Hold On – 2021 Season Wrap Up

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January 17, 2022

By Noonefromtampa

In this column, I will take a look at penalties across the league for the 2021 season and how Washington compares from 2020 to 2021.

Top 10 Penalties Called

The chart below summarizes the most commonly called penalties, which teams lead the league, which teams had the fewest calls and where Washington rank among those teams:

Rank Penalty Count Avg/Team Most (Count) Least (Count) WAS
1 Offensive Holding 658 20.56 DAL, MIN (31) ATL (12) 14
2 False Start 576 18.00 ATL, DET, JAX (26) GB, LAR (9) 17
3 Defensive Pass Interference 302 9.44 SF (20) LAR (3) 11
4 Unnecessary Roughness 167 5.22 CHI (11) DET, GB (1) 4
5 Delay of Game 162 4.88 DET, NE, NO (9) KC (1) 4
6 Defensive Holding 158 4.94 LAC (12) CAR (1) 3
7 Defensive Offside 156 4.88 CAR, LAR, TB (9) IND (0) 4
8 Roughing the Passer 151 4.72 AZ, BUF, LAC (8) NYG, TEN (2) 5
9 Neutral Zone Infraction 111 3.47 TB (8) ATL, BAL, DEN, JAX (1) 5
10 Offensive Pass Interference 79 2.47 PIT (5) CLE, NE (0) 3

As you can see from the numbers, Washington compared favorably in several categories such as offensive holding and defensive holding but not so well in defensive pass interference and neutral zone infraction.

Top 10 Officiating Crews

This section shows the officiating crews that called the most penalties, ranked by calls per game. You can also view this section as which officiating crews do you not look forward to working your game.

Crew Games Penalties Yards Calls/Game Yards/Game
Carl Cheffers 16 229 2,045 14.31      127.81
Land Clark 16 218 1,906 13.63      119.13
Shawn Hochuli 16 215 1,903 13.44      118.94
Scott Novak 16 213 1,728 13.31      108.00
Clete Blakeman 16 201 1,739 12.56      108.69
Adrian Hill 16 196 1,717 12.25      107.31
Alex Kemp 16 195 1,631 12.19      101.94
Brad Rogers 16 190 1,708 11.88      106.75
Jerome Boger 17 195 1,593 11.47         93.71
Brad Allen 17 192 1,649 11.29         97.00

Crew with Least calls:

Crew Games Penalties Yards Calls/Game Yards/Game
Bill Vinovich 16 148 1,241 9.25 77.56

An interesting fact is that the Jerome Boger crew worked the Raiders-Bengals Wild Card game this past weekend. They were responsible for the inadvertent early whistle call on a Bengals touchdown. According to the rules, the down should have been replayed and touchdown taken off the board.

Calls by Week

Some folks have wondered if more penalties get called at the beginning of the season versus games played later in the season. This table show the total flags (includes accepted, decline and offsetting penalties) thrown per plays run.

Week Games Plays Accepted Count Yards Declined Offsetting Total Flags AC/Play TF/Play
2 16    2,405 221    2,007 22 8 251 9.2% 10.4%
10 14    2,139 189    1,637 19 13 221 8.8% 10.3%
1 16    2,521 214    1,803 37 6 257 8.5% 10.2%
8 15    2,317 206    1,704 20 8 234 8.9% 10.1%
9 14    2,157 183    1,541 21 4 208 8.5% 9.6%
5 16    2,486 196    1,742 31 6 233 7.9% 9.4%
11 15    2,282 179    1,487 26 8 213 7.8% 9.3%
14 14    2,251 170    1,477 24 12 206 7.6% 9.2%
6 14    2,197 170    1,498 25 6 201 7.7% 9.1%
3 16    2,468 195    1,738 28 2 225 7.9% 9.1%
4 16    2,497 195    1,676 30 0 225 7.8% 9.0%
15 16    2,432 180    1,579 20 13 213 7.4% 8.8%
12 15    2,305 166    1,428 28 4 198 7.2% 8.6%
16 16    2,416 168    1,395 28 8 204 7.0% 8.4%
13 14    2,145 157    1,234 17 4 178 7.3% 8.3%
7 13    1,980 144    1,314 14 6 164 7.3% 8.3%
17 16    2,407 150    1,295 28 10 188 6.2% 7.8%
18 16    2,510 133    1,197 17 2 152 5.3% 6.1%

As you can see, weeks one and two rank high in terms of flags thrown and weeks 16, 17, 18 are all in the bottom five of least flags thrown. However, in the top five week, there are a number of weeks from the middle of the season. The conclusion I would from this data is that the referees make less calls later in the season, and possibly that officiating crews emphasize penalties the first two week of the season.

Washington 2020 versus 2021

Total calls: 2020 – 89 calls, 2021 – 82 calls Difference: -5

Top penalties from 2020 and 2021:

Penalty 2020 Count 2020 Rank 2021 Count 2021 Rank Difference
Offensive Holding 30 1 14 2 -16
False Start 24 2 17 1 -7
Defensive Holding 14 3 3 9 -11
Neutral Zone Infraction 13 4 5 4 -8
Delay of Game 13 4 4 6 -9
Defensive Pass Interference 11 6 11 3 0
Roughing the Passer 8 9 5 4 -3

As you can see, the coaching staff has done an excellent job of reducing penalties committed by the team. All of the categories, except for defensive pass interference have trended downwards in the 2021 season over the 2020 season. The conclusion from all this is that Washington losses were caused more by poor execution than impeded by mistakes being made. Teams with winning records and teams who make the playoffs execute well and overcome their mistakes through better execution, something Washington has lacked for many seasons.

 

Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com