Penalties: Yellow a bad color for Huskers

[BigRedBuster]

I would group them like this. Had to guess on a couple of them.

Defense (14):

Holding - 1

Pass Interference - 9

Illegal Helmet Contact - 1

Offside - 3

Offense - Procedure (19):

12 men on the field - 2

Delay of game - 1

False Start - 9

Illegal Formation - 3

Illegal Procedure - 2

Illegal Shift - 1

Substitution Infraction - 1

Offense - In Play (13):

Illegal Block - 2

Ineligible man downfield - 1

Intentional Grounding - 2

Holding - 7
Pass Interference - 1


Special Teams (2):
Illegal Formation - 1
Roughing the Kicker - 1


Misc (13):
Personal Foul - 6
Unsportsmanlike Conduct - 6
Proper Equipment - 1

I know I'm going to sound like a broken record but, the 6 personal fouls and 6 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties (I believe) goes right to my accusation that it's a cultural issue. Those are penalties that don't have to happen. They are players having a certain mind set that causes them to act out in a way that gets those fouls. They do that instead of paying attention to the details of playing an error free game.

9 False starts. The offense is not paying attention to detail. There is something in the mind set that (as a group) they are not paying attention to this detail like they should be.

Those two issues right there account for 225 yards of penalties or 37.5 yards per game.

Taking out the "Misc" penalties, the offense is accounting for 66% of the penalties. I would guess that on average, an offense usually accounts for more penalties on a team. There are simply more rules against them such as false start, 5 men in back field...etc. It would be interesting to know how that is usually for a top program.

Maybe they're so focused on the other details and nuances of the new offense that they're making these mistakes

That is very possible.

 

[Joe_5700]

...but wait! With proper facilities and better university support, there wouldn't have been so many penalties at Oregon State un der Riley! Second verse, same as the first...

 

[Saunders]

https://twitter.com/danhoppen/status/653957617996292096

6 personal fouls and 6 unsportsmanlike conducts. No matter how you assess, that's unacceptable on the players and coaches behalf. Yes a couple were a little contraversial (Mike Riley on the sideline) but every penalty like that is avoidable and shouldn't happen.

I think this is the area that the AD was hoping would be fixed with the Riley hire. He's more level headed so we should be better here (Personal Fouls, Unsportsmanlike). That hasn't been the case. Aggressive penalties are going to occur it's not golf, but the huge number of mental errors resulting in penalties are unacceptable. That falls on the coaches not preparing a team or getting enough reps in practice.

I really hope that's not the case, because if so, SE's kinda dumb for not taking 30 seconds and looking at cfbstats.com.

 

[Warrior]

https://twitter.com/danhoppen/status/653957617996292096

6 personal fouls and 6 unsportsmanlike conducts. No matter how you assess, that's unacceptable on the players and coaches behalf. Yes a couple were a little contraversial (Mike Riley on the sideline) but every penalty like that is avoidable and shouldn't happen.

I think this is the area that the AD was hoping would be fixed with the Riley hire. He's more level headed so we should be better here (Personal Fouls, Unsportsmanlike). That hasn't been the case. Aggressive penalties are going to occur it's not golf, but the huge number of mental errors resulting in penalties are unacceptable. That falls on the coaches not preparing a team or getting enough reps in practice.

I really hope that's not the case, because if so, SE's kinda dumb for not taking 30 seconds and looking at cfbstats.com.

That's kinda where I was going with that one!

 

[NebraskaShellback]

Penalties: 2015

NCAA stats as of 6 games played:

Nebraska is #119; 82.83 ypg

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/698

Oklahoma is behind us at #120th; 84.20 ypg (one game behind us): Others TCU #113; 80.50 ypg, UCLA # 105; 71.40 ypg, LSU #106; 71.80 ypg.

Northwestern and MSU are in the top 10 fewest penalties, Minny coming in # 41; ypg 50.17, and Iowa at #48; 51.50 ypg, Michigan #49; 51.67 ypg. We had a few calls that should of not been called on us. Alabama is #83: 60.50 ypg.

This is another stat tool to give reason why a team is not performing according to some fans, a weak argument IMO. These stats account are created by the refs good, bad, and ugly calls put into numbers. Summary not included if it was a good, bad, or ugly call.

Other sources, if interested:

2013 survey

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2013/sec-football-penalties-last-five-years/

Pick any season:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/team/_/stat/downs/sort/totalPenalties

Go BIG RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​

 

[NebraskaShellback]

 

[redtrout]

There is basically zero correlation between a team's average penalty yards and their winning percentage during a season. Here's a scatter plot of the two for all FBS team seasons from 2005 through 2013. The R2 was about 0.01

 

[Sargon]

Thanks redtrout. All the data in one simple picture covering 9 years.

 

[Mavric]

I would agree that penalties aren't a great indicator. But a lot of that is because they affect teams differently.

If you're Baylor, TCU or LSU (also among most-penalized) you're good enough that you can overcome penalties - or they're blowing people out so they really don't matter.

If you're Fresno State, Central Florida, or South Carolina (among the least-penalized), you're bad enough that being good in that one area doesn't help.

But if you're Nebraska (this year at least) and you're right on the edge in every game, penalties are huge. A penalty that keeps a drive alive or kills it could very well be the difference in the game.

 

[NUance]

I remember Collins getting called for offsides with his helmet over the ball a couple times this year, and I see this all the time and it hardly ever gets called.

Yeah, that was a bad one. You never see that called. And it gave the Vadgers a first down.

I think the worst one was the illegal formation call that negated a 35 yd run by Tommy in the second quarter. It definitely cost us three points. Might have cost us a touchdown. I think the call was on the pulling guard, maybe Kondolo. Anyway he cheated back a bit from his normal position so he could pull. But he was still overlapping the center by a foot or so. I could've sworn that was legal. I mean, the refs wouldn't let us line a RB that far up into the line, would they? Could we line Jano that far up to get a jump on hitting the LB? I think not. Seems like it's gotta be one way or the other--the guard was either in the line or in the backfield. And he was overlapping the center so it seems like he had to be considered in the line. (Or am I wrong about this? Any refs out there?)

These ticky-tacky calls were not part of the game last year or hardly ever before this season. I agree...That penalty for 5 men in the backfield was a bush league call. It wiped out a great effort by Tommy and momentum for the Huskers. Now if that's a lineman's problem, Cavanaugh needs to get after him/them. But I think it is Cavanaugh's responsibility more than anything. Should be in these guys ears during games about it to prevent it from happening. Because it's been an issue since BYU DAY ONE.

Just heard this: LINK Ganz pointed out that the call wasn't a penalty on Chongo (like the announcers said). He said that both Cethan Carter and the WR were in the backfield. He said it was the fault of the WR who should have seen Carter lined up in the backfield and stepped up to the line to avoid the penalty.

 

[Mavric]

I remember Collins getting called for offsides with his helmet over the ball a couple times this year, and I see this all the time and it hardly ever gets called.

Yeah, that was a bad one. You never see that called. And it gave the Vadgers a first down.

I think the worst one was the illegal formation call that negated a 35 yd run by Tommy in the second quarter. It definitely cost us three points. Might have cost us a touchdown. I think the call was on the pulling guard, maybe Kondolo. Anyway he cheated back a bit from his normal position so he could pull. But he was still overlapping the center by a foot or so. I could've sworn that was legal. I mean, the refs wouldn't let us line a RB that far up into the line, would they? Could we line Jano that far up to get a jump on hitting the LB? I think not. Seems like it's gotta be one way or the other--the guard was either in the line or in the backfield. And he was overlapping the center so it seems like he had to be considered in the line. (Or am I wrong about this? Any refs out there?)

These ticky-tacky calls were not part of the game last year or hardly ever before this season. I agree...That penalty for 5 men in the backfield was a bush league call. It wiped out a great effort by Tommy and momentum for the Huskers. Now if that's a lineman's problem, Cavanaugh needs to get after him/them. But I think it is Cavanaugh's responsibility more than anything. Should be in these guys ears during games about it to prevent it from happening. Because it's been an issue since BYU DAY ONE.

Just heard this: LINK Ganz pointed out that the call wasn't a penalty on Chongo (like the announcers said). He said that both Cethan Carter and the WR were in the backfield. He said it was the fault of the WR who should have seen Carter lined up in the backfield and stepped up to the line to avoid the penalty.

Yep. Carter was originally lined up on the line and the WR was off the line. Then Carter shifted back to go in motion but the WR didn't step up on the line.

 

[Bowfin]

I would think that linemen lining up off of the line would certainly telegraph their intention to be pulling on the play, which would be a great help to the defense, even without running the risk of a penalty.