Opponent Penalties

From ESPN:

"According to the Football Outsiders Almanac, Seattle's opponents were only called for 85 penalties last year, the fewest in the league by a wide margin. No other team was at fewer than 110."

I hadn't heard this. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend.

Most penalties come down to a lack of focus, so it might be a case of teams being extra focused when Seattle is on the schedule.

The Seahawks also shorten games a bit too, which factors some.

Or it could be reflective of a predisposition to even things up.

Your view is more realistic, but after XL nothing surprises.

HawkNuts":3gdoqre7 said:

From ESPN:

"According to the Football Outsiders Almanac, Seattle's opponents were only called for 85 penalties last year, the fewest in the league by a wide margin. No other team was at fewer than 110."

I hadn't heard this. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend.

Click to expand...

It hasn't been brought up since last season ended but it was mentioned a ton in the forums here last season and some on the local radio.

For what its worth the Hawks are tied for 2nd lowest in penalties league wide at the moment with 18.

http://www.nflpenalties.com/

A good example would be the game in Green Bay. The lack of holding calls against Green Bay was mind boggling!!

TundraApe":1wu8i8pd said:

A good example would be the game in Green Bay. The lack of holding calls against Green Bay was mind boggling!!

Click to expand...

and I am sure Seattle had there fair number of flags that could have been thrown against them too. It goes both ways.

Oh right, I remember this topic from last season; it was maddeningly hard to talk about for some reason. The observation was that Seattle's opponents were consistently drawing fewer flags than their own season average when they played against the Seahawks. Is it happening this year too?

Team --------- Avg penalties--------Penalties vs. Hawks
STL --------------- 6.67 ------------------ 4
GB ---------------- 9.33 ----------------- 6
CHI -------------- 8.67 ----------------- 6

Hmmm.

TundraApe":ou740n3a said:

A good example would be the game in Green Bay. The lack of holding calls against Green Bay was mind boggling!!

Click to expand...

And it's not as if the TV analysts didn't show several of those uncalled holding plays to us either.

Guess the zebras see things differently.

However after all I'm a homer, unabashed, and proud of it.

VivaEfrenHerrera":3lyjw8w6 said:

Oh right, I remember this topic from last season; it was maddeningly hard to talk about for some reason. The observation was that Seattle's opponents were consistently drawing fewer flags than their own season average when they played against the Seahawks. Is it happening this year too?

Team --------- Avg penalties--------Penalties vs. Hawks
STL --------------- 6.67 ------------------ 4
GB ---------------- 9.33 ----------------- 6
CHI -------------- 8.67 ----------------- 6

Hmmm.

Click to expand...

Looks better than last year when teams were being penalized less than half of their average...this season has opponents up to 75% of their average. Improvement, but it's still early.

Bigbadhawk":1wbsydlc said:

For what its worth the Hawks are tied for 2nd lowest in penalties league wide at the moment with 18.

http://www.nflpenalties.com/

Click to expand...

We don't talk about fight club.

VivaEfrenHerrera":3nb0fibl said:

Oh right, I remember this topic from last season; it was maddeningly hard to talk about for some reason. The observation was that Seattle's opponents were consistently drawing fewer flags than their own season average when they played against the Seahawks. Is it happening this year too?

Team --------- Avg penalties--------Penalties vs. Hawks
STL --------------- 6.67 ------------------ 4
GB ---------------- 9.33 ----------------- 6
CHI -------------- 8.67 ----------------- 6

Hmmm.

Click to expand...

Last year was far worse than this year.

Last year, the Rams averaged 7.7 penalties per game (when excluding the 2 games against the Seahawks, the Rams averaged 8.2 penalties). In Week 7 in St. Louis, the Rams were only called for TWO penalties, and one was a "delay of game" foul committed by the Rams purposely on a 4th down with the Rams on their own 2 yard line, so they were actually only called for ONE penalty the entire game. The Hawks were called for 10.

The Redskins averaged 7.5 penalties per game. In Week 5, the Redskins were only called for 3 penalties (the Hawks were called for 13).

Then in Weeks 11, 12 and 13, the Chiefs, Cards and 49ers were each called for only 3 penalties.

Then in Week 16, in Arizona, the Cards were penalized for ONLY ONE violation, a False Start for 5 yards out of the entire game.

The Hawks were called for the most penalties last year, 151...and they were the beneficiaries of only 85 calls, a differential of 66 (130-70 when excluding declined penalties, a differential of 60) You can see the differential list for 2014 here: http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats ... tial/2014/ ...the Hawks are last on this list, and the second worst team, the Patriots, are not even close at 28.

The Seahawks were also last in penalty yard differential. The Seahawks were at -396 yards...second to last were the Pats at -328 yards...third from the bottom were the Rams at a distant -257 yards. You can see this list here: http://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalty ... fferential

The numbers for last year were so blatantly skewed, I find it hard to believe that referees were not instructed to "slow down" the NFL Champion Seahawks whenever circumstances allowed. I believe Carroll even received 4 or 5 apology letters for incorrect/missed calls.

rideaducati":2w0w91uy said:

VivaEfrenHerrera":2w0w91uy said:

Oh right, I remember this topic from last season; it was maddeningly hard to talk about for some reason. The observation was that Seattle's opponents were consistently drawing fewer flags than their own season average when they played against the Seahawks. Is it happening this year too?

Team --------- Avg penalties--------Penalties vs. Hawks
STL --------------- 6.67 ------------------ 4
GB ---------------- 9.33 ----------------- 6
CHI -------------- 8.67 ----------------- 6

Hmmm.

Click to expand...

Looks better than last year when teams were being penalized less than half of their average...this season has opponents up to 75% of their average. Improvement, but it's still early.

Click to expand...

Considering we are 1-2 and haven't looked like we are going to embarrass opponents this doesn't surprise me. That and the low rate of penalties called against us including some head scratchers that should have been called.

The NFL is an entertainment industry just like WWF and parity is what has made the owners billions. Having competitive games sells advertising, and that is the sole goal. I don't believe it is fixed like the WWF but I do think the games are influenced by officiating. I consider it one team might have to play up hill to prevent a game from not being competitive and causing the loss of advertising revenue. It also seems like most of the blatantly poor calls or lack of happen in the first half and the second half the teams are allowed to play. Likely to prevent viewers from changing the channel at or before half time (the biggest commercial set). A good defense helps this by keeping the score close enough that in the second half the game is still winnable.

Last year the two most penalized teams were the Seahawks and Patriots. It's not a coincidence.

Referees can shape the outcome of games, at the League's discretion?
Whoever would believe something like that? in this day and age, isn't that like Racketeering?

scutterhawk":1qx0fwds said:

Referees can shape the outcome of games, at the League's discretion?
Whoever would believe something like that? in this day and age, isn't that like Racketeering?

Click to expand...

Kind of the point isn't it? In general they are not trying to shape the outcome. They are trying to make it look competitive when sometimes it might otherwise not be.

That said I do believe that there are games that the NFL has predetermined the winner. XL is the best example but I also don;t think they were going to let Carolina beat the 9ers in 13 either. The officiating was atrocious in that game but it is hard to explain how one team can head but multiple times with no penalty and the opponent does it once and gets a personal foul. There was too much money to be made off a Seattle/San Fran NFCC. For the most part though I think those are pretty rare.

RichNhansom":3q2s88a9 said:

scutterhawk":3q2s88a9 said:

Referees can shape the outcome of games, at the League's discretion?
Whoever would believe something like that? in this day and age, isn't that like Racketeering?

Click to expand...

Kind of the point isn't it? In general they are not trying to shape the outcome. They are trying to make it look competitive when sometimes it might otherwise not be.

That said I do believe that there are games that the NFL has predetermined the winner. XL is the best example but I also don;t think they were going to let Carolina beat the 9ers in 13 either. The officiating was atrocious in that game but it is hard to explain how one team can head but multiple times with no penalty and the opponent does it once and gets a personal foul. There was too much money to be made off a Seattle/San Fran NFCC. For the most part though I think those are pretty rare.

Click to expand...

Yep, too flagrant to be a coincidence.

yeah it's entertainment, not 'pure sport'.

scutterhawk":33fr0tms said:

Referees can shape the outcome of games, at the League's discretion?
Whoever would believe something like that? in this day and age, isn't that like Racketeering?

Click to expand...

Also, if you believe in league wide edicts to shape the outcome of games just stop watchin now or reconcile that it's somewhat scripted entertainment

I for one find it hard to believe the NFL in this day and age would take the risk to use the refs to shape the game for their benefit. For that to happen think how many people would have to be in the loop. The more people that are aware of the plan the more risk that info gets leaked. If proof of this was leaked it would serious hurt the NFL beyond what took place with the one ref in the NBA and even FIFA.

Advertisers would pull out, Vegas would be in a up roar, the federal government would investigate, capital hill would be all over it, consumers would be pissed, heads would roll in the NFL, As its mentioned the owners are in it to make money, this happening would potential sink the NFL for a couple of years at least if not more.

I could see where a ref could be bias with one team and not another hence unbalanced calls but to think the NFL in this day and age would have a plan like that is serious tin foil hat territory. Pardon me now as I have an appointment with Elvis on his ship that is flying in from a nearby system in 45 minutes. I may get lucky this time and get to met his friend Bigfoot so we can discuss all of the top secret mind altering agents that are being displaced via the chemtrails from high flying jets.

:2:

I even am willing to believe that refs let their emotions from past events and in game events shade what they're looking for and who they're looking at.