Hold On – Is Back!
September 16, 2020
By Noonefromtampa
Your favorite column on penalties, Hold On, is back for season 2. Like last year, we will be taking various looks at penalties during the season as well as the penalties called in each game. As always, you can tweet penalty questions you would like see answered to me @noonefromtampa.
In the first game this season, the Washington Football Team were called for seven penalties, six on defense and one on special teams, and all were accepted. Coach Ron Rivera emphasizes eliminating mistakes, so that number of mistakes likely displeases him. However, compared to the 2019 season where the Team was called for 14 penalties with 12 accepted, this a definite improvement over last year.
In fact, the Team averaged 12 penalty calls a game thru the first four weeks of the season. You also have to believe Coach Rivera will seek to cut down on the mistakes with 7 penalties being an unacceptable level to him, especially since six of the seven penalties were essentially mental mistakes by players.
The Eagles were called for three penalties, all accepted, with two on defense and one on special teams.
On the seven penalty calls, no player was called for more than one infraction.
The penalty type distribution for week 1 is:
League Wide Week 1 Statistics
Let’s look at the total calls for week one in 2019 versus week one in 2020:
| 2019 | 2020 | % Change | |
| Total Calls | 249 | 181 | -27.3% |
| Accepted | 192 | 163 | -15.1% |
| Declined | 47 | 14 | -70.2% |
| Offset | 10 | 4 | -60.0% |
There a a pretty decent drop in the number of flags thrown by the officiating crews with a 27.3% decrease.
This is a comparison of the top six penalties in week one in 2019 versus week one in 2020:
| Penalty | 2019 | 2020 | % Change |
| Defensive Pass Interference | 16 | 28 | 75.0% |
| False Start | 29 | 27 | -6.9% |
| Offensive Holding | 64 | 15 | -76.6% |
| Neutral Zone Infraction | 14 | 14 | 0.0% |
| Delay Of Game | 11 | 12 | 9.1% |
| Defensive Holding | 17 | 11 | -35.3% |
In 2019, there was an emphasis on offensive holding penalties, but the NFL did not continue that into 2020. The reduction of offensive holding calls was very dramatic. I have not seen an emphasis placed on defensive pass interference calls for 2020, but they increased dramatically over 2019.
Statistics source: nflpenalties.com, nfl.com