Hold On – Week 9 (The Bye Week)

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November 10, 2021

By Noonefromtampa

While what constitutes a catch, pass interference or taunting may be questionable in people’s minds, one thing is true in all of professional sports: never touch a game official. That is always be a penalty in the NFL and an ejection in most professional sports leagues. Anyone that played organized sports at any level learned that day one and there is no excuse for any other behavior.

Since this a bye week, l will use this week’s column to compare how the team in doing penalty wise from 2019 to 2021. League-wide, the number of penalties called on a team in game for the season is up slightly to 6.34 calls per team/game and the week 9 average was 6.54 calls per team/game.

Washington Total Penalties

Year Count
2019 106
2020 88
2021 (Projected) 100

Year one of Ron Rivera’s leadership saw overall penalties go down almost 17% from the previous coaching regime. However, it is troubling is that year two projects to be on par with 2019, reversing all the gains in the more disciplined and accountable approach the Rivera brought to the team last year.

Washington Penalties by Unit

Year Defense Offense Special Teams
2019 37 54 15
2020 44 33 11
2021 (Projected) 38 40 21

The biggest improvement when Rivera took over was the offense committing far fewer penalties, defense and special team were about the same. The main reason for 2021 rate going back up is that the special teams units have committed as many penalties so far this year as all of last year. If the team can cut down on special teams penalties in the second half of the season, they have a chance to reduce the overall penalties for 2021 closer to the 2020 level.

Types of Penalties

2019 2020 2021 (Projected)
Offensive Holding – 27 False Start – 13 Offensive Holding – 21
False Start – 21 Offensive Holding – 12 False Start – 17
Defensive Holding – 9 Defensive Offside – 9 Defensive Pass Interference – 15
Unnecessary Roughness – 8 Neutral Zone Infraction – 7 Neutral Zone Infraction – 9
Delay of Game – 7

Two penalties stand out from this list: offensive holding and false start. Those two penalties combined for 45% of the penalties in 2019, 28% in 2020 and 38% in 2021 (projected).  League-wide the average for a season is 15 for offensive holding and 16 for false start, so for 2021, Washington is on a pace to exceed both of those averages. Last year issues with defensive offsides and neutral zones infractions have been improved on only slightly. League-wide teams combined for about 10 of calls a year with Washington on pace for 14 combined calls this year.

The other trend this year for the team in a sudden increase in defensive pass interference calls. William Jackson II has four calls against him for this so far this year. The league-wide average is about 10 calls per team. It will be interesting to see when Jackson returns to the lineup if this trend continues or if it was an abnormality due to his knee injury suffered in camp.

Players with Most Penalties

2019 2020 2021 (projected)
M. Moses M. Sweat W. Jackson
J. Moreland Offense C. Young
B. Scherff M. Moses R. Seals-Jones
D. Penn J. Moreland W. Schweitzer
J. Sprinkle 3 players tied S. Cosmi

Two of the most penalized players in 2019 and 2020, Morgan Moses and Jimmy Moreland, are no longer with this season. Montez Sweat really improved on reducing the number of calls against him (this year will also be aided by him missing five or more games with a broken jaw). Chase Young was one of the three players tied for fifth place in 2020 and has jumped into a 4-way tie for second place so far this season. That situation bears watching during the second half of the year. Young needs to focus and reduce the mental mistakes. Lastly, even though he has missed the last couple of games Jackson still leads the team in penalties. Can Jackson turn his season around when he finally returns to the lineup?

As always, if you have any question on penalties, please post them in the comments section or hit me up on Twitter @noonefromtampa.