Holding Penalties, whats the root cause?

[Chaos]

Are the Bills completely undisciplined? 
Are the ref's cheating the Bill's?

How is this possible. 

[Buffalo716]

Well this just shows the bias that happens in each individual game 

 

Our pass rush is actually pretty good and there's zero chance they're not getting held but they call it on us 

 

Part of the little things in football

Edited 8 hours ago by Buffalo716

[BillsFan130]

Bills have 17 holding calls against them in 7 games?

 

Lol that is wild

[Billz4ever]

The root cause is whether the refs decide to call it or not because some form of holding happens on nearly every play.  This just tells me the refs choose to call it more on the Bills for some reason.

[paulmm3]

I'm more concerned with the lack of calls against teams playing us. Especially because there have been multiple obvious examples of our defensive linemen getting held and it not getting called. We can statistically prove Shawn Hochuli hates the Bills and officiates games in a manner to make the Bills lose but that doesn't explain the other six weeks.

[Mike in Horseheads]

root cause is refs.

[BigPappaPump]

It’s not only the amount of holds for/against, it’s the timing of them. Not all holds are equal. Seems like at meaningless times in games, the officials will call a hold on let’s say the chiefs, which helps the appearance of being balanced. I personally feel that holding can be called on every play, but officials pick & choose when to do so. Just my 2 cents 

[Goin Breakdown]

Jerry Hughes. Duh

[Dr. Who]

[milfandcookies]

Number 73 gets penalized every game. Maybe bench him 

[T.E.]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Who said:

In all seriousness, we started getting called for everything after pulling ahead of KC by two games early. During that same period, they were able to topple the best team in the league on the back of a zero-penalty performance. Probably just a coincidence!

[Ethan in Cleveland]

These numbers aren't a true reflection of the offense.  They include special teams return penalties as "offensive holding".  See below. There are several defenders with Offensive Holding calls.

 

https://www.nflpenalties.com/team/buffalo-bills?year=2025&view=players

 

That said there are 5 holding penalties on the TE's and WRs combined.  That is almost the same number as the OL - 6.  Our boundary players are not disengaging from their defender after the RB or WR cuts past them.  Kincaid has been called twice for this.  We throw 2-4 WR screens a game.  They need to do better.  Most OL penalties are also when they fail to disengage the opponent after a cut back.  Pretty sure Spencer Brown got called last week for that.  If we had a better passing attack where Josh got the ball out early I think we would also see less calls.  

 

So no it is not a conspiracy.  It is a multitude of things, all of which can get better.  

 

 

[Returntoglory]

Holding?

[Matt_In_NH]

Hands….the solution is amputation

[90sBills]

I’m no expert but I would surmise that hands are the root cause of holding penalties. 

[Virgil]

Lack of hugs from their parents as a child 

[Sojourner]

Just now, Virgil said:

Lack of hugs from their parents as a child 

Some could argue too many hugs… Got to let go at some point!

[TBBills Fan]

4 minutes ago, Virgil said:

Lack of hugs from their parents as a child 

 Can I have a hug?

[Virgil]

53 minutes ago, TBBills Fan said:

 Can I have a hug?

Pants off first 

[Coach Tuesday]

1 hour ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

These numbers aren't a true reflection of the offense.  They include special teams return penalties as "offensive holding".  See below. There are several defenders with Offensive Holding calls.

 

https://www.nflpenalties.com/team/buffalo-bills?year=2025&view=players

 

That said there are 5 holding penalties on the TE's and WRs combined.  That is almost the same number as the OL - 6.  Our boundary players are not disengaging from their defender after the RB or WR cuts past them.  Kincaid has been called twice for this.  We throw 2-4 WR screens a game.  They need to do better.  Most OL penalties are also when they fail to disengage the opponent after a cut back.  Pretty sure Spencer Brown got called last week for that.  If we had a better passing attack where Josh got the ball out early I think we would also see less calls.  

 

So no it is not a conspiracy.  It is a multitude of things, all of which can get better.  

 

 

Thank you for the sane response.  They throw a lot of horizontal passes to the perimeter and rely on precision blocking to make those plays successful.  It’s not a grand conspiracy.