Penalties are a Concern (Updated)
First, I understand as much as anyone that it’s preseason. This is the best time to iron out mistakes and find the right guys. We are playing a lot of inexperience in the 2nd and 3rd teams and this will add to penalties. However, after a quick observation something stood out to me.
Tampa Bay has never really been known as a penalty disciplined team. I think the correlation to penalties and success is a little overrated, however, you can’t just give 70-80 free yards a game. If I were to put a number on it 40-50 Yards Per Game would be an acceptable amount of penalty yardage a game. It also matters what the situation is and so on.
With that said here are the penalty numbers from the first two weeks of PreSeason in 2007, 2008, 2009.
- Week 1 - 2007 - 3 Penalties for 22 Yards
- Week 2 - 2007 - 3 Penalties for 11 Yards (both very respectable)
- Week 3 - 2007 - 8 Penalties for 65 Yard
- Total (through three weeks) 2007 - 14 Penalties for 98 Yards
- Week 1 - 2008 - 0 Penalties
- Week 2 - 2008- 3 Penalties for 35 yards
- Week 3 - 2008 - 6 Penalties for 63 Yards
- Total (through three weeks) 2008 - 9 Penalties for 98 Yards
- Week 1 - 2009 - 6 Penalties for 80 Yards
- Week 2 - 2009 - 11 penalties for 79 Yards.
- Week 3 - 2009 - 13 Penalties for 85 Yards
- Total (through three weeks) 2009 - 30 Penalties for 244 Yards.
- Thats more than doubled the yardage for the two previous years combined.
While both the 2007 and 2008 season are probably well below average this raises a couple of concerns for me.
Penalties are caused by several factors.
Conditioning: Typically all NFL teams are equally conditioned so this shouldn’t be the issue, nor do I see it playing out on the field yet.
Discipline: With a young coaching staff on offense and uncertainty at several key positions this (discipline) could weigh large into the equation. How much is Morris stressing discipline and penalties? Some coaches don’t stress it. For instance the Tennessee Titans had the most defensive penalties in the league last season, and still produced one of the best defensive corps.
Talent: This is probably the biggest problem. Our depth stinks. Our 2nd and 3rd teamers are just flat out losing battles to better players. This is the biggest reason why you hold, Interfere on a route, etc.
Look it’s preseason, but the numbers present a startling story. Let’s keep an eye on this. I will try to keep you updated.
Also FootballOutsiders.Com does some nice pieces on Opponents Penalties, which is also just as telling. Tampa led the league in Opponents Offensive Holding last year (which really surprised me considering the lack of pass rush) and also led the league on the FEWEST Pass Interferences against (1, which tells me that they didn’t respect our receivers much).
Check Back tomorrow for a full run-down of tonights game against Miami. I am taking too many notes for my own good.
Mike, did you see the Bucs-Dolphins game last night?! I’m really worried….Leftwich looks TERRIBLE! What do you think of Cadillac Williams looking like the starting RB?
Freddie,
Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting. I did watch the majority of the game…I struggled to stay up for the entire 2nd half as there was a 45 minute lightning delay. I am not sure how to address your concern, because I can offer no comfort. I wouldn’t say Leftwich looks terrible, but he doesn’t look great. He threw no interceptions in all 3 of the games so far. Throwing multiple INT’s would be terrible. Missing some receivers is just not good. Also Caddy looks good and strong. I will have a full game re-cap (pretty much a preseason recap) this afternoon. Make sure you check back for all of my thoughts about this stuff and more.
just please tell me your going to point out some positives. im so sick of reading about our crappy qbs. there have been some positives this preseason, and this team is a lot better than i anticipated. our crappy qbs will limit our wins this year, but if freeman develops soon, this is going to be a dangerous team. i love the young talent we have, and i love our draft picks this year. we are only going to get better. and by the way, gaines looked like a beast against jake long.
Phil, I will point out more positives than negatives in my training camp / Pre-season review. I agree with you that there is a lot of good things happening. However, it would be dishonest of me to tell you that we are a good Josh Freeman away from being a dangerous team. There are far more holes than just quarterback.