Hold On, Week 9 Edition
November 8, 2019
By Noone From Tampa
This is part 9 of my new ongoing series on penalties in the NFL.
Another week, another loss by the Redskins. That seems to be the season’s theme.
This week I will start with fines, specifically tight end Jeremy Sprinkle’s fine. Sprinkle was fined $84,231, which is more than two game checks’ worth of his salary, for two hits in the Minnesota Vikings game that were considered to be unnecessary roughness. The interesting part is that on neither play was a penalty called on Sprinkle. Both fines were for blows to the head. The second fine was for lowering his head on Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes who was taken to the medical tent to be evaluated for a concussion. Earlier in the game Stephon Diggs lowered his head while being tackled and Jeremy Reaves was called for unnecessary roughness, another instance of inconsistent calls made by the officials.
While the game was a loss, this week the Redskins did well in penalties, with five total calls, including three accepted and two declined. Both figures are the lowest total for the season through week 9. The most impactful call of the game was Tony Bergstrom getting a penalty for not checking in as an eligible receiver when the Redskins went with its jumbo package on the first play. That penalty negated a 10 yard run by Adrian Peterson which led to a 3 and out.
The league-wide rankings through week 9:
|
Rank |
Total Penalties Called | Total Penalties Accepted |
Net Difference |
Net Yards Difference |
| 1 | Cleveland | Cleveland | Cleveland | Cleveland |
| 2 | Jacksonville | Arizona | Oakland | Oakland |
| 3 | Arizona | Houston | Tampa Bay | Minnesota |
| 4 | Minnesota | Jacksonville
NY Jets |
Washington | Kansas City |
| 5 | Houston
NY Jets Oakland Washington |
Arizona | Dallas |
Cleveland leads the NFL in net difference with -22 and Washington is fourth at -14. Four of the top 5 teams that are giving up the most penalty yards have .500 or better records.
Through eight weeks, the Redskins have 83 total calls with 65 accepted while their opponents have 63 penalties calls with 51 accepted, resulting in a net difference of -14. The Browns lead the league in all four categories with 94 total calls, 75 accepted, and 53 opponent penalties accepted, resulting in a net difference of -22. They also have a -237 net difference in assessed penalty yards.
The league chart below shows the number of penalties by team, both before and against and the net difference through week 9:
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 17.5 flags thrown in it.
The next graph is the overall league penalty call distribution across the league through 9 weeks:
The most common is still offensive holding and is called 1.9 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 | 23.8% |
| False Start | 12.7% |
| Defensive Holding | 8.4% |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 6.1% |
| Defensive Offside | 5.5% |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 4.1% |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 3.8% |
| Roughing the Passer | 3.6% |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3.6% |
| Offensive Pass Interference | 3.4% |
Next, let’s look at the types of penalties that are being called on the Redskins and their opponents.
The Redskins are finally achieving parity with the holding calls. There is only a net difference of four calls now with the Redskins having 28 and their opponents 24. The Redskins did have two holding calls in the Buffalo game but both were declined. Defense holding and false starts are the other most common mistakes made by the team. The strangest call in the game was Jonathan Allen getting a defensive holding call on a running play. He held a lineman and prevented him from moving to the next level.
Lastly, which players are getting the penalty calls?
The Redskins penalty leaders this week are Donald Penn, Morgan Moses, Jimmy Moreland, Brandon Scherff, Josh Norman, Erick Flowers and Jeremy Sprinkle.
Looking at calls by unit, the offense gets over 50% of the penalty calls:
How well is the team doing under the Interim Head Coach Callahan?
Under Gruden, the team averaged 11.4 total calls per game, under Callahan that number is down to 6.5 per game. So, the Redskins have cut penalty mistakes almost by half.
Upcoming game: It’s a bye week, so no loss this week.
I’ll be back next week with an analysis of week ten of the league stats.
Data Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com