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 — 2025

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.017
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.024
Dropbacks
205
Turnover EPA
-21.6
WPA
+0.20
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1NYG 33 -0.005 +0.041 -0.046 -0.2 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -3.3 -0.02 -1.3
2GB 46 -0.172 -0.172 +0.001 -7.9 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -6.1 -0.22 -7.2
5LAC 26 +0.617 +0.530 +0.087 +16.0 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -0.5 +0.30 -0.8
6CHI 29 +0.227 +0.222 +0.005 +6.6 1 / 0 -6.0 3 -2.3 +0.24 +11.1
7DAL 24 -0.372 -0.245 -0.127 -8.9 0 / 1 -6.2 2 -7.3 +0.02 -9.6
9SEA 26 +0.021 -0.051 +0.072 +0.5 1 / 0 -2.5 4 -6.8 -0.01 +4.0
14MIN 21 -0.454 -0.536 +0.082 -9.5 1 / 0 -6.9 1 -0.9 -0.10 -17.7
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.