Hold On – Week 6

October 20, 2023

By Noonefromtampa

Through week 6 of games, 1166 penalties have been enforced in 93 games yielding an average of 6.27 penalties per team per game. Washington had been called for 32 penalties across 6 games for an average of 5.33 penalties per game which is almost 1 penalty per game under the league average. They are 26^th in the league for most penalties with only six teams with fewer penalties.

The top 5 penalized team across the league are:

1. Dallas – 46
2. San Francisco – 45
3. Carolina – 44
4. New Orleans – 43
5. NY Giants – 42

The top 5 penalty calls across the league are:

1. False Start, 221 times
2. Offensive Holding, 213 times
3. Defensive Pass Interference, 108 times
4. Unnecessary Roughness, 66 times
5. Defensive Holding, 64 times

As of week 6, unnecessary roughness is being called 24.6% more over the 2022 season when looking at the count per game stat. This is down slightly from last week.

Week 5 Summary

Atlanta – 4 accepted penalties (2 declined) for 31 yards, gave up 1 first down via penalty

Washington – 5 accepted penalty (3 declined) for 30 yards, gave up 2 first downs via penalty

Thoughts

Washington still commits a lot of drive killing penalties. For example, against Atlanta, the first quarter, second drive holding call on center Nick Gates took a first down off the board and ended up putting the Commanders in a 3 and 14 situation which they did not convert. Washington was only down 7-3 at the time, but Washington had been successfully moving the ball down the field on that drive.

I also did not understand the decline of the ineligible downfield call before the end of the first half. That would have back Atlanta up to a 2 and 36, meaning the Falcons would have need to gain 20 yards in two plays before being in field goal range.

Aside from the usual no calls on obvious holds by offensive linemen on both teams, there was a sack of Sam Howell in which he was sandwiched between a couple of Falcons defensive linemen and another Falcons player came in and jumped on top of them. After the Cody Barton helmet hit on Desmond Ridder which was called for roughing the passer, you wonder why a similar call was not made on the piling on during the Howell sack.

This is the summary of penalties committed by each team:

By Penalty:

Penalty	Atlanta	Washington	Grand Total
Defensive Holding	1	0	1
Defensive Pass Interference	0	2	2
Delay of Game	1	0	1
False Start	1	0	1
Intentional Grounding	1	0	1
Neutral Zone Infraction	0	2	2
Roughing the Passer	0	1	1
Grand Total	4	5	9

By Unit:

Team	Defense	Offense	Grand Total
Atlanta	1	3	4
Washington	5	0	5
Grand Total	6	3	9

By Player:

Against	Player	Penalty	Accepted	Declined
Atlanta	D. Ridder	Intentional Grounding	1	0
	J. Matthews	False Start	1	0
	C. Lindstrom	Ineligible Downfield Pass	0	1
	Offense	Delay of Game	1	0
	G. Jarrett	Defensive Offside	0	1
	J. Okudah	Defensive Holding	1	0
Washington	B. St-Juste	Defensive Pass Interference	1	0
		Defensive Holding	0	1
	D. Johnson	Defensive Pass Interference	1	0
	N. Gates	Offensive Holding	0	1
	C. Young	Neutral Zone Infraction	1	0
	C. Barton	Roughing the Passer	1	0
	D. Payne	Neutral Zone Infraction	1	0
	M. Sweat	Defensive Offside	0	1

Season Total:

Player	Accepted	Declined
C. Young	3	0
B. St-Juste	2	1
N. Gates	2	1
A. Wylie	2	1
J. Bates	2	0
J. Davis	2	0
M. Sweat	1	1
K. Fuller	1	1
Offense	1	1
D. Johnson	1	0
S. Charles	1	0
L. Thomas	1	0
D. Mayo	1	0
S. Cosmi	1	0
C. Leno	1	0
J. Martin	1	0
D. Payne	1	0
E. Forbes	1	0
D. Brown	1	0
B. Pringle	1	0
Defense	1	0
C. Barton	1	0
C. Holmes	1	0
J. Dotson	1	0
K. Curl	0	1
J. Smith-Williams	0	1

 

Sources: nfl.com, nflpenalties.com