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.

C.J. Stroud — 2023

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.128
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.123
Dropbacks
588
Turnover EPA
-36.4
WPA
+2.79
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1BAL 48 -0.167 -0.237 +0.070 -8.0 0 / 1 -5.4 5 -14.2 -0.21 -4.6
2IND 51 +0.140 +0.149 -0.008 +7.2 0 / 1 -5.1 6 -13.0 -0.05 +1.6
3JAX 30 +0.483 +0.478 +0.005 +14.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.22 +6.1
4PIT 28 +0.345 +0.344 +0.001 +9.6 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.06 -4.5
5ATL 35 +0.058 +0.094 -0.036 +2.0 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.47 -7.7
6NO 29 +0.043 -0.011 +0.054 +1.3 1 / 0 +0.3 2 -3.9 +0.01 -10.2
8CAR 27 +0.055 +0.055 -0.001 +1.5 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.4 -0.13 -1.1
9TB 45 +0.601 +0.614 -0.013 +27.0 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.9 +1.26 +13.6
10CIN 40 +0.118 +0.128 -0.010 +4.7 1 / 1 -9.9 1 -3.7 +0.54 +0.7
11ARI 40 +0.009 +0.095 -0.086 +0.4 3 / 0 -16.4 3 -4.7 +0.09 +6.3
12JAX 40 +0.014 +0.019 -0.005 +0.6 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -7.2 -0.16 +3.6
13DEN 33 -0.012 +0.009 -0.022 -0.4 0 / 0 +0.0 5 -7.0 +0.01 -4.9
14NYJ 27 -0.543 -0.609 +0.066 -14.7 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -7.4 -0.42 -20.5
17TEN 33 +0.084 +0.124 -0.040 +2.8 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.0 +0.08 +4.5
18IND 28 +0.431 +0.431 -0.000 +12.1 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.8 +0.51 +8.3
19CLE 21 +0.806 +0.689 +0.117 +16.9 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.45 +7.7
20BAL 33 -0.058 -0.131 +0.072 -1.9 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.06 -6.7
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.