Hold On, Week 4
October 2, 2019
By Noone From Tampa
This is part 4 of my new ongoing series on penalties in the NFL.
Where to start this week? Well, first, a team cannot commit as many penalties as the Redskins did this past week and expect to win a game in the NFL. The competition at this level is too good for a team to make that many mistakes. Then the turnovers compounded the issue. Giving up points off turnovers and penalties that kills drives or extend opponents drives is not a recipe for success.
The Giants got 4 first downs from penalties, including 3 defensive holding calls and 1 facemask call. The Redskins got, to use the soccer term, nil. Overall, this season the Redskins have given up 10 first downs by penalty while only getting 6.
Leaguewide, the most penalized team is the Falcons (42 calls) and the least penalized teams are the Panthers and Colts (20 calls). The Redskins have had 39 calls against them, which is the third-most in the league. They are also third-worst in net difference with -11.
The league chart below shows the number of penalties by team, both before and against and the net difference through week 4:
The green part of the bar graph is the number of penalties against that team, the blue part shows number of penalties called against the opponent, the yellow line represents the net difference between the two, and the dark green line is the number of wins.
The next graph is the overall penalty call distribution across the NFL the through 4 games:
Offensive holding is the most prevalent penalty called in the league, 2.1 times more than the next most frequently called one, false start. So, if you think you see a lot of holding calls, you actually do.
Top 10 penalties and the percentage of overall penalties called:
| Penalty | % |
| Offensive Holding | 24.7% |
| False Start | 11.8% |
| Defensive Holding | 8.2% |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 5.7% |
| Defensive Offside | 5.0% |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 4.5% |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 4.0% |
| Offensive Pass Interference | 3.9% |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 3.5% |
| Delay of Game | 3.4% |
Lastly, let’s look at what types of penalties are being called on the Redskins and their opponents.
The Redskins get called for offensive holding 33% more than their opponents. The Redskins had one false start penalty in the Giants game, so they are still averaging over one false start call per game. In the Giants game, the Redskins got called for defensive holding 4 times, with 3 being accepted. Prior to that they had been called for that penalty only 2 times, with 1 accepted. That is an alarming trend. I don’t know if the Giants (or some other team) pointed out a technique that was being used, if the defensive backs got sloppy in coverage, if the player matchups cause DBs to hold, or something else, but regardless, it’s a problem.
Lastly, which players are getting the penalty calls?
Donald Penn leads the team in penalties called against with Morgan Moses and fan favorite Jimmy Moreland following closely behind.
Looking at calls by unit, the offense has 50% of the penalties with 24 calls. The defense is second with 18 calls (37.5%) and special teams last with 6 calls (12.5%).
The coaching staff has failed to get the penalties eliminated, the players have failed in execution, and the team has not won a game yet. With New England up next, getting a “W” in the win column looks remote.
New England averages 7 penalty calls a game versus the Redskins average of 10 calls.
I’ll be back next week with an analysis of week five.
Data Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com