Hold On, Week 8 Edition
October 31, 2019
by Noone From Tampa
This is part 8 of my new ongoing series on penalties in the NFL.
Another week, another loss. Adding to that will be the upcoming drama with Trent Williams which will be a battle of wills between him and the front office. There is better news this week on penalties, though, with seven total calls, including four accepted and three declined against the Vikings. Four accepted penalties is the lowest total for the season so far. The offense seemed better with Case Keenum running it, but the Redskins scored no touchdowns for the second straight game. The offense sputtered in the second half under Dwayne Haskins, who still does not look ready for prime time.
Here are the league-wide rankings through week 8:
|
Rank |
Total Penalties Called | Total Penalties Accepted |
Net Difference |
Net Yards Difference |
| 1 | Cleveland | Cleveland | Cleveland | Cleveland |
| 2 | Jacksonville | Atlanta | Jacksonville
Washington Detroit |
Minnesota |
| 3 | Minnesota | Jacksonville | Oakland | |
| 4 | Washington | Houston | Kansas City | |
| 5 | Atlanta | Arizona | Arizona
Oakland |
Baltimore |
Cleveland leads the NFL in net difference with -24. Washington is tied for second with Jacksonville and Detroit at -13. There are still three winning teams in the top 5 for net yardage difference on penalties. Like I said last week, good teams can overcome their mistakes.
Through eight weeks, the Redskins have 78 total called penalties, with 62 accepted while their opponents have 59 penalties calls with 49 accepted, resulting in a net difference of -13. The Browns lead the league in all four categories with 88 total called penalties, 70 accepted, and 46 opponent penalties accepted, resulting in a net difference of -24.
The league chart below shows the number of penalties by team, both before and against and the net difference through week 8:
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.
Across the NFL, the per game stats remain the same with a penalty called every 10 plays and each game having 18 flags thrown in it.
The next graph shows the overall league penalty call distribution across the league through 8 weeks:
The most common is still offensive holding, which is called almost two times more than the next most frequent one, false start.
The top 10 penalties in the NFL and the percentage of overall penalties called are:
| Penalty | % of Calls |
| Offensive Holding | 24.0% |
| False Start | 12.6% |
| Defensive Holding | 8.8% |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 5.9% |
| Defensive Offside | 5.3% |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 4.2% |
| Roughing the Passer | 3.7% |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 3.7% |
| Offensive Pass Interference | 3.6% |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3.5% |
Next, let’s look at what types of penalties are being called on the Redskins and their opponents:
Finally, the Redskins are achieving parity with the holding calls. Washington now has a net difference of just four calls, with the Redskins having 26 and their opponents 22. The Redskins did have three holding calls in the Minnesota game but two were declined. Defensive holding and false starts are the other most common mistakes the team makes. In a major surprise, Morgan Moses did not draw a flag in the game.
Lastly, which players are getting the penalty calls?
The Redskins penalty top 6 this week are Donald Penn, Morgan Moses, Jimmy Moreland, Brandon Scherff, Josh Norman, and Erick Flowers.
Looking at calls by unit, the offense gets over 50% of the penalty calls:
A reader asked if interim head coach Bill Callahan has had any impact on the penalties the Redskins were incurring. So, let’s look at the weekly penalty calls:
Under former head coach Jay Gruden, the team averaged 11.4 total calls per game, whereas under Callahan that number is down to 7 per game. So yes, coach Callahan has had a positive impact on decreasing the team’s mistakes.
Upcoming game: Buffalo averages 8.4 accepted penalty calls a game versus the Redskins average of 7.8 accepted calls.
I’ll be back next week with an analysis of week nine.
Data Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com