Kansas City Chiefs Paul Pulley

The League Leading Kansas City Chiefs… in Penalties

LadnerMorse December 18, 2018 No Comments

 

 

The League Leading Kansas City

Chiefs… in Penalties

 

by Paul Pulley | December 18, 2018

 

 

We all know that the Kansas City Chiefs have one of the best offenses in the NFL and that 1st year starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes is leading professional football in passing yards and touchdown passes. Today, I wanted to touch on another category where this team is leading the NFL: the league leading Kansas City Chiefs… in Penalties.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Actually, the Chiefs ended up with 10 penalties for 68 yards vs the Chargers]

 

Often times after a game during the post game presser, we hear head coach Andy Reid mention penalties and that the team needs to get those cleaned up. Well, the Chiefs need a better cleaning service because after 14 games, they are the most penalized team in the NFL.

 

After 14 regular season contests, the Chiefs have been flagged for double digit penalties in 7 games. The least was 5 flags versus New England and the most was 13 while playing the Los Angeles Rams. In two of the Chiefs games, the teams tied their opponent with the number of accepted penalties. In one of those, the Chiefs had fewer penalty yards (Pittsburgh), but in the other, they had more penalty yards than the other team (Cincinnati).

 

There have only been 4 games this season where the Chiefs have committed fewer penalties than their opponent and in one of those four, they still had more penalty yards. Therefore in only three games have the Chiefs had both fewer penalties and fewer penalty yards. Those three games were all home games versus the San Francisco 49ers in week 3, the Denver Broncos in week 8 and the Baltimore Ravens in week 14.

 

The Chiefs have committed 150 penalties through 14 games this year, but on their behalf, 25 of those penalties were either declined or were offsetting.

 

The 125 accepted penalties against the Chiefs have given our opponents 1027 yards, both league highs. The Chiefs are currently the only team with over 1000 yards of accepted penalties (this is before the week 15 Sunday games have been played). Conversely, the Chiefs opponents combined have incurred 839 penalty yards on 100 accepted flags.

 

Of these 125 penalties, 40 of them are pre-snap penalties. The Houston Texans are the only team in the NFL less disciplined than Kansas City as the Texans have 44 pre-snap flags. 21 of the Chiefs pre-snap penalties have been false starts. This has put the team 104 yards in reverse, and a number of those have come at the worst time, although there is never a good time for one. The League average for false starts is just over 14 per team.

 

Although the false starts have been frequent, the single most penalized infraction is offensive holding. The Chiefs have accumulated 22 OH flags for 211 yards, not only moving the offense in the wrong direction but oft times erasing a very good positive play. Personally, I think some of these OH flags are excusable simply because we have a quarterback that scrambles out of the pocket to extend drives, causing the defensive players to change direction, creating more opportunities for the OL to be seen grasping their opponent. The League average for offensive holding to date is 17.63 calls per team, so factoring in a mobile QB, the Chiefs numbers aren’t horrible.

 

On the defensive side, the three penalty categories of Defensive Offsides, Encroachment and Neutral Zone Infraction have combined for 14 flags, while the League average is just 8.62. While these 14 flags have only accounted for a total of 65 yards of penalty, they have given our opponents several free 1st downs.

 

Defensive Holding and Defensive Pass Interference, the Kansas City Chiefs are absolutely horrible. The Chiefs are the worst team in the NFL with 15 defensive holding calls and they are tied for 30th worst in DPI with 11. Combined, those penalties have given the Chiefs opponents 238 free yards. Not only do the yards hurt, but every single one of those flags gives the opposition an automatic 1st down. That’s 238 free yards and 26 free first downs. That’s bad, really bad. The League average for DPI is 6.16 flags per team, so the Chiefs almost double that, but for Holding, the average is 6.31. With the Chiefs 15 DH flags, they have almost 2 ½ times the average, which explains why they are the NFL’s worst.

 

There are numerous other flags that have been thrown for various reasons, such as Delay of Game, Illegal use of Hands and Illegal Shift (there was an Illegal Shift called last game that was a completely bogus flag), too many that I won’t bore you by listing them all.

 

There are a couple of penalties that I think are ridiculous and should never happen. The Chiefs have had 2 Taunting penalties, and yes, the one against Hill was ticky tack. Also, the Chiefs have had 4 penalties, all against the defense that should never happen, Too Many Men on the Field. The quality of the defensive coaching staff has been called into question enough lately, but when your defense and it’s leadership is in it’s 6th season, those kind of stupidiculous penalties should never happen.

 

I’m somewhat undecided as to how much of the blame for all the penalties lies at the feet of the coaches. These players are grown men that have been playing this game for most of their lives and they should know what is and is not allowable. A coach can talk until he’s blue in the face, but if the players refuse to listen or follow instructions (Marcus Peters, anyone), maybe it’s time to move on. If the team can cut a player for being undisciplined off the field, then I believe they need to look real hard at replacing players that continue to be undisciplined on the field.

 

The first player I would cut is Steven Nelson, I have never thought Nelson is that good, even though he plays good enough in the short game, he constantly gets beat deep and then he grabs. Nelson leads the team in penalty yards, giving up 95 yards on 8 accepted flags. Orlando Scandrick is almost as bad, also with 8 flags, but for just 63 yards. Just 63, man, that is the 3rd most penalty yards on the team. If the 158 combined yards aren’t bad enough, all 16 of those flags gave our opponents 1st downs, that’s just terrible. 

 

On the other hand, safeties Eric Murray and Ron Parker only have two accepted flags each, so I  guess there’s something to be said for never being in a position to make a play.

 

On the offensive side, by far the most penalized is Cam Erving, with 9 accepted penalties for 75 yards, followed by Eric Fisher with 7 flags for 50 yards. Fisher and Erving each have 4 pre-snap flags.

 

 

 

 

 

On the subject of pre-snap flags, Chris Jones leads the team with 6.

 

I’m not sure what the solution is to this problem. Maybe team fines for dead ball fouls or something like that, but that is probably no longer legal. Maybe snap their wrist with a rubber band, but in todays world, that would probably be felony assault.  So maybe the only alternative is to replace the most egregious offenders. Penalties might have directly contributed to all three of the Chiefs loses. Especially the game against the Rams and also the one last Thursday night. 

 

The penalty problem is similar to the Defense problem, I just don’t see a quick fix.

 

 

 

 

 

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