Hold On – Wildcard Weekend Bonus Edition

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January 14, 2025

By Noonefromtampa

How exciting is it to have more games to talk about rather than just normal offseason jibber-jabber?

Wildcard Weekend Summary

Washington – 5 accepted penalties (2 declined) for 39 yards and gave up 3 first downs via penalties

Tampa Bay – 7 accepted penalties (1 declined) for 65 yards and gave up 3 first downs via penalties

Game Summary:

By Penalty:

Penalty Washington Tampa Bay Grand Total
Chop Block 0 1 1
Defensive Holding 1 2 3
Defensive Pass Interference 1 1 2
Face Mask 1 0 1
False Start 1 1 2
Ineligible Downfield Pass 1 0 1
Offensive Too Many Men on Field 0 1 1
Roughing the Passer 0 1 1
Grand Total 5 7 12

By Unit:

Team Defense Offense Grand Total
Washington 3 2 5
Tampa Bay 4 3 7
Grand Total 7 5 12

By Player:

Against Player Penalty Accepted Declined
Washington D. Fowler Defensive Offside 0 1
N. Igbinoghene Defensive Holding 1 0
Z. Ertz False Start 1 0
M. Lattimore Defensive Pass Interference 1 0
D. Armstrong Face Mask 1 0
J. Reaves Defensive Offside 0 1
A. Wylie Ineligible Downfield Pass 1 0
Tampa Bay Z. McCollum Defensive Pass Interference 1 0
Defensive Holding 1 0
T. Wirfs Offensive Holding 0 1
B. Irving Chop Block 1 0
Unnamed Offensive Too Many Men on Field 1 0
J. Dean Defensive Holding 1 0
C. Otton False Start 1 0
Y. Diaby Roughing the Passer 1 0

Thoughts

Washington was a little better on giving away free first downs. They only did it on two drives this week, but both ended up being Tampa Bay touchdowns.

The first was on Marshon Lattimore that set up the short Mike Evans touchdown catch. Evans drew the defensive pass interference call with his signature swim move, which in my opinion is pass offensive pass interference about 75% of the time, which forced Lattimore to grab to stop the free release Evans had. The play:

The other penalty was a defensive holding call on Noah Igbinoghene which reset the series back to first down inside the Washington 5 yard line. The Bucs scored two plays later on a rub route pass to Bucky Irving.

Zach Ertz on the other hand did not get the benefit of a defensive pass interference call on this play, which many in the media called out as a bad mistake by the officials.

The true keys to winning the game were two mistakes that turned this game around enabling the Commanders to win.

First was a Baker Mayfield fumble to that allowed Washington to take the lead:

The second was a premature snap by the rookie center, Graham Barton:

Division Round Bonus Material

The Ron Torbert crew is assigned to the Commanders-Lions game on Saturday. Let’s see where they rank on some key penalties that are favorites of the Commanders:

  • Offensive Holding – they rank 3rd during the regular season with 59 total calls or 3.7 per game worked.
  • False Start – they ranked 10th with 38 total calls or 2.4 per game
  • Defensive Pass Interference – they ranked 8th with 21 total calls or 1.3 calls per game
  • Roughing the Passer – they ranked 5th with 8 total calls or 0.5 per game
  • Ineligible Downfield Pass – they ranked 1st with 13 total calls or 0.8 per game

With the alignment on a couple of the Washington’s weak points, expect the Commanders to have more penalties called on them than the Lions.

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