Hold On – Week 10
November 18, 2020
By Noonefromtampa
When you tie up a game with 16 seconds left, you expect the game to go into overtime. With the Washington Football Team’s luck, it means you lose the game to a 59 yard field goal as time expires.
That field goal was aided by a penalty on Chase Young, the number two overall pick of the 2020 NFL draft. The penalty was on a dumb play by Young, who needlessly roughed the Detroit quarterback, Matthew Stafford. That was the key penalty of the game.
In the Lions game, Washington was called for nine penalties with seven accepted for 58 yards while the Lions were called for nine penalties, all accepted, for 55 yards.
Washington is averaging 5.0 penalty calls a game, still well under the 8.2 average penalty calls per game in 2019.
The weekly breakdowns through week 10 are below:
| Washington | Opponent | |||||
| Week | Accepted | Declined | Offset | Accepted | Declined | Offset |
| 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| 9 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 0 |
WFT holds a 52 yard edge over their opponents in total penalty yards:
| Week | Washington | Opponent | Total Yards |
| 1 | 55 | 20 | 75 |
| 2 | 42 | 97 | 139 |
| 3 | 40 | 50 | 90 |
| 4 | 20 | 30 | 50 |
| 5 | 40 | 60 | 100 |
| 6 | 50 | 30 | 80 |
| 7 | 30 | 50 | 80 |
| 9 | 45 | 40 | 85 |
| 10 | 58 | 55 | 113 |
| Total Yards | 380 | 432 | 812 |
Next up is a breakdown of the accepted penalties by unit:
| Washington | Opponent | |||||
| Week | Defense | Offense | Spec Tms | Defense | Offense | Spec Tms |
| 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| 9 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 10 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| Total | 11 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 15 | 1 |
The top penalties committed by WFT are offensive holding calls, neutral zone infractions, defensive offside and false starts.
| Penalty | Accepted | Declined | Grand Total |
| Defensive Holding | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Defensive Offside | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Defensive Too Many Men on Field | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Delay of Game | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Disqualification | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Encroachment | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| False Start | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Horse Collar Tackle | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Double-Team Block | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Motion | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Touch Kick | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Ineligible Downfield Pass | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Lowering the Head to Initiate Contact | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Offensive Holding | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Offensive Offside | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Offensive Pass Interference | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Roughing the Passer | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Taunting | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 2 | 0 | 2 |
The penalties committed by player:
| Player | Accepted | Declined | Grand Total |
| B. Scherff | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| C. Roullier | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| C. Sims | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| C. Young | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| D. Everett | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| D. Inman | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| D. Johnson | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| D. Payne | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| D. Sharpe | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Defense | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| G. Christian | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| J. Allen | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| J.Bostic | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| J. McKissic | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| J. Smith-Williams | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| K. Allen | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| K. Fuller | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| K. Hudson | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| K. Pierre-Louis | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| L. Collins | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| L. Thomas | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| M. Ioannidis | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| M. Moses | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| M. Sweat | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Offense | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| R. Kerrigan | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| T. Apke | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| T. McLaurin | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| T. Settle | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| W. Martin | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 47 | 6 | 53 |
Thru week 10, Montez Sweat leads the team in total calls, with six. Five other players are tied with 3 total calls.
As always, you can tweet penalty questions you would like see answered to me @noonefromtampa.
Statistics source: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com