Hold On, Week 15 Edition
December 18, 2019
By Noone From Tampa
This is part 15 of my ongoing series on penalties in the NFL.
The Redskins played a decent game offensively for the first time in many weeks. By that, I mean they were able to both run and throw the ball effectively. Dwayne Haskins seemed to take a big step forward in his development, but more bad games are in his future as he learns the position of NFL QB.
The big penalty controversy was Ryan Anderson’s hit on Carson Wentz. You could not ask for a better, cleaner take down of a large, physical quarterback. NFL officiating seems to be getting worse each year.
The Redskins are still on track for a top 5 pick in the draft with two games to go against the Giants and Cowboys. The final two games will be for pride or draft position because the NFC East title will be decided in the Cowboys/Eagles game this weekend.
For the fifth time this season and the second straight week, the Redskins had less penalties than their opponent. The Redskins still rank in the top 5 in net difference of penalties accepted but not in any of the other three categories.
The league-wide rankings through week 15 are as follows:
|
Rank |
Total Penalties Called | Total Penalties Accepted |
Net Difference |
Net Yards Difference |
| 1 | Jacksonville | Jacksonville | Jacksonville | Jacksonville |
| 2 | Cleveland | Tampa Bay | Oakland | New Orleans |
| 3 | Tampa Bay | Oakland | New Orleans | Oakland |
| 4 | Oakland | Cleveland | Washington | Cleveland |
| 5 | New Orleans | New York Jets | Buffalo | New York Jets |
New Orleans and Buffalo are the only playoff teams in the top 5 rankings this week.
Through fifteen weeks, the Redskins have 120 total calls with 98 accepted while their opponent have 94 total penalties calls with 80 accepted, resulting in a net difference of -18. The Redskins net yards difference stands at -83 yards which is 10th in the league.
The league chart below shows the number of penalties by team, both before and against and the net difference through week 15:
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, a penalty called every 10.6 plays, and each game has 16.7 flags thrown in it.
The next graph is the overall league penalty call distribution across the league through 15 weeks for penalties that have 1% or greater of the total calls:
The most common penalty is still offensive holding, which is called 1.7 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 | 22.0% |
| False Start | 13.1% |
| Defensive Holding | 8.3% |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 7.4% |
| Defensive Offside | 5.4% |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 4.2% |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 4.0% |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3.6% |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 3.5% |
| Roughing the Passer | 3.3% |
Next, let’s look at what types of penalties are being called on the Redskins and their opponents:
The net difference on holding calls is now at -5 calls now with the Redskins having 36 and their opponents having 31. The offense committed two holding penalties this week, with one against Wes Martin (declined) and one against Morgan Moses (accepted).
This next chart shows which players are getting the penalty calls:
The graph has been filtered for players committing more than one penalty. The Redskins penalty leaders this week are Morgan Moses, Donald Penn, Brandon Scherff, Jimmy Moreland, and Jeremy Sprinkle. There was one false start penalty but it was called on the “Offense”, not a named player. With Brandon Scherff and Jimmy Moreland going on IR this week, they will not be accumulating any more penalties.
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?
Under former head coach Jay Gruden, the team average 11.4 total calls per game with 6.1 accepted. Under Callahan that number is 7 total calls per game with 5.9 accepted.
Since holding calls are frequent game thread discussion topics, I have a bonus chart this week that shows the total offensive holding penalties called by team. Washington is second in the league behind Jacksonville for most total offensive holding calls. The blue line on the chart is the overall league average.
The holding calls are fairly evenly distributed across run and pass plays, but calls on run plays are accepted on run plays at twice the rate that they are accepted on pass plays. The reason for that is if the pass play has resulted in an incomplete pass, it often is not logical to of accept the holding call.
Upcoming game: New York Giants average 7 penalties a game with 5.8 accepted, whereas the Redskins average 8.6 penalties called and 7 accepted.
I’ll be back next week with an analysis of week sixteen of the league stats.
Data Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com