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.

Spencer Rattler — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.316
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.303
Dropbacks
250
Turnover EPA
-43.1
WPA
-1.21
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
6TB 45 -0.352 -0.308 -0.044 -15.8 2 / 0 -8.4 5 -8.1 -0.42 -12.4
7DEN 41 -0.682 -0.685 +0.003 -28.0 0 / 2 -15.6 6 -20.6 -0.27 -0.1
8LAC 27 -0.206 -0.220 +0.015 -5.6 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -4.1 -0.16 -18.3
15WAS 21 +0.251 +0.300 -0.049 +5.3 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.15 -15.0
16GB 33 -0.508 -0.528 +0.020 -16.8 1 / 1 -9.8 3 -7.6 -0.06 -14.1
17LV 39 -0.398 -0.401 +0.003 -15.5 2 / 0 -9.2 3 -5.3 -0.19 -14.2
18TB 44 -0.062 -0.024 -0.037 -2.7 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.8 +0.04 +1.9
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.