Hold On – Week 2, 2022

September 22, 2022

By Noonefromtampa

The Lions game was interesting that the two teams combined for a whopping three penalties for a total of twenty-two yards. With so much action on the field, one would have thought that more penalties would have been called during the game. The league average for a regular season game last year was a just a shy under six penalties per team. Another interesting point was that there were no penalties called on the defense in the game.

From a penalty perspective it was relatively a mistake-free game, although from an overall execution standpoint, not so much (at least from the Washington point of view).

Through week two, 400 penalties have been enforced in 32 games, yielding an average of 6.25 penalties per team per game. Washington has been called for 8 penalties across 2 games for an average of 4 penalties per game, which is under the league average.

The top 5 penalty calls across the league are:

1. False Start, 82 times
2. Offensive Holding, 48 times
3. Defensive Pass Interference, 36 times
4. Delay of Game, 28 times
5. Unnecessary Roughness, 22 times

Game Summary

Detroit – 1 accepted penalty (2 declined) for 5 yards; gave up 0 first downs via penalty

Washington – 2 accepted penalties for 17 yards; gave up 0 first downs via penalty

This is the summary of penalties committed by each team:

Penalty	Opponent	Washington	Grand Total
Delay of Game	0	1	1
False Start	1	0	1
Intentional Grounding	0	1	1
Grand Total	1	2	3

By Unit:

Team	Offense	Grand Total
Detroit	1	1
Washington	2	2
Grand Total	3	3

By Player:

Against	Player	Penalty	Accepted	Declined
Opponent	Offense	Illegal Formation	0	1
	A. Pittman	Running Into the Kicker	0	1
	P. Sewell	False Start	1	0
Washington	C. Wentz	Delay of Game	1	0
	C. Wentz	Intentional Grounding	1	0

Game Impactors

There were no game impacting penalties this week. There were a couple of missed holding calls and a fairly obvious block in the back on the D’Andre Swift touchdown reception that wasn’t called.

The biggest question mark for me was when Washington declined the “running into the Kicker” penalty right before the end of the first half. With 39 seconds left in the half and the ball on Washington’s 34 yard line, accepting the penalty would have given the Commanders a fourth and one at the own 39 yard line being down by 22 points. I’m sure the thought process involved in the decision to decline wrapped around the Lions getting another field or touchdown before halftime. To this layperson, being down by 25 or 29 points is worth the risk of trying to score before halftime, especially since Washington got the ball to start the second half.

Yearly Totals

By Player:

Player	Accepted	Declined
C. Wentz	2	0
K. Fuller	2	0
B. McCain	1	0
D. Forrest	1	0
A. Newell	1	0
Offense	0	1
W. Jackson	1	0
B. St-Juste	0	1

By Penalty

Penalty	Defense	Offense	Grand Total
Illegal Contact	2	0	2
Defensive Pass Interference	2	0	2
Intentional Grounding	0	1	1
Delay of Game	0	1	1
Unnecessary Roughness	1	0	1
Illegal Use of Hands	0	1	1
Grand Total	5	3	8