Hold On, Week 7 Edition
October 23, 2019
By Noone From Tampa
This is part 7 of my new ongoing series on penalties in the NFL.
First let’s start with how smart Bill Belichick is. In the Patriots’ Monday Night game, Bill was able to run 80 seconds off the clock via two penalties. First, they had a delay of game on a punt play which the Jets declined and that kept the clock running. A second delay of game penalty would have drawn an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against the Patriots, resulting in a 15-yard loss and a clock stoppage. So New England committed a false start which the Jets also declined, resulting in the 80 second run off. Some people may not like him but he is one hell of coach.
What a difference a week makes, and I do not mean that in a positive sense. It seems like the Miami was the aberration and this week was back to normal. While 7 accepted penalties are only 1 more than the Miami game, the offense had 4 penalties and the defense 3. These mistakes combined with a crucial turnover and poor execution doomed the team to another loss.
The rankings through week 7 are below. I have added a new column for the team that has largest negative net yards difference or have “given away” the most yards via penalty. It’s the only of the four categories the Redskins are not ranked in the top 5.
|
Rank |
Total Penalties Called | Total Penalties Accepted |
Net Difference |
Net Yards Difference |
| 1 | Jacksonville | Atlanta | Washington | Cleveland |
| 2 | Cleveland | Arizona | Cleveland | Minnesota |
| 3 | Kansas City | Washington | Jacksonville | Kansas City |
| 4 | Atlanta | Cleveland | Atlanta | Baltimore |
| 5 | Washington | Jacksonville | New Orleans | Jacksonville |
After this past game, the Redskins (-16) have taken the lead in net difference in penalties over Cleveland (-15). What is interesting from the new column is that three 5-win teams rank in the top 5 of net yards difference. Obviously, they have been able to overcome giving up “free” yardage via penalty and have not let it impact the outcome of their games.
Through seven weeks, the Redskins have 71 total calls, 58 accepted, and 42 opponent penalties accepted, resulting in a net difference of -16. The Browns, who had a bye week, remain at 73 total calls, 57 accepted, and 42 opponent penalties accepted, resulting in a net difference of -15.
The league chart below shows the number of penalties by team, both against that team and against their opponents, and the net difference through week 7:
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.
Across the NFL, on average a penalty is called every 10 plays and each game has 18 flags thrown in it. That’s a lot of officiating going on in every game.
The next graph is the overall league penalty call distribution across the league through 7 weeks:
The most common penalty is still offensive holding, which is called almost two times more than the next most frequent one, false start.
The top 10 penalties in the NFL and the percentage of overall penalties called are:
| Penalty | % of Calls |
| Offensive Holding | 24.4% |
| False Start | 12.3% |
| Defensive Holding | 9.0% |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 5.7% |
| Defensive Offside | 5.2% |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 4.2% |
| Roughing the Passer | 3.8% |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 3.6% |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3.4% |
| Offensive Pass Interference | 3.3% |
Next, let’s look at the types of penalties are being called on the Redskins and their opponents:
Week 7 saw the return of offensive holding calls and false starts to the Redskins’ offense. Washington is still getting called for offensive holding 40% more than their opponents. Even worse, the Redskins get called for false starts 100% more than their opponents. Brandon Scherff was called twice for holding and Chase Roullier once (his first of the season). Morgan Moses got another false start and he also had a “no start” which led to a sack.
Lastly, which players are getting the penalty calls?
Morgan Moses now leads the team in penalties called followed by Donald Penn, Josh Norman, Erick Flowers and Jimmy Moreland.
Looking at calls by unit, the offense has 51% of the penalties with 36 calls, the defense second with 27 calls (38%) and special teams is last with 8 calls (11%).
Upcoming game: Minnesota averages 7.7 penalty calls a game versus the Redskins average of 8.3 calls.
I’ll be back next week with an analysis of week eight.
Data Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com