Hold On – Week 12, 2022

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November 30, 2022

By Noonefromtampa

Washington continued their winning brand of football, running the ball and hard-nose defense. Both teams went the whole first quarter without drawing a flag, while Dallas this week jumped to the number two spot in most penalized team category. The game this week was ended by a penalty; more on that below.

Through week 12 of games, 2,098 penalties have been enforced for 17,228 yards in 180 games yielding an average of 5.83 penalties per team per game and 47.8 yards lost per team per game. Washington had been called for 66 penalties across 12 games totaling 625 yards lost for an average of 5.5 penalties per game and 52.1 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 4.3 yards a game.

The most penalized teams in the league are:

  1. Denver – 87 penalties for 740 yards
  2. Dallas – 83 penalties for 626 yards
  3. Arizona – 82 penalties for 648 yards
  4. New Orleans – 80 penalties for 661 yards
  5. Las Vegas – 76 penalties for 617 yards

The top 5 penalty calls across the league are:

  1. Offensive Holding, 395 times, 3,797 yards
  2. False Start, 386 times, 1,899 yards
  3. Defensive Pass Interference, 192 times, 2,540 yards
  4. Defensive Holding, 148 times, 700 yards
  5. Delay of Game, 112 times, 557 yards

Washington leads the entire league in defensive pass interference (11 calls) and is tied for first (with New Orleans) in illegal use of hands (5 calls).

Game Summary

Atlanta – 2 accepted penalties (1 declined) for 20 yards, gave up 2 first downs via penalty

Washington – 4 accepted penalties (0 declined) for 28 yards, gave up 1 first down via penalty

This is the summary of penalties committed by each team:

By Penalty:

Penalty Atlanta Washington Grand Total
Defensive Offside 0 1 1
Face Mask 1 1 2
Offensive Holding 0 1 1
Offensive Pass Interference 0 1 1
Running Into the Kicker 1 0 1
Grand Total 2 4 6

By Unit:

Team Defense Offense ST Grand Total
Atlanta 0 1 1 2
Washington 2 2 0 4
Grand Total 2 3 1 6

By Player:

Team Player Penalty Accepted Declined
Atlanta M. Pruitt Face Mask 1 0
A. Ogundeji Running Into the Kicker 1 0
I. Oliver Defensive Offside 0 1
Washington C. Samuel Offensive Pass Interference 1 0
A. Norwell Offensive Holding 1 0
M. Sweat Defensive Offside 1 0
C. Holmes Face Mask 1 0

Game Impactors

Sometimes you don’t realize when a penalty will have an impact. Andrew Norwell got called for an offensive holding call that turned what would have been a third and one into a second and fifteen.  Taylor Heinicke threw an incompletion to Logan Thomas on second down. On third down, Heinicke threw an ill-advised pass to Terry McLaurin which was intercepted by A. J. Terrell. Both Antonio Gibson and Curtis Samuel were open underneath and may have come close to converting the third down play. One key for Washington is keeping Heinicke out of third and long situations, but that penalty guaranteed it.

The biggest penalty of the game was the running into the kicker call on fourth and two with 44 seconds left in the game. Atlanta’s coaches had expertly managed the game clock using their three time out to maximize the time left to give the Falcons a shot at the win after the end zone interception by Kendall Fuller. They had stopped Washington from running for a first down, thereby forcing a punt. Falcons linebacker Adetokunbo Ogundeji tried to block the punt but ran into Tress Way. That 5 yard blunder was enough for a first down and with no timeouts left, the Commanders ran out the clock.

Yearly Totals

By Player:

Player Accepted Declined Offsetting Reversed
Offense 5 1 0 0
B. St-Juste 5 1 0 0
R. Wildgoose 5 0 0 0
C. Holmes 4 0 0 1
W. Jackson 4 0 0 0
C. Wentz 4 0 0 0
M. Sweat 3 1 0 0
A. Rogers 3 0 0 0
K. Fuller 3 0 0 0
N. Martin 3 0 0 0
A. Norwell 3 0 0 0
T. Turner 2 0 0 0
C. Leno 2 0 0 0
S. Cosmi 2 0 0 0
J. Ridgeway 2 0 0 0
C. Lucas 2 0 0 0
C. Sims 1 1 0 0
K. Hudson 1 1 0 0
Defense 1 1 0 0
E. Obada 1 0 0 0
A. Newell 1 0 0 0
D. Forrest 1 0 0 0
C. Cheeseman 1 0 0 0
J. Smith-Williams 1 0 0 0
J. Reaves 1 0 0 0
S. Charles 1 0 0 0
J. Dotson 1 0 0 0
C. Samuel 1 0 0 0
J. Allen 1 0 0 0
B. McCain 1 0 0 0
D. Payne 0 1 0 0
C. Holcomb 0 0 1 0
T. Larsen 0 1 0 0

By Penalty:

Penalty Defense Offense ST Grand Total
Offensive Holding 0 6 7 13
Defensive Pass Interference 11 0 0 11
False Start 0 10 1 11
Delay of Game 0 4 1 5
Illegal Use of Hands 3 2 0 5
Intentional Grounding 0 3 0 3
Illegal Contact 2 1 0 3
Unnecessary Roughness 2 0 1 3
Face Mask 2 0 0 2
Offensive Pass Interference 0 2 0 2
Defensive Holding 2 0 0 2
Neutral Zone Infraction 1 0 0 1
Defensive Offside 1 0 0 1
Defensive Too Many Men on Field 1 0 0 1
Illegal Formation 0 1 0 1
Illegal Double-Team Block 0 0 1 1
Roughing the Passer 1 0 0 1
Grand Total 26 29 11 66

The 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
10 11 66 6 49 8 69 5 58
11 8 63 5 53 4 38 5 36
12 6 65 9 62 6 47 4 28

 

Sources: nfl.com, nflpenalties.com