Hold On, Week 12 Edition
November 28, 2019
By Noone From Tampa
This is part 12 of my ongoing series on penalties in the NFL.
Another week, another loss – wait a second, the Redskins actually won a game! The doomsayer fans immediately started complaining about the ruined draft position. The crux of the matter is that one high draft pick is not going to turn around this franchise. Realistically, fretting over the draft position is futile, especially if Bruce Allen remains in charge.
For the Redskins, there was slight improvement on penalties this week, with 8 called and accepted versus 13 and 11 last week. This was the worst week since Week 4. The usual suspects (no not Keyser Söze), Moreland, Scherff, and Penn, all got called again this week.
Here are the league-wide rankings through week 12:
|
Rank |
Total Penalties Called | Total Penalties Accepted |
Net Difference |
Net Yards Difference |
| 1 | Cleveland
Arizona |
Arizona | New Orleans | Cleveland |
| 2 | Oakland | Oakland | Oakland | |
| 3 | Tampa Bay | Cleveland | Washington | New Orleans |
| 4 | Oakland | Tampa Bay | Cleveland
Jacksonville |
Kansas City |
| 5 | Jacksonville | NY Jets | Jacksonville |
New Orleans is the leading example of a good team overcoming mistakes. They rank in the top 5 in both net difference (they commit more than their opponent) and net yards difference, at -323 yards.
Through twelve weeks, the Redskins have 104 total calls with 84 accepted while their opponents have 76 total penalties calls with 63 accepted, resulting in a net difference of -21. The Redskins have reduced their net yards difference to -64.
The league chart below shows the number of penalties by team, both before and against and the net difference through week 12:
This chart is sorted differently this week than previous weeks. It sorted from worst record to best record, which better shows that the net difference in penalties doesn’t necessarily impact a team’s ability to win.
The green part of the bar graph is the number of penalties against that team. The blue part shows number of penalties called against the opponent, the yellow line represents the net difference between the two, and the dark green line is the number of wins.
Across the NFL, a penalty is called every 10.2 plays, and 17.4 flags are thrown in each game.
The next graph is the overall league penalty call distribution across the league through 12 weeks for penalties that have 1% or greater of the total calls:
Offensive holding is still the most common penalty. It is called 1.8 times more than the next most frequent one, false start.
The top 10 penalties in the NFL and the percentage of overall penalties called are:
| Penalty | % of Calls |
| Offensive Holding | 23.1% |
| False Start | 12.8% |
| Defensive Holding | 8.2% |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 7.1% |
| Defensive Offside | 5.3% |
| Illegal Block Above the Waist | 4.0% |
| Illegal Use of Hands | 3.9% |
| Unnecessary Roughness | 3.9% |
| Roughing the Passer | 3.4% |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 3.4% |
Next, let’s look at what types of penalties are being called on the Redskins and their opponents.
The large disparity with the holding calls has disappeared. There is only a net difference of -2 calls now with the Redskins having 32 and their opponents 30. The Redskins had only one holding call in the Lions game, committed by Donald Penn. The Redskins committed three false starts, two on the offense and one on special teams.
The next chart shows which Redskins players have been assessed the most penalties:
The graph has been filtered for players committing more than one penalty. The Redskins penalty leaders this week are Donald Penn, Brandon Scherff, Jimmy Moreland, Morgan Moses, and Jeremy Sprinkle.
Looking at calls by unit, the offense gets over 50% of the penalty calls:
How well is the team doing under the Interim Head Coach Callahan?
Under Gruden, the team average 11.4 total calls per game, under Callahan that number is 7.8 per game.
Upcoming game: Carolina Panthers who average 7.7 penalties a game with 5.6 accepted versus the Redskins 9.5 penalties called and 7.6 accepted.
I’ll be back next week with an analysis of week thirteen of the league stats.
Data Sources: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com