2008 Ravens Penalties

[Filmstudy]

2008 Ravens Penalty Analysis

Notes:
• Gaither committed 12 penalties during the regular season, which was his biggest shortcoming. However, he finished the regular season strong with just 2 false start penalties in the final 9 games. During the playoffs he committed 3 more penalties.
• By comparison, the other Ravens linemen tallied: Yanda 2 in 5 games, Brown 2 false starts, Terry 4 + 1 more in the playoffs, Anderson 6 plus 1 in the playoffs, Grubbs 3 plus 2 in the playoffs, Chester 4.
• Offensive holding calls are drive killers and the 2006 Ravens managed to go the entire season without a hold from LT, LG, or RT despite allowing just 17 sacks. In 2008, they were flagged for holding 17 times in the regular season, including 14 from linemen (Gaither 4, Anderson 3, Chester 3, Grubbs 2, Terry 1, Cousins 1). Gaither and Mason were each flagged once for holding in the playoffs.
• Ever wonder if all those timeouts Flacco called early in a half were worthwhile? Joe was flagged for delay of game 3 times in 2008. That compared to 7 against McNair in 2006. That's a fairly low total of DoG penalties, so I would not expect a reduction in his 2nd season, but I would expect the Ravens to be quicker to the line and use fewer timeouts to avoid penalties.
• Flacco was twice flagged for intentional grounding in game 9 against the Browns.
• The offense committed just 1 personal foul (Mason vs. the Colts, offsetting)
• Other than Flacco and the linemen, the only offensive players with 3+ fouls were Mason (3 penalties + 2 more in playoffs) and Heap (3 false starts + 1 hold, all in the regular season)
• The team had 2 illegal formation penalties which were not personally assigned. The Ravens had 5 total ILF penalties on the season with the rest going to tackles.
• On defense, no one from the 2008 team stood out like Chris McAlister did in 2006 (15 of the defense's 35 penalties). CMac began the season with 2 pass interference calls in week 1, but was not flagged again. The Ravens were flagged a total of 5 times for pass interference (Lewis 2, Rolle 1) during the regular season and twice more in the playoffs (Washington, Nakamura)
• Suggs led the defense with 7 infractions (3 offside, 1 illegal contact, 1 unnecessary roughness, and 2 roughing the passer). Lewis was 2nd with 6 (2 pass interference, 2 holding, 1 illegal contact, 1 personal foul).
• Lewis is a special case, where 5 of his 6 penalties came in pass coverage and his 3 picks all were what I refer to as "lane picks" where he stepped in a throwing lane by reading the QB, but was not covering a receiver per se. He's lost some of his coverage skills, but he still makes QBs consider the implications of a short middle pass in terms of both the tip risk and the risk of a jarring hit. One thing I intended to do was see how often Ray was assigned to the hot read when the Ravens rushed 6+. I would guess Ray rushed more often this season than at any time in the past.
• Besides the memorable unnecessary roughness call at Pittsburgh, Johnson had just 1 offside flag in 19 games.
• Ngata was penalized 4 times. In addition to an offsides, he had an illegal block on an interception return in week 1 and 2 personal fouls. Bizarely, the last personal foul occurred during halftime of the Jacksonville game in week 17.
• Walker had too many flags for his time on the field. He was 3 times called for holding and had a personal foul on defense. The defensive holds (I was surprised by the lack of a PI) are a function of playing the receiver instead of the ball. In addition to 4 defensive fouls he committed another 7 penalties (including 3 in the playoffs) on special teams.
• The Ravens most costly penalties of 2008:
1. AFCC (Q4, 7:00). Darren Stone is called for unnecessary roughness, causing the Ravens to start from their own 14 instead of the 39. Bad timing for a truly dumb penalty.
2. Pit, Week 4 (OT, 15:00). After winning the coin toss, both Nakamura and Barnes are flagged for holding on the return. Figurs returned 51 yards to the 48, but the Ravens would start at their own 15. They went 3 and out and Pittsburgh started at their own 43 for their winning FG.
3. Ten, Week 5 (Q4, 5:57). Suggs roughing the passer extends a drive that would have ended with a 3rd and 10 incomplete. The Titans go on t score the winning TD.
4. Pit, Week 4 (Q3, 5:49). Johnson awakens a dormant Steelers offense with an unnecessary roughness penalty. The Steelers would score a TD to cut the lead to 13-10.
5. Ten, Week 5 (Q4, 2:34). The Ravens are called for 12 men on the field on 2nd and 10. Collins would hit Crumpler for the winning TD just 3 plays later.

[Dave Lap]

Thanks for the great stats, Filmstudy.