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.

Jalon Daniels — 2026 Every split →

Adj EPA / dropback
-0.226
Raw EPA / dropback
-0.193
Dropbacks
107
Turnover EPA
-18.5
WPA
-1.73
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
3MIN 3 -0.019 -0.152 +0.133 -0.1 1 / 0 -0.1 0 +0.0 -0.06 -51.4
4GB 30 -0.153 -0.144 -0.009 -4.6 2 / 0 -8.3 3 -4.7 -0.35 +1.2
5DAL 26 +0.089 +0.226 -0.137 +2.3 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.8 +0.18 +2.8
6PIT 48 -0.455 -0.454 -0.002 -21.9 2 / 0 -10.1 5 -6.1 -1.49 -15.0
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 2026-10-28 11:05 UTC, from nflverse. Write-up: backtests/nfl_game_quality/FINDINGS.md.