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.

Jayden Daniels — 2024

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.148
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.143
Dropbacks
648
Turnover EPA
-38.4
WPA
+2.70
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1TB 27 -0.098 -0.064 -0.034 -2.6 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.9 -0.15 -3.2
2NYG 34 +0.089 +0.138 -0.050 +3.0 0 / 0 +0.0 5 -5.9 +0.22 +6.4
3CIN 25 +0.865 +0.864 +0.000 +21.6 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -2.7 +0.55 +28.4
4ARI 31 +0.391 +0.457 -0.066 +12.1 1 / 0 -3.5 0 +0.0 +0.19 +14.3
5CLE 28 +0.139 +0.085 +0.054 +3.9 1 / 0 -3.8 3 -4.8 -0.08 -6.5
6BAL 38 +0.347 +0.250 +0.097 +13.2 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.3 +0.12 +9.2
7CAR 2 -0.666 -0.620 -0.046 -1.3 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 -0.03 +23.1
8CHI 40 +0.168 +0.161 +0.007 +6.7 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -4.0 +0.85 -0.9
9NYG 22 +0.405 +0.446 -0.041 +8.9 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.30 +11.9
10PIT 37 -0.241 -0.250 +0.009 -8.9 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -5.5 -0.52 -12.7
11PHI 36 +0.078 +0.039 +0.040 +2.8 1 / 0 -4.1 3 -4.5 +0.06 -4.2
12DAL 41 -0.143 -0.116 -0.027 -5.9 2 / 0 -6.4 4 -3.4 -0.18 +6.8
13TEN 32 +0.299 +0.316 -0.018 +9.6 1 / 0 -4.5 2 -3.3 +0.11 +10.9
15NO 39 +0.064 +0.028 +0.036 +2.5 0 / 0 +0.0 8 -11.5 +0.10 +11.4
16PHI 39 +0.162 +0.117 +0.045 +6.3 2 / 0 -7.6 1 +0.7 +0.32 -2.3
17ATL 41 +0.094 +0.121 -0.027 +3.9 1 / 0 -5.1 5 -6.3 +0.16 -0.3
18DAL 16 -0.739 -0.713 -0.025 -11.8 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -5.9 -0.31 -18.4
19TB 36 +0.277 +0.308 -0.030 +10.0 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.3 +0.55 +10.3
20DET 31 +0.633 +0.618 +0.015 +19.6 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.56 +6.2
21PHI 53 +0.042 +0.000 +0.042 +2.2 1 / 0 -3.4 3 -6.2 -0.12 -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.