Hold On, Week 5 Edition
October 11, 2019
By Noone From Tampa
This is part 5 of my new ongoing series on penalties in the NFL.
The Redskins are now 0-5 and have fired Jay Gruden.
Through five weeks, the team is still ranked third in penalties, with 45 called against them, and is tied for fourth place for net difference with -10.
Leaguewide, the most penalized team is the Falcons, with 49 called against them. The Browns are next, with 48 called penalties. The least penalized team is the Dolphins, with 23, although they have only played 4 games. The Browns are the worst in net difference with -16. The Falcons are behind Cleveland at -13.
The league chart below shows the number of penalties by team, both before and against, and the net difference through week 5:
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.
The next graph is the overall penalty call distribution across the league through 5 weeks:
Offensive holding is still the most prevalent penalty called in the league, 1.9 times more than the next most called one, false start.
The following chart shows the top 10 penalties and the percentage of overall penalties called:
| Penalty | % of Calls |
| Offensive Holding | 24.0% |
| False Start | 12.4% |
| Defensive Holding | 8.5% |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 5.4% |
| Defensive Offside | 5.1% |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 4.5% |
| Roughing the Passer | 3.7% |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 3.7% |
| Offensive Pass Interference | 3.4% |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3.4% |
Next, let’s look at what types of penalties are being called on the Redskins and their opponents:
The Redskins are still getting called for offensive holding 36% more than their opponents. Tony Bergstrom, Donald Penn, and Wes Martin all had offensive holding calls in the Patriots game although fortunately the Bergstrom and Martin calls were declined. Morgan Moses picked up his second false start call this season, which is amazing given the way he appears to jump early on a number of pass plays. Good news was the defensive holding calls went down to zero, because only Josh Norman got flagged and it was declined.
Lastly, which players are getting the penalty calls?
Penn, Ereck Flowers, and Moses, all from the offensive line, lead the team in penalty calls. The offensive coach who is taking over for Callahan has his work cut out for them.
Looking at calls by unit, the offense has 54% of the penalties with 31 calls. The defense is second with 20 calls (35%), and special teams is last with 6 calls (11%).
Anyone who has watched the games knows poor execution, especially by the offense, has dramatically impacted the Redskins fortunes so far this season. If that doesn’t improve soon, we may be looking at a 2 or 3 win season and a top 3 pick in the draft.
Upcoming game: Miami averages 6 penalty calls a game versus the Redskins average of 9 calls.
I’ll be back next week with an analysis of week six.
Data Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com