Team Penalty Trends 2010-2012

[perrykemp]

Cowboys penalties have been going up the past three seasons:

2010 27th in the NFL - 109 penalties for 873 yards
2011 28th in the NFL - 114 penalties for 816 yards
2012 30th in the NFL - 117 penalties for 853 yards

I've heard it said that there isn't a strong correlation between penalties and overall team performance, however, when I look at the bottom 10 team in terms of penalties I see mostly bad or mediocre teams.

Any thoughts as to why the Cowboys are trending downwards in penalties.

If the Cowboys ranked, lets say 16th in the NFL in penalties this season, would they have won another game?

[kmp77]

So we've gotten worse every year under Garrett....awesome.

[SWG9]

Originally Posted by perrykemp

Cowboys penalties have been going up the past three seasons:

2010 27th in the NFL - 109 penalties for 873 yards
2011 28th in the NFL - 114 penalties for 816 yards
2012 30th in the NFL - 117 penalties for 853 yards

I've heard it said that there isn't a strong correlation between penalties and overall team performance, however, when I look at the bottom 10 team in terms of penalties I see mostly bad or mediocre teams.

Any thoughts as to why the Cowboys are trending downwards in penalties.

If the Cowboys ranked, lets say 16th in the NFL in penalties this season, would they have won another game?

How can there not be? Penalties are, by definition, negative plays. We had more negative plays than all but 2 teams this season, that has to count for something.

With that said, I've got no idea how to fix it. Penalities were a problem with Parcells, Phillips, and now Garrett.

I'm curious, is there anyway you can tell what Dallas was flagged for most often (eg holdings, false start, PI, etc.)

That might offer some clues as to where the issues lie and if it's a mental problem more than a physical one.

[Beast_from_East]

Originally Posted by perrykemp

Cowboys penalties have been going up the past three seasons:

2010 27th in the NFL - 109 penalties for 873 yards
2011 28th in the NFL - 114 penalties for 816 yards
2012 30th in the NFL - 117 penalties for 853 yards

I've heard it said that there isn't a strong correlation between penalties and overall team performance, however, when I look at the bottom 10 team in terms of penalties I see mostly bad or mediocre teams.

Any thoughts as to why the Cowboys are trending downwards in penalties.

If the Cowboys ranked, lets say 16th in the NFL in penalties this season, would they have won another game?

You see, "Its a process" and all we need to do is start stacking our good days and those penalties will start to decline.

You should be more patient, do you realize how hard it is to keep your stack of good days from falling over?

[TheXFactor]

Admittedly I don't have any stats to back this up, I can look some up later, but last year it felt like our secondary was killing us with penalties (PI), and this year it felt like they had fewer penalties, but our OL compensated by getting an insane amount of holding and false start calls. It's frustrating that even if some players improve, others pick up the slack

[Yakuza Rich]

I'm more interested in the breakdown of offensive vs. defensive penalties. But, I could not find them split into those categories anywhere.






YR

[SWG9]

Originally Posted by TheXFactor

Admittedly I don't have any stats to back this up, I can look some up later, but last year it felt like our secondary was killing us with penalties (PI), and this year it felt like they had fewer penalties, but our OL compensated by getting an insane amount of holding and false start calls. It's frustrating that even if some players improve, others pick up the slack

My gut also says that the majority of penalties were on the OL, so the obvious solution would be to get better linemen.

I feel like there were less mental errors this year (illegal formations, illegible man downfield etc.), so that's possibly a step in the right direction.

[pjtoadie]

Originally Posted by SWG9

Penalities were a problem with Parcells, Phillips, and now Garrett.

Yes they were a problem with Parcells and Phillips but in Parcells' last year in 2006 we had 100 penalties and were 12th in the league and had only 2 more than New England.

Since 2007 (Garret's first year as OC) they have gone up...just saying!

[Idgit]

I believe the offensive penalties are more damning than the defensive ones. There's probably also a correlation between starting roster churn and penalties.

That said, I don't necessarily think we've had more churn than other rosters during that span. Generally, I find the interception numbers a lot more troublesome than the penalty numbers, but I can't fairly explain either to my own satisfaction. Both, however, are legitimate marks on the record of the head coach. It's his job to fix them, he says both are important; it's disappointing we haven't seen more progress in either area.

[pjtoadie]

Originally Posted by Yakuza Rich

I'm more interested in the breakdown of offensive vs. defensive penalties. But, I could not find them split into those categories anywhere.

YR

Here ya go:

http://www.footballdb.com/penalties....ort=fs&yr=2012

For instance Dallas had the most false start penalties this season! We were also tied for the most offsides as well.

The stat I really liked to see was that we were in the top 10 best PI penalties with 5....impressive!

[Beast_from_East]

Originally Posted by Idgit

I believe the offensive penalties are more damning than the defensive ones. There's probably also a correlation between starting roster churn and penalties.

That said, I don't necessarily think we've had more churn than other rosters during that span. Generally, I find the interception numbers a lot more troublesome than the penalty numbers, but I can't fairly explain either to my own satisfaction. Both, however, are legitimate marks on the record of the head coach. It's his job to fix them, he says both are important; it's disappointing we haven't seen more progress in either area.

I agree, Garrett should get most of the blame.

[perrykemp]

Originally Posted by Beast_from_East

I agree, Garrett should get most of the blame.

Not really something that Jerry can be blamed for.... can we all agree with that ;-)

[TheXFactor]

2011:
Defensive pass interference : 10
Defensive Holding : 10
Illegal contact: 1

False starts: 27
Offensive holding: 21

Total D penalties: 57
Total O penalties: 57

2012:
Defensive pass interference: 8
Defensive holding: 5
Illegal contact: 3

False starts: 28
Offensive holding: 28

Total D penalties: 52
Total O penalties: 66

http://www.nflpenalties.com/team/dal...oys?&year=2011

These stats confirmed my suspicion that the offensive line and secondary were going opposite directions from last year to this. From 2011-2012 the secondary decreased by 5 penalties, and the OL increased by 8 penalties

[cannonball44]

as a football guy, i hold the philosophy that penalties take the place of talent when maximum effort is no longer enough. pretty much a bad player who cant do his job is forced to resort to things like holding, false starting, PI'ing because theyre just not good enough to get it done without the "help" it offers. this is not to take away the incredible play by superstars on the other side. of course i'd expect to see more PI pebalties against the Calvin Johnsons of the league, and more false starts and holding penalties against the premiere pass rushers.

unfortunately i dont think that was the case with our secondary last year, or the Oline from this year. im interested to see what '07 penalty stats are (the last year we had a a solid OLine and DB core.

[Idgit]

Originally Posted by Beast_from_East

I agree, Garrett should get most of the blame.

In this case, yeah, he should.

I'll note that having to start a C that had been on the team for all of 5 days hurt this team offensively early when it came to OL penalties. But it had been a trend for several years prior, too. I'm not sure why we have so many, and why the issue has spanned three head coaches.