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.

Michael Penix Jr. — 2025

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.004
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.018
Dropbacks
290
Turnover EPA
-28.9
WPA
+0.33
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1TB 43 +0.190 +0.224 -0.033 +8.2 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.9 +0.39 -5.9
2MIN 24 -0.039 -0.135 +0.096 -0.9 0 / 0 +0.0 3 -5.6 -0.30 -7.5
3CAR 36 -0.619 -0.522 -0.097 -22.3 2 / 0 -12.1 0 +0.0 -0.25 -12.5
4WAS 27 +0.610 +0.677 -0.068 +16.5 1 / 0 -6.6 1 -1.3 +0.39 +11.4
6BUF 34 +0.015 -0.012 +0.028 +0.5 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.5 +0.02 -6.4
7SF 40 -0.213 -0.168 -0.044 -8.5 0 / 1 -4.7 2 -6.2 -0.10 -5.8
9NE 38 +0.133 +0.098 +0.035 +5.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.3 +0.14 +4.7
10IND 32 -0.286 -0.252 -0.034 -9.1 0 / 1 -5.5 3 -8.5 -0.26 -16.3
11CAR 16 +0.593 +0.671 -0.079 +9.5 0 / 0 +0.0 0 +0.0 +0.30 +15.6
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.