Hold On – Week 9, 2022
November 10, 2022
By Noonefromtampa
Washington kept their mistakes down again this week with only 3 three calls against them. There was a lot of people questioning the officiating including the head coach Ron Rivera more details on that below.
Through week 9 of games, 1,620 penalties have been enforced for 13,317 yards in 136 games, yielding an average of 5.96 penalties per team per game and 48.9 yards lost per team per game. Washington had been called for 52 penalties across 9 games totaling 503 yards lost, for an average of 5.78 penalties per game and 55.9 yards lost per game. The average number of penalty calls against Washington is slightly under the league average while average yards lost is over by seven yards a game.
The most penalized teams in the league are:
- Denver – 70 penalties for 601 yards
- Seattle – 66 penalties for 562 yards
- Arizona – 64 penalties for 512 yards
- New Orleans – 62 penalties for 526 yards
- Miami – 58 penalties for 454 yards
The top 5 penalty calls across the league are:
- False Start, 311 times
- Offensive Holding, 295 times
- Defensive Pass Interference, 122 times
- Defensive Holding, 115 times
- Delay of Game, 86 times
Washington leads the entire league in two penalty categories, defensive pass interference (10 calls) and illegal used of hands (5 calls).
Game Summary
Minnesota – 5 accepted penalties for 42 yards, gave up 3 first downs via penalty
Washington – 3 accepted penalties for 26 yards, gave up 2 first downs via penalty
This is the summary of penalties committed by each team:
By Penalty:
| Penalty | Minnesota | Washington | Grand Total |
| Defensive Offside | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Delay of Game | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Face Mask | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Contact | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Low Block | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Offensive Holding | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 5 | 3 | 8 |
By Unit:
| Team | Defense | Offense | ST | Grand Total |
| Minnesota | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Washington | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Grand Total | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
By Player:
| Against | Player | Penalty | Accepted |
| Minnesota | Z. Smith | Face Mask | 1 |
| Defensive Offside | 1 | ||
| C. Sullivan | Illegal Contact | 1 | |
| Offense | Delay of Game | 1 | |
| C. Dantzler | Low Block | 1 | |
| Washington | B. St-Juste | Defensive Pass Interference | 1 |
| J. Ridgeway | Unnecessary Roughness | 1 | |
| R. Wildgoose | Offensive Holding | 1 |
Game Impactors
Rachad Wildgoose, who leads the team in penalties, picked up another on a punt return in which he was called for holding, moving Washington from the Minnesota side of the field back across midfield. Even without picking up a first down Washington had the possibility of a long field goal try but the penalty took that away.
Za’Darius Smith was called for being offsides, which took a second and 10 down to second and 5 which Washington converted. Eight plays later the Commanders kicked a field goal to cut the lead to 4 points. Smith also had a face mask call which extended a drive for Washington, taking a third down sack away. Washington converted that mistake into a 6-yard Dax Milne touchdown.
Ron Rivera also challenged the spot of the ball on a Taylor Heinicke scramble during that same touchdown drive, but the original spot was upheld, costing Washington a timeout the desperately needed in the final minutes of play when Minnesota was running out the clock.
The most controversial call of the game was the defensive pass interference call on Benjamin St-Juste which nullified an interception returned for a touchdown. It was the correct call, but even more egregious examples of pass interference have not drawn flags this season. The inconsistency in calls is what upsets the coaches. Rivera indicated that he was going to send this to the league as an example.
The illegal contact call on Chandon Sullivan gave Washington a first down instead of having to punt. Harrison Smith intercepted the ball two plays later giving the Vikings excellent field position. Minnesota converted that into the gaming tying field goal.
Finally, the unnecessary roughness call on John Ridgeway gave Minnesota three extra plays before re-kicking the field goal which tool the clock from 1:52 down to 16 seconds. This ended any chance of Washington tying or winning the game.
Yearly Totals
By Player:
| Player | Accepted | Declined | Offsetting | Reversed |
| R. Wildgoose | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B. St-Juste | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Wentz | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| W. Jackson | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Offense | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Fuller | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Holmes | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| N. Martin | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| M. Sweat | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Norwell | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Defense | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Rogers | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Leno | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Cosmi | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Sims | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Reaves | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T. Turner | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| E. Obada | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Forrest | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Hudson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Newell | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Smith-Williams | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Payne | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Charles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Holcomb | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| C. Lucas | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Ridgeway | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Allen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B. McCain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
By Penalty:
| Penalty | Defense | Offense | ST | Grand Total |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 9 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
| False Start | 0 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| Offensive Holding | 0 | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Illegal Contact | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Delay of Game | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Intentional Grounding | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Defensive Holding | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Illegal Double-Team Block | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Defensive Too Many Men on Field | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Formation | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Face Mask | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Roughing the Passer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 21 | 24 | 7 | 52 |
A new feature asked for by one of our faithful followers, a comparison of penalties across the years 2019-2022 by week.
Year to Year Comparison:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||||
| Week | Count | Yards | Count | Yards | Count | Yards | Count | Yards |
| 1 | 12 | 96 | 7 | 55 | 8 | 57 | 6 | 63 |
| 2 | 6 | 44 | 6 | 42 | 9 | 80 | 2 | 17 |
| 3 | 9 | 61 | 4 | 40 | 5 | 38 | 4 | 48 |
| 4 | 12 | 58 | 2 | 20 | 6 | 85 | 11 | 136 |
| 5 | 6 | 72 | 3 | 40 | 5 | 37 | 9 | 71 |
| 6 | 6 | 56 | 8 | 50 | 6 | 44 | 7 | 36 |
| 7 | 7 | 47 | 4 | 30 | 4 | 50 | 7 | 54 |
| 8 | 4 | 46 | 6 | 45 | 4 | 29 | 3 | 52 |
| 9 | 3 | 15 | 6 | 58 | 3 | 33 | 3 | 26 |
Sources: nfl.com, nflpenalties.com
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