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 — 2025

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.048
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.047
Dropbacks
531
Turnover EPA
-62.6
WPA
-0.26
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1LA 30 -0.128 -0.136 +0.008 -3.8 1 / 0 -3.5 3 -6.1 -0.38 -1.0
2TB 28 -0.204 -0.160 -0.044 -5.7 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -6.4 -0.27 -9.8
3JAX 39 -0.086 -0.101 +0.015 -3.3 2 / 0 -7.3 2 -3.7 -0.31 +1.5
4TEN 31 +0.202 +0.265 -0.063 +6.3 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.2 +0.07 +8.1
5BAL 29 +0.650 +0.629 +0.021 +18.9 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -4.1 +0.20 +19.4
7SEA 53 -0.187 -0.255 +0.068 -9.9 1 / 0 -4.5 3 -5.2 -0.19 -14.2
8SF 39 +0.464 +0.492 -0.028 +18.1 1 / 0 -0.2 0 +0.0 +0.37 +8.5
9DEN 12 +0.357 +0.257 +0.100 +4.3 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.1 +0.10 -8.1
13IND 37 +0.183 +0.205 -0.023 +6.8 1 / 0 -3.5 2 -3.5 +0.21 +6.0
14KC 34 +0.018 +0.006 +0.012 +0.6 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.0 -0.03 -6.1
15ARI 29 +0.452 +0.515 -0.063 +13.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.2 +0.27 +11.9
16LV 35 +0.049 +0.082 -0.034 +1.7 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.22 -1.5
17LAC 28 -0.099 -0.169 +0.070 -2.8 2 / 0 -8.6 0 +0.0 +0.17 -7.5
18IND 22 +0.166 +0.195 -0.028 +3.7 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.14 -4.6
19PIT 35 +0.012 +0.012 -0.001 +0.4 1 / 2 -14.6 3 -11.2 -0.23 -0.6
20NE 50 -0.448 -0.470 +0.022 -22.4 4 / 0 -20.5 3 -4.6 -0.60 -20.2
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.