Cleanup on aisle two: The Cowboys need to clean up the penalties

[Bobhaze]

It is funny watching Dallas fans unable to appreciate a win or why it happened but instead looking for where the proverbial shoe is going to drop. Most Cowboys fans around here are straight shook.

What does this thread have to do with not appreciating a win? It was a great win Sunday. A great team effort. This thread is about the team getting better in my view.

 

[ShiningStar]

What does this thread have to do with not appreciating a win? It was a great win Sunday. A great team effort. This thread is about the team getting better in my view.

everything you posted is fact. Good thread

 

[conner01]

mental awareness and discipline. Lining up in the neutral zone to me is without a doubt the dumbest of all. You can SEE where it starts.

One penalty can kill a drive. If you are beat and grab it’s one thing. But lining up offsides, pre snsp penalties and some of those silly holding penalties have to get cleaned up

 

[shabazz]

What does this thread have to do with not appreciating a win? It was a great win Sunday. A great team effort. This thread is about the team getting better in my view.

These virtue signalers will NOT allow any critical thinking whatsoever.

True Fandom means never analyzing anything unless it's glowing with praise, unicorn farts and puppy dog kisses.

They get triggered by the least little things.....they literally want to control others

 

[J_Allen]

One penalty can kill a drive. If you are beat and grab it’s one thing. But lining up offsides, pre snsp penalties and some of those silly holding penalties have to get cleaned up

The Tolbert penalty killed our drive at the very beginning of the game. This guy says he wants to have a better season than last, he said for two years now that he's going to turn the corner, and they put him in and he does that.

 

[ShiningStar]

The Tolbert penalty killed our drive at the very beginning of the game. This guy says he wants to have a better season than last, he said for two years now that he's going to turn the corner, and they put him in and he does that.

Coaches put the players on the team and play them. I dont blame bad players for playing, IE Daniel Jones. its up to our coaches to get him replaced. or limit his play.

 

[HanD]

Been an issue since fat Mike has been here. He talks about it but has failed at doing anything about it.

 

[removed_20241105]

The Cowboys have had penalty problems for a long time. As enjoyable as that win in Cleveland was Sunday, there is certainly lots of room for improvement, including cleaning up the penalty issues again this year. Hidden in the excitement of a great win against the brownies was the ugly stat of 11 penalties for 85 yards.

Last year in the 2023 season, the Cowboys finished the regular season with 115 enforced penalties, which was tied for second with the Browns (who also had a ton of penalties last Sunday) and behind only the jets who had the most penalties last year at 124. Including the bad playoff loss to GB last year, the Cowboys gave up 1,012 yards in penalty yardage last year! And in 2022, the Cowboys had 104 enforced penalties. It’s not a new problem.

In my book there are two types of penalty categories:

1. Mental penalties that are just stupid lack of focus or awareness penalties. These are all very avoidable penalties. They include:

• Pre-snap penalties like a false start or delay of game or even lining up off sides.
• Misunderstanding the rules or lack of awareness. Like an illegal formation penalty, too many men on the field, even the 12th man and the huddle rule which bit us a few years back.
• Some personal foul penalties are stupid mental mistakes like retaliation after a cheap shot the refs missed. Or a frustration penalty where a player throws an opponent down after the whistle. Just a mental lapse.

2. Physical penalties are the hardest to avoid because are done at full speed unlike pre-snap penalties.

• Offensive holding, defensive holding, illegal block in the back. These are harder to avoid although teams can work on hand placement, where the head is when blocking on STs, etc.
• Defensive Pass interference is usually a judgement call on a bang-band play and hard to work on in practice as far as avoidance.
• Roughing the QB in my opinion is the hardest to avoid. It is the most completely judgmental call.

So what can be done? I put a lot of this on the coaches as something to work on in practice. Pre-snap penalties are easily something that should be worked on a lot in practice. Having 11 penalties in a game is at some point going to cost you a game.

I mention this now because one thing Mike McCarthy could do improve this team a ton is reducing these penalties. It needs to start tightening up before it becomes a bigger and on-going problem this season.

Great post. Wish I had seen it last night. We may need to accept that he can’t do a damn thing about it even though he acknowledges it yearly. Totally agree with your assessments.

 

[DoctorChicken]

What does this thread have to do with not appreciating a win? It was a great win Sunday. A great team effort. This thread is about the team getting better in my view.

Exactly. The win was nice. This looks like a playoff caliber team. But you can't roll into the playoffs expecting to win while committing 11 penalties every game.

 

[lopey]

The culture on this team is the issue. There is no accountability for pre snap penalties. Guys need to sit if they cant stop getting these type of penalties. Physical penalties I don’t mind so much as its a fast game and sometimes a penalty happens

 

[phildadon86]

The Cowboys have had penalty problems for a long time. As enjoyable as that win in Cleveland was Sunday, there is certainly lots of room for improvement, including cleaning up the penalty issues again this year. Hidden in the excitement of a great win against the brownies was the ugly stat of 11 penalties for 85 yards.

Last year in the 2023 season, the Cowboys finished the regular season with 115 enforced penalties, which was tied for second with the Browns (who also had a ton of penalties last Sunday) and behind only the jets who had the most penalties last year at 124. Including the bad playoff loss to GB last year, the Cowboys gave up 1,012 yards in penalty yardage last year! And in 2022, the Cowboys had 104 enforced penalties. It’s not a new problem.

In my book there are two types of penalty categories:

1. Mental penalties that are just stupid lack of focus or awareness penalties. These are all very avoidable penalties. They include:

• Pre-snap penalties like a false start or delay of game or even lining up off sides.
• Misunderstanding the rules or lack of awareness. Like an illegal formation penalty, too many men on the field, even the 12th man and the huddle rule which bit us a few years back.
• Some personal foul penalties are stupid mental mistakes like retaliation after a cheap shot the refs missed. Or a frustration penalty where a player throws an opponent down after the whistle. Just a mental lapse.

2. Physical penalties are the hardest to avoid because are done at full speed unlike pre-snap penalties.

• Offensive holding, defensive holding, illegal block in the back. These are harder to avoid although teams can work on hand placement, where the head is when blocking on STs, etc.
• Defensive Pass interference is usually a judgement call on a bang-band play and hard to work on in practice as far as avoidance.
• Roughing the QB in my opinion is the hardest to avoid. It is the most completely judgmental call.

So what can be done? I put a lot of this on the coaches as something to work on in practice. Pre-snap penalties are easily something that should be worked on a lot in practice. Having 11 penalties in a game is at some point going to cost you a game.

I mention this now because one thing Mike McCarthy could do improve this team a ton is reducing these penalties. It needs to start tightening up before it becomes a bigger and on-going problem this season.

McCarthy said he was fixing this in the off-season.

That was 3 years ago.

 

[DallasEast]

What does this thread have to do with not appreciating a win? It was a great win Sunday. A great team effort. This thread is about the team getting better in my view.

Not sure how discussing any team reducing penalties is a negative. I can recall Nick Saban discussing his team's penalties, during Alabama post-national championship winning press conferences.

Doing so did not cause him to dislike winning the game. Saban is a perfectionist. Continually striving to lessen penalties will only help increase the potential of winning future games. Instilling that goal into players is good coaching.

 

[gtb1943]

Not sure how discussing any team reducing penalties is a negative. I can recall Nick Saban discussing his team's penalties, during Alabama post-national championship winning press conferences.

Doing so did not cause him to dislike winning the game. Saban is a perfectionist. Continually striving to lessen penalties will only help increase the potential of winning future games. Instilling that goal into players is good coaching.

pretty much all great coaches are like that
Pounding it into the players heads again and again
those idiots whining about being reminded of a penalty problem are the ones quite happy to be relevant and nothing else

 

[plasticman]

A total of 11 penalties:

4 in the 1st half
7 in the 2nd half

4 on offense
3 on defense
4 on special teams

There were 2 delay of game and 1 twelve men on the field. I don't know who gets the credit for those.

C.J. Goodwin had 2 penalties, rookies Guyton and Carlson each received a penalty. Diggs had an unnecessary roughness. Tolbert and Mukuamu each had a ten yard holding penalty. Luepke had a false start.

The Browns and the Cowboys were tied for most penalties last week. Of the Browns 11 penalties, 8 were pre-snap. Browns OL Dewand Jones had 3 penalties, tying for the NFL lead.

 

[ReverendFelcher]

Always been a problem. Go watch Super Bowl 12. Oi vey. Even on Landry teams, we were awful in that regard.

 

[Bobhaze]

A total of 11 penalties:

4 in the 1st half
7 in the 2nd half

4 on offense
3 on defense
4 on special teams

There were 2 delay of game and 1 twelve men on the field. I don't know who gets the credit for those.

C.J. Goodwin had 2 penalties, rookies Guyton and Carlson each received a penalty. Diggs had an unnecessary roughness. Tolbert and Mukuamu each had a ten yard holding penalty. Luepke had a false start.

The Browns and the Cowboys were tied for most penalties last week. Of the Browns 11 penalties, 8 were pre-snap. Browns OL Dewand Jones had 3 penalties, tying for the NFL lead.

Interesting that the brownies and Cowboys were also tied for second place last year in total number of enforced penalties with 115. Over a 17 game season last year, that’s nearly 7 penalties a game.

 

[plasticman]

Always been a problem. Go watch Super Bowl 12. Oi vey. Even on Landry teams, we were awful in that regard.

Penalties were absolutely the story in Super Bowl 5.

At the 2 minute warning in the 4th quarter, the Cowboys held the Colts to a 3 and out. The score was 13-13. The Colts punted and with 1;51 left, the Cowboys start on the Colts 48 year line.

On 1st down Duane Thomas loses a yard. On 2nd down Morton is sacked and there is a holding call and the Cowboys are penalized 15 yards from the spot of the foul. They started at the Colts 48.

So now it is 2nd and 35 at the Cowboys 27 with 1:09 left in regulation. That's when Craig Morton remembers that he is Craig Morton. He throws his 2nd INT to Mike Curtis and he runs it back to the Cowboys 28 with 59 seconds left in the game.

The Colts gained 3 yards on the first two downs but it doesn't matter. They kick the winning field goal with 9 seconds left.

The Cowboys were penalized 10 times for 135 yards in Super Bowl 5. The Colts were penalized 4 times for 31 yards.

 

[Sarge]

It can be fixed. It’s a coaching issue plain and simple.

 

[TWOK11]

It’s been a problem with MM teams since his days in GB, probably best to just accept it as part of the package at this point.

 

[nobody]

It can be fixed. It’s a coaching issue plain and simple.

It's also an owner issue. Jerry's open door policy isn't conducive to team discipline.