The article looks like it's just a generic sports' journalist reporting on a novel statistical technique, with cross language translation added into the mix for extra confusion. I wouldn't take it too literally.
I'd guess that either "Impect disregards all passes that go backwards or don’t beat any defender" would be better phrased as "Impect disregards passes unless they go forward or beat defenders" or the statisticians would defend the original solely in terms of it being a heuristic that makes the problem more tractable.
Additionally, your linked example, with #25 picking up the ball in a danger position after a deflection, is the kind of "penalty box slop" that, naively at least, seems extremely difficult to handle analytically.
I'd guess that either "Impect disregards all passes that go backwards or don’t beat any defender" would be better phrased as "Impect disregards passes unless they go forward or beat defenders" or the statisticians would defend the original solely in terms of it being a heuristic that makes the problem more tractable.
Additionally, your linked example, with #25 picking up the ball in a danger position after a deflection, is the kind of "penalty box slop" that, naively at least, seems extremely difficult to handle analytically.