Hold On, Week 11 Edition
November 19, 2019
By Noone From Tampa
This is part 11 of my ongoing series on penalties in the NFL.
Another week, another loss and this abysmal Redskins season continues. I can remember watching games as far back as 1964 and I think this is the worst season in my life as a Redskins fan.
Washington had a huge step backwards this week with 13 total penalty calls with 11 accepted. This is the worst week since Week 4. With the effort put in on the field and the increase in penalties, it leads one to wonder if some of the players are starting to phone it in already. Four players, Donald Penn, Morgan Moses, Jimmy Moreland, and Brandon Scherff, account for 34% of the accepted penalties on the season. Scherff did himself no favors in his contract year by getting a holding call on the biggest play of the day, the 67-yard Terry McLaurin catch. He then compounded his initial mistake with an unsportsmanlike conduct call for taking off his helmet on the field.
The league-wide rankings through week 11:
|
Rank |
Total Penalties Called | Total Penalties Accepted |
Net Difference |
Net Yards Difference |
| 1 | Cleveland | Arizona | Oakland | Cleveland |
| 2 | Arizona | Oakland | Cleveland | Oakland |
| 3 | Oakland | Cleveland | Washington | Kansas City |
| 4 | Detroit | Tampa Bay | New Orleans | Minnesota |
| 5 | Tampa Bay
Kansas City |
NY Jets | Arizona
Jacksonville |
New Orleans |
Oakland has passed Cleveland to lead the NFL in net difference with -2. Washington is third at -19. Four of the top 5 teams that largest net difference in penalty yards have .500 or better records. That has remained the same for a number of weeks now.
Through eleven weeks, the Redskins have 96 total calls with 76 accepted while their opponent have 69 total penalties calls with 57 accepted, resulting in a net difference of -19. The Redskins have lowered their net yards difference to -66, while Cleveland leads the league with a whopping -347 yards.
The league chart below shows the number of penalties by team, both before and against and the net difference through week 11:
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 11 weeks:
The most common is still offensive holding and is called 1.8 times more than the next most frequent one, false start.
We have a new penalty this week in the Top 10: neutral zone infraction has replaced offensive pass interference by a few percentage points. The top 10 penalties in the NFL and the percentage of overall penalties called are:
| Penalty | % of Calls |
| Offensive Holding | 23.5% |
| False Start | 12.8% |
| Defensive Holding | 8.3% |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 6.9% |
| Defensive Offside | 5.5% |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 3.8% |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3.8% |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 3.7% |
| Roughing the Passer | 3.5% |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 3.4% |
Next, let’s look at what types of penalties are being called on the Redskins and their opponents.
The large disparity with the holding calls has disappeared. There is only a net difference of -3 calls now with the Redskins having 31 and their opponents 28. The Redskins had only one holding call in the game, the one that negated the McLaurin play. Defense holding and false starts are the other most common mistakes the team makes. Two false starts in this game with Moses getting his obligatory one and Kelvin Harmon with the other.
Next, which players are getting the penalty calls?
The Redskins penalty leaders this week are Donald Penn, Brandon Scherff, Morgan Moses, and Jimmy Moreland. The only positive note is that no Redskins player made the top 10 players with the most accepted penalties against them. The most penalized player in the NFL is Laremy Tunsil of Houston with 11 accepted on 11 calls.
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, Bill Callahan?
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Under Gruden, the team average 11.4 total calls per game, whereas under Callahan that number is 7.8 per game. The bad week increased the average by 1.3 calls.
Upcoming game: Detroit Lions who average 10.1 penalties a game with 8.1 accepted versus the Redskins 9.6 penalties called and 7.6 accepted.
I’ll be back next week with an analysis of week twelve of the league stats.
Data Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com