Hold On – Week 17
January 5, 2024
By Noonefromtampa
Through week 17 of games, 2,990 penalties have been enforced in 256 games yielding an average of 5.84 penalties per team per game. Washington had been called for 83 penalties across 16 games for an average of 5.2 penalties per game which is below the league average by over half of a penalty. They are 25th in the league for most penalties.
The top five most penalized teams are:
- New York Jets – 123
- Dallas – 113
- Seattle – 111
- Cleveland – 108
- Tennessee – 105
The top 5 penalty calls across the league are:
- False Start, 594 times
- Offensive Holding, 540 times
- Defensive Pass Interference, 262 times
- Defensive Holding, 170 times
- Unnecessary Roughness, 157 times
As of week 17, unnecessary roughness is being called 7% more over the 2022 season when looking at the count per game stat which is down 3% from week 16.
Week 16 Summary
San Francisco – 3 accepted penalties (0 declined) for 20 yards, gave up 1 first down via penalty
Washington – 5 accepted penalties (0 declined) for 40 yards, gave up 2 first downs via penalty
Thoughts
Trenton Scott got his first start of the season and was called for almost a season worth of penalties. He was called for two false starts and an illegal use of hands (hands to the facemask) penalty. Aside the penalties, he did as good or better than Andrew Wylie.
League-wide, there was the whole reporting-in conundrum in the Lions-Cowboys game. Letting Dean Blandino leave the NFL is really biting the NFL in their backside. Not that calls would be any more correct, but Blandino created the appearance of transparency in officiating as well as being a great spokesperson for the league. The NFL has a problem with people thinking games are fixed in an increasing volume. The perfect storm of the officials screwing up, the Lions trying to get tricky, and the outcome of an important game on the line. Can’t we just have the refs announced that so-and-so is reporting in as eligible like they used to do?
This is the summary of penalties committed by each team:
By Penalty:
| Penalty | San Francisco | Washington | Grand Total |
| Defensive Holding | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Defensive Offside | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Face Mask | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| False Start | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Illegal Contact | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Offensive Holding | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 3 | 5 | 8 |
By Unit:
| Team | Defense | Offense | ST | Grand Total |
| San Francisco | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Washington | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| Grand Total | 4 | 4 | 0 | 8 |
By Player:
| Against | Player | Penalty | Accepted |
| San Francisco | L. Ryan | Illegal Contact | 1 |
| R. Bell | Offensive Holding | 1 | |
| J. Hargrave | Defensive Offside | 1 | |
| Washington | T. Scott | False Start | 2 |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 1 | ||
| C. Barton | Face Mask | 1 | |
| T. Castro-Fields | Defensive Holding | 1 |
Season Total:
| Player | Accepted | Declined | Offset |
| B. St-Juste | 9 | 2 | 0 |
| C. Leno | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| C. Holmes | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Wylie | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| L. Thomas | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Offense | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| T. Castro-Fields | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| D. Payne | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| J. Bates | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Cosmi | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Young | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Davis | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Brown | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| T. Scott | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| N. Gates | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| E. Forbes | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Defense | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Howell | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Barton | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Charles | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Allen | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Fuller | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| M. Sweat | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| J. Dotson | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| C. Paul | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Martin | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Gibson | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Mayo | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Henry | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B. Pringle | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Lucas | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Johnson | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Curl | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| J. Smith-Williams | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| C. Samuel | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Sources: nfl.com, nflpenalties.com