Hold On – 2024 Week 18
January 8, 2025
By Noonefromtampa
Through week eighteen, 3,507 penalties were enforced in 272 games for 28416 yards yielding an average of 6.45 penalties per team per game. Washington has been called for 111 total penalties which is slightly over the league average at 6.53 penalties per game. They finished 13th in the league for most penalties, tied with Green Bay and San Francisco.
The top 5 penalized teams across the league are:
- New York Jets – 137
- Tennessee, Baltimore – 132
- Dallas – 128
- Seattle – 120
- Houston, Cleveland – 119
The top 5 penalty calls across the league are:
- Offensive Holding – 683 times
- False Start – 679 times
- Defensive Pass Interference – 306 times
- Defensive Holding – 175 times
- Unnecessary Roughness – 172 times
Week 18 Summary
Washington – 5 accepted penalties (1 declined) for 55 yards, gave up 2 first downs via penalty
Dallas – 11 accepted penalties (1 declined) for 25 yards, gave up 1 first down via penalty
This is the summary of penalties committed by each team:
By Penalty:
| Penalty | Washington | Dallas | Grand Total |
| Defensive Holding | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Delay of Game | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Face Mask | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| False Start | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ineligible Downfield Pass | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kickoff Out of Bounds | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Offensive Holding | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 5 | 11 | 16 |
By Unit:
| Team | Defense | Offense | ST | Grand Total |
| Washington | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Dallas | 1 | 8 | 2 | 11 |
| Grand Total | 3 | 10 | 3 | 16 |
By Player:
| Against | Player | Penalty | Accepted | Declined |
| Washington | N. Allegretti | False Start | 1 | 0 |
| Offensive Holding | 0 | 1 | ||
| B. St-Juste | Defensive Pass Interference | 1 | 0 | |
| Defensive Holding | 1 | 0 | ||
| J. Bates | Offensive Holding | 1 | 0 | |
| D. Payne | Unnecessary Roughness | 1 | 0 | |
| Dallas | J. Ferguson | False Start | 2 | 0 |
| Offensive Holding | 1 | 0 | ||
| T. Guyton | False Start | 1 | 0 | |
| Ineligible Downfield Pass | 1 | 0 | ||
| Unnamed | Delay of Game | 1 | 0 | |
| Illegal Motion | 0 | 1 | ||
| C. Goodwin | Illegal Block Above the Waist | 1 | 0 | |
| M. Waletzko | False Start | 1 | 0 | |
| D. Wilson | Face Mask | 1 | 0 | |
| T. Steele | False Start | 1 | 0 | |
| B. Aubrey | Kickoff Out of Bounds | 1 | 0 |
Washington Season Totals
By Penalty
| Row Labels | Defense | Offense | ST | Grand Total |
| Offensive Holding | 0 | 18 | 3 | 21 |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 19 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| False Start | 0 | 19 | 0 | 19 |
| Roughing the Passer | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Defensive Offside | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Ineligible Downfield Pass | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Illegal Formation | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Defensive Holding | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Delay of Game | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Defensive Too Many Men on Field | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Taunting | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Face Mask | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Illegal Shift | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Illegal Contact | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kickoff Out of Bounds | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Illegal Motion | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Blindside Block | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Offensive Too Many Men on Field | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Encroachment | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Unsportsmanlike Conduct | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 44 | 56 | 11 | 111 |
By Player:
| Player | Accepted | Declined | Offset |
| S. Cosmi | 11 | 1 | 0 |
| B. St-Juste | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Unnamed | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| N. Igbinoghene | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| N. Allegretti | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| Z. Ertz | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| B. Coleman | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| D. Fowler | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Payne | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| A. Wylie | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| J. Bates | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| D. Brown | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| M. Sainristil | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| M. Davis | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Newton | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| M. Lattimore | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| O. Zaccheaus | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Ferrell | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| D. Armstrong | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| C. Lucas | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| T. Biadasz | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| F. Luvu | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| B. Wagner | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Chinn | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| B. Sinnott | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| E. Forbes | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| T. Scott | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Forrest | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Osborn | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| N. Bellore | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J. McNichols | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Reaves | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Defense | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| C. York | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| T. McLaurin | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B. Robinson | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| P. Mathis | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Special Teams | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Daniels | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Thoughts
Sam Cosmi ended up the most penalized player for the Commanders. He tied for 7th highest in the league. The entire list of top 10 most penalized players is all offensive linemen, which isn’t surprising considering that offensive holding is the leading penalty. Laremy Tunsil led the league with 17 penalties.
Benjamin St-Juste was second on the team and was tied for second among all defensive backs with eight penalties. Nine other defensive backs tied with lead with nine penalties. I and a number of others thought he got unfairly penalized for pass interference in the Dallas game, it led to the only touchdown that Dallas scored:
Hate this PI call on BSJ. Really tight, physical coverage. pic.twitter.com/bqMwE93Quf
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) January 5, 2025
The coaching staff will need to work on reducing penalties in the offseason. In 2023, the team committed 87 penalties, so 111 in 2024 represents a 27.6% increase year over year, which is not a positive trend.
The most penalized game for Washington was week 17 against Atlanta with 13 penalties. In 2023 the most penalized game was week 7 against the Giants with 10 calls. The Alex Kemp crew, which called the Atlanta game, only called 6 penalties against Washington in the Seattle game week 10 in 2023.
Overall, offensive holding penalties increased from 578 in 2023 to 683 in 2024, which is an 18.2% increase. I wonder if the league addresses this in some fashion during the offseason.
Sources: nfl.com, nflpenalties.com