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.
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.