Glaring lack of penalties(especially offensive) being called league wide borne out by statistics

[Big Turk]

For the first time since penalty data became available in 1995, there is no penalty where the per game average is above 2. In fact, it is the first time ever where there are not 2 penalties that average 2 or more per game being called.  In every season except this one, both false starts and holding penalties averaged more than 2 per game. 

 

This year, nothing is even close to 2 per game...false starts are being called at 1.8 per game and holding at 1.76 per game.  Couple this with DPI being called at historically high rate of 1.29 per game(only 3 other years were above 1 per game, with 1.09 being the highest), and you can see why offenses are flourishing and will shatter the record for most points scored this year...far fewer long down and distances to convert and lots of free yards and first downs via DPI.

 

In fact, this would be the first year since 2011 that false starts would be called more than offensive holding, but I believe that is the year they started calling neutral zone infractions on the defense if they made the offensive player false start, whereas before this it still would have been a false start against the offense.  Historically those are almost always the top 2 penalties in the league and false starts were almost always the most frequently called infraction before 2011(only 1 time did holding lead the way before 2011).

  

Just thought it was interesting that the data backed up what we have been seeing...a glaring lack of offensive penalties but far more defensive penalties...

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by matter2003

[SoCal Deek]

Hey, if the the entire league was made of nothing more than the Patriots, there would never be any penalties at all! 

[HOUSE]

There are no booing fans so its easy to miss everything

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

Letting the boys play I'm down with it. Hell with having some pencil neck referee decide the game.

[eSJayDee]

It certainly seems reasonable that lack of crowd noise contributes to the lack of false starts, illegal shifts etc.  Potentially, it could even contribute to less holding calls (D-line doesn't get a jump on O-line as easily so they're not at a disadvantageous position causing a need/desire to hold).  Can't think of a reason for DPI to be up, other than less effective pass rush, which is pushing it, or maybe just more passes in general.

[smuvtalker]

7 minutes ago, eSJayDee said:

It certainly seems reasonable that lack of crowd noise contributes to the lack of false starts, illegal shifts etc.  Potentially, it could even contribute to less holding calls (D-line doesn't get a jump on O-line as easily so they're not at a disadvantageous position causing a need/desire to hold).  Can't think of a reason for DPI to be up, other than less effective pass rush, which is pushing it, or maybe just more passes in general.

Great point about the lack of crowd noise. You took the words right out of my mouth.  I was thinking the exact same thing.

 

This whole season in general has just been so crazy, so topsy-turvy.  But I'm still enjoying the hell out of it.  And heck, at the end of the day, if you think about it, there probably won't be much made of the lack of penalties called, because in the end, everybody wants to see an offensive fireworks show...for the most part I think. 

[JerseyBills]

34 minutes ago, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

Letting the boys play I'm down with it. Hell with having some pencil neck referee decide the game.

Exactly! 

The cream will always rise. 

The beautiful thing about Diggs is he makes everyone around him better as well. True #1 Franchise WR

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

59 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

For the first time since penalty data became available in 1995, there is no penalty where the per game average is above 2. In fact, it is the first time ever where there are not 2 penalties that average 2 or more per game being called.  In every season except this one, both false starts and holding penalties averaged more than 2 per game. 

 

This year, nothing is even close to 2 per game...false starts are being called at 1.8 per game and holding at 1.76 per game.  Couple this with DPI being called at historically high rate of 1.29 per game(only 3 other years were above 1 per game, with 1.09 being the highest), and you can see why offenses are flourishing and will shatter the record for most points scored this year...far fewer long down and distances to convert and lots of free yards and first downs via DPI.

 

In fact, this would be the first year since 2011 that false starts would be called more than offensive holding, but I believe that is the year they started calling neutral zone infractions on the defense if they made the offensive player false start, whereas before this it still would have been a false start against the offense.  Historically those are almost always the top 2 penalties in the league and false starts were almost always the most frequently called infraction before 2011(only 1 time did holding lead the way before 2011).

  

Just thought it was interesting that the data backed up what we have been seeing...a glaring lack of offensive penalties but far more defensive penalties...

 

 

I feel like false starts are down due to a lack of crowd noise.

[Big Turk]

31 minutes ago, eSJayDee said:

It certainly seems reasonable that lack of crowd noise contributes to the lack of false starts, illegal shifts etc.  Potentially, it could even contribute to less holding calls (D-line doesn't get a jump on O-line as easily so they're not at a disadvantageous position causing a need/desire to hold).  Can't think of a reason for DPI to be up, other than less effective pass rush, which is pushing it, or maybe just more passes in general.

 

DPI is up because of an emphasis on any type of contact by a defender when the ball is in the air.

2 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

I feel like false starts are down due to a lack of crowd noise.

 

Possible...

[Mr. WEO]

So.....what's the "glaring" problem?

[Punching Bag]

 

It would have been different if zebras, many made full time employees to just sit on their asses, had been doing what they said they would be doing when they got the contract go to the teams and teach players proper tackling techniques, etc. In that case teams would have found out that certain fouls would be deemphasized. 

[Big Turk]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

So.....what's the "glaring" problem?

 

Never said there was a problem, just that in comparison to previous years penalties are at historic lows on offense and historic highs on defense.

[Bferra13]

7 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

 

Never said there was a problem, just that in comparison to previous years penalties are at historic lows on offense and historic highs on defense.

 

Thats my issue. Just when you think the defense can't be anymore watered down, you get rule manipulation. I guess it benefits the Bills, but dam the game is unrecognizable from the 90s and now its getting to the point where its unrecognizable from 5 to 10 years ago. Wheres it end?

[Steptide]

I don't have a huge problem with less penalties. I want flags thrown when they need to be (ie the penalty does or would effect the play). If a reciever moves slightly before the ball snaps, I don't want a flag thrown for that. Imo it wouldn't effect the play, it just slows down the game throwing ticky tack flags. Also, the games move along much better with the lack of flags. Though agree with whoever talked about watering down the defense, I don't necessarily wanna see that 

[Mr. WEO]

3 hours ago, matter2003 said:

 

Never said there was a problem, just that in comparison to previous years penalties are at historic lows on offense and historic highs on defense.

You cited 2 Offensive penalties that are by your statistics still called more frequently than DPI.  You then conclude that this means there “far more Defensive penalties”.

 

Ignoring for the moment that this works out to just over 3 more DPI per week compared to the previous high,  calls per game do not take into account how many passing attempts there were in a game, so it’s not a very useful metric.

 

Even so, that small incremental increase hardly will wreak havoc on scoring records.  League scoring has inched up over the years.  What was the DPI per game in 2013? 2018? Those were the previous top scoring years.  

[Malazan]

Why is this still a surprise to people? There were multiple stories about the league memo to officials in regard to only calling clear and obvious penalties. 

 

“When we were preparing, certainly going in, we had a theme of ‘clear and obvious’ and we wanted that to continue throughout the year,” Anderson told the league’s in-house TV/digital conglomerate. “We had to address clear and obvious. You can’t miss clear and obvious and it starts with that. Going forward we don’t want all of a sudden to start calling the ticky tack stuff. We want things that are clear.”  ~ NFL senior V.P. of officiating training and development Walt Anderson.