.

Bryce Young — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.072
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.062
Dropbacks
414
Turnover EPA
-39.5
WPA
+0.08
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1NO 34 -0.502 -0.525 +0.022 -17.1 2 / 0 -6.6 4 -6.2 -0.11 -15.3
2LAC 28 -0.786 -0.788 +0.002 -22.0 1 / 0 -4.0 2 -4.9 -0.32 -6.5
5CHI 8 -0.053 -0.045 -0.008 -0.4 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.9 -0.00 -3.2
7WAS 2 -0.998 -0.930 -0.068 -2.0 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.00 +13.9
8DEN 39 -0.060 -0.072 +0.012 -2.4 2 / 0 -9.8 2 -2.9 -0.21 +5.6
9NO 28 +0.013 -0.020 +0.033 +0.4 1 / 0 -2.7 1 -1.2 -0.07 +1.7
10NYG 26 -0.147 -0.092 -0.055 -3.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.0 -0.41 -5.7
12KC 37 +0.191 +0.172 +0.019 +7.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.4 -0.01 +3.4
13TB 47 +0.062 +0.096 -0.035 +2.9 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.4 +0.59 +3.0
14PHI 35 +0.121 +0.080 +0.042 +4.2 1 / 0 -3.2 1 -2.2 +0.02 -2.4
15DAL 34 -0.337 -0.303 -0.035 -11.5 2 / 1 -13.2 6 -14.9 -0.16 +0.7
16ARI 29 -0.033 +0.038 -0.071 -1.0 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.9 -0.22 +5.6
17TB 33 -0.115 -0.076 -0.039 -3.8 0 / 0 +0.0 5 -10.2 +0.01 +9.9
18ATL 34 +0.572 +0.589 -0.017 +19.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.96 +6.1
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.