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.

Drake Maye — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.083
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.070
Dropbacks
374
Turnover EPA
-65.3
WPA
-0.42
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
3NYJ 10 -0.517 -0.541 +0.024 -5.2 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -5.8 -0.00 -23.0
6HOU 37 -0.231 -0.264 +0.034 -8.5 2 / 1 -15.8 4 -9.5 -0.18 -3.3
7JAX 40 +0.109 +0.172 -0.062 +4.4 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.3 +0.12 +5.2
8NYJ 7 -0.362 -0.401 +0.039 -2.5 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.0 -0.05 -11.6
9TEN 44 -0.277 -0.251 -0.026 -12.2 2 / 1 -11.3 4 -9.5 -0.57 +5.8
10CHI 26 -0.052 -0.051 -0.000 -1.3 1 / 0 -4.8 1 -1.6 +0.08 +5.2
11LA 42 +0.262 +0.264 -0.002 +11.0 1 / 1 -6.7 3 -7.1 +0.07 +8.9
12MIA 42 -0.270 -0.270 -0.000 -11.4 1 / 1 -10.9 4 -11.1 -0.02 -5.9
13IND 35 +0.194 +0.223 -0.029 +6.8 1 / 0 -5.8 4 -5.0 +0.16 +10.4
15ARI 25 +0.066 +0.137 -0.072 +1.6 1 / 0 -4.3 2 -3.2 -0.06 +12.0
16BUF 38 +0.099 +0.110 -0.011 +3.8 1 / 0 -5.7 2 -3.0 +0.10 +7.8
17LAC 26 -0.569 -0.578 +0.009 -14.8 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -11.4 +0.00 -6.5
18BUF 2 -1.364 -1.357 -0.007 -2.7 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 -0.07 -78.5
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.