I actually think it needs to be looked at a bit more nuanced. You look at our defence and the penalties our opponents are committing. In terms of penalty benefit, we rank:
- 1st for false starts
- 1st for intentional grounding
- 8th for offensive holding
That's the pass rush. The flip side in terms of penalties against we are:
- 31st for defensive offside
- 31st for neutral zone infractions
- 28th for unnecessary roughness
- 27th for roughing the passer
I'll take that trade off considering the problem our pass rush is causing. The one area we need to improve is unsportsmanlike conduct. Our defense have three of them which is worst in the league.
In terms of the offense, the one penalty we are high on is false starts (28th in league). To me that's not surprising as it's a very inexperienced offensive line and we've had a backup QB most of the season. Our penalty leaders are Tyler Smith, Terrence Steele and Peyton Hendershot and I feel like the two rookies get a bit of a pass (but are expected to improve). Rookies IMO deserve a bit of rope adjusting to the league. Steele is different, I don't think that's growing pains like the rookies but a part of who he is. If you watch, he's consistently first out of his stance when pass blocking, and I think he cheats a little because he knows pass blocking is a weakness. I can live with the trade off for know (overall he's played quite well) but you'd like to see him improve over time.