Hold On – Week 16, 2022
December 28, 2022
By Noonefromtampa
This game was decided by poor coaching decisions rather than the poor officiating, as was the case in the New York Giants game.
Through week 16 of games, 2,726 penalties have been enforced for 22,625 yards in 240 games, yielding an average of 5.68 penalties per team per game and 47.13 yards lost per team per game. Washington has been called for 85 penalties across 15 games totaling 772 yards lost for an average of 5.67 penalties per game and 51.47 yards lost per game. The average number of penalty call is right at the league average while average yards lost is over by 4.34 yards a game.
The most penalized teams in the league are:
- Denver – 107 penalties for 912 yards
- Arizona – 103 penalties for 816 yards
- Las Vegas – 101 penalties for 836 yards
- Seattle – 97 penalties for 809 yards
- Miami – 97 penalties for 763 yards
The top 5 penalty calls across the league are:
- Offensive Holding, 531 times, 5,102 yards
- False Start, 522 times, 2,567 yards
- Defensive Pass Interference, 201 times, 3,437 yards
- Defensive Holding, 190 times, 907 yards
- Unnecessary Roughness, 144 times, 1,842 yards
Kansas City has overtaken Washington for the most defensive pass interference penalties (12 calls) and is tied for first (with New Orleans) in illegal use of hands (5 calls).
Game Summary
San Francisco – 4 accepted penalties (1 declined, 1 offsetting) for 25 yards, gave up 1 first down via penalty
Washington – 6 accepted penalties (0 declined, 1 offsetting) for 51 yards, gave up 0 first downs via penalty
This is the summary of penalties committed by each team:
By Penalty:
| Penalty | San Francisco | Washington | Grand Total |
| Defensive Holding | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Delay of Game | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| False Start | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Illegal Touch Kick | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Offensive Holding | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Grand Total | 4 | 6 | 10 |
By Unit:
| Team | Defense | Offense | ST | Grand Total |
| San Francisco | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Washington | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Grand Total | 1 | 5 | 4 | 10 |
By Player:
| Against | Player | Penalty | Accepted | Declined | Offsetting |
| San Francisco | M. McGlinchey | False Start | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Ward | Defensive Holding | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| T. Hufanga | Illegal Contact | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| A. Banks | Offensive Holding | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Washington | C. Leno | Offensive Holding | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| T. Turner | False Start | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| R. Wildgoose | Unnecessary Roughness | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| K. Hudson | Illegal Touch Kick | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| P. Butler | Unnecessary Roughness | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Offense | Delay of Game | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| W. Schweitzer | Offensive Holding | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Game Impactors
While there were not the egregious levels of calls in this game like last week, there were still some head scratchers such as the Percy Butler unnecessary roughness call in the first quarter. It looked like a nice clean hit before the whistle while the player was making forward progress.
Little mistakes add up against a team as good as the 49ers. Charles Leno was called for holding on the second offensive series, which put the Commanders into a second and 18 position. They only picked up 5 yards on the next two plays and were forced to punt.
Probably the biggest impactor on the game was the offsetting penalties in the second quarter on the Wes Schweitzer offensive holding call and the Charvarius Ward defensive holding call. Jahan Dotson had caught a 39 yard completion from Taylor Heinicke down to the 49ers 10 yard line. That cost Washington potentially 3 to 7 points.
Rachad Wildgoose, who leads the team in penalties, was called for unnecessary roughness on a kickoff. This put the 49ers on their own 40, good starting field position. They were able to capitalize on this with a field goal.
Khaleke Hudson was flagged for an illegal touch on the horrible Joey Slye onside kick. This led to a 49ers touchdown which made it a three-score game with just over two minutes left in the game.
The combination of lots of little mistakes, poor coaching decisions and inadequate player execution doomed the Commanders in this game. So, while the focus may be on who is the starting quarterback against the Browns, the team needs to clean up its play.
Yearly Totals
By Player:
| Player | Accepted | Declined | Offsetting | Reversed |
| R. Wildgoose | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Offense | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| B. St-Juste | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Holmes | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| C. Leno | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Wentz | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| W. Jackson | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| M. Sweat | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| T. Turner | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Rogers | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| N. Martin | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Fuller | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| L. Thomas | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Norwell | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Dotson | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Hudson | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Lucas | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Sims | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Cosmi | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Ridgeway | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| P. Butler | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Defense | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| T. Larsen | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Cheeseman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Samuel | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| E. Obada | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| B. McCain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Curl | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Forrest | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Payne | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A. Newell | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Reaves | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Charles | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. Holcomb | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| W. Schweitzer | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| C. Turner | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T. McLaurin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Smith-Williams | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Allen | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
By Penalty:
| Penalty | Defense | Offense | ST | Grand Total |
| Offensive Holding | 0 | 10 | 8 | 18 |
| False Start | 0 | 13 | 1 | 14 |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Delay of Game | 0 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Intentional Grounding | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Illegal Contact | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Offensive Pass Interference | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Defensive Holding | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Illegal Formation | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Face Mask | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Defensive Offside | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Defensive Too Many Men on Field | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Motion | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Double-Team Block | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Illegal Touch Kick | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Roughing the Passer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grand Total | 27 | 41 | 17 | 85 |
The comparison of penalties across the years 2019-2022 by week.
Year to Year Comparison:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||||
| Week | Count | Yards | Count | Yards | Count | Yards | Count | Yards |
| 1 | 12 | 96 | 7 | 55 | 8 | 57 | 6 | 63 |
| 2 | 6 | 44 | 6 | 42 | 9 | 80 | 2 | 17 |
| 3 | 9 | 61 | 4 | 40 | 5 | 38 | 4 | 48 |
| 4 | 12 | 58 | 2 | 20 | 6 | 85 | 11 | 136 |
| 5 | 6 | 72 | 3 | 40 | 5 | 37 | 9 | 71 |
| 6 | 6 | 56 | 8 | 50 | 6 | 44 | 7 | 36 |
| 7 | 7 | 47 | 4 | 30 | 4 | 50 | 7 | 54 |
| 8 | 4 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 29 | 3 | 52 |
| 9 | 3 | 15 | 6 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 26 |
| 10 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 58 | 3 | 33 | 5 | 58 |
| 11 | 11 | 66 | 6 | 49 | 8 | 69 | 5 | 36 |
| 12 | 8 | 63 | 5 | 53 | 4 | 38 | 4 | 28 |
| 13 | 6 | 65 | 9 | 62 | 6 | 47 | 7 | 56 |
| 14 | 3 | 25 | 5 | 30 | 7 | 65 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | 5 | 60 | 6 | 41 | 2 | 25 | 6 | 40 |
| 16 | 6 | 51 | 5 | 26 | 1 | 13 | 6 | 51 |
Sources: nfl.com, nflpenalties.com
Pingback: Hold On – Week 16, 2022 - Commander Fans