The most penalties .... why?

[BriansRams]

"Each preseason, Fisher says it's a problem his team is working to correct. And each year, it carries over as the Rams have the most penalties and penalty yards in the NFL in Fisher's three seasons in St. Louis."

Somebody please tell me why Fisher keeps allowing this to happen? What's different about the Rams than the other 31 teams, that makes us have the most penalties 3 years in a row?

 

[-X-]

I don't know how he can stop it. I mean, clearly they coach their players in the ways to avoid penalties, but I think playing fast and aggressive is going to lead to more penalties than the more methodical teams. It's a give and take thing. IMO, there's really no correlation between the amount of penalties a team commits and their overall record, so it's kind of just an annoyance more than anything serious. See the seahawks, for example.

2011: 2nd most penalties in the league
2012: 4th most
2013: Most
2014: Most

 

[Dieter the Brock]

you just got penalized 15 yards for asking the most baffling question of the Fisher regime.
It's not a problem

 

[CGI_Ram]

Haven't we also been the youngest, if not nearly the youngest each of Fisher's seasons?

With youth comes inexperience and mistakes.

I also think they encourage aggressiveness.

Combine those two, and bingo!

 

[Force16X]

penalties are one thing, its the STUPID penalties (drive killers, late hits, intentional flags, or the same penalty over and over and over (false starts, etc.) almost like the player(s) dont learn the first 3 times or so. all i need to say is Alex Barron. (drops mic)

 

[badnews]

It's kind of a vicious cycle sort of thing imo.
Refs know we create a lot of penalties so they are waiting for them, looking for them, sometimes to the point of missing the other teams own penalties. Then they call things that are so ticky-tack that it's ridiculous: Tru's face mask penalty for example.

 

[HometownBoy]

It's reputation based, I mean, a lot of times our guys aren't even the instigators or aren't doing anything worse than people who aren't getting called, but in an effort to keep the game clean they heavily penalize us because we're known as problem children.

It's a rep we slowly have to unearn, and until we do we'll be getting quite a few lumps that we probably shouldn't be taking.

 

[Prime Time]

We were 6th last year with most penalties - 123 - behind the Bills with - 124 - the Lions with - 126 - the Colts with - 127 - the Patriots with - 138 - and the Seahawks with 151.

We were 3d last year in penalty yards with - 1,139 - behind the Seahawks with - 1,182 - and the Patriots with - 1,216.

105 penalties were committed against the Rams for a total of 885 yards. That's a difference of 254 yards in penalties.

http://www.nflpenalties.com/

Those are the cold, hard facts but don't explain the why of it. A more important stat would be how many of those penalties called on the Rams happened at crucial times of a game and helped opponents beat us.

 

[LACHAMP46]

young ass team...moving dudes in an out...not a problem...not yet....

 

[rdlkgliders]

Don't bring this up. Some believe more penalties equals more success. Seriously

 

[GabesHorn]

It is only the fact if your team is Good enough to OVERCOME the bad calls and the very untimely penalties that bring back big plays or scores as we ALL saw TA have most of his early successes in the league ALWAYS get called back for BS. Thought the guy was cursed. Offsides in games not played in Seattle is something we can solidly overcome. Screw the youth Excuse guys. Our guys have played tons of football and that one is just to basic unless your QB is new or you can't hear him PERIOD. I do think the refs and even some certain guys really want TV time when we play. If we are a good enough team to pull off those long 3rd downs like we always felt no distance was too far when Warner was behind center on 3rd down. A lot is team confidence and we lack that with all the new players. Hope Foles takes a step up next week as he is a first read guy and we need to see him make without forcing other big plays. Its a combination of reads and vision as his arm is what he's paid for. I know time to accomplish this is neccesary too. Need a REAL backup OLG cause we will need him.

For other old people remember Chuck Noll who brought such fear in his players that they always led the league in the least amount of penalties. Some bad ass players who had respect for their coach to not cause these penalties. Coach fisher is loved but I don't think he is feared like Noll was as Lombardi was and even Laundry had a low penalty record most years. Its about deep respect men. I'm sorry , its not the youth thing we keep repeating. I truly wonder from what I've seen up close is coach Fisher deeply respected? Are you being held to a higher level of serious play? Sorry so heavy. IT CAN BE CORRECTED!

 

[Angry Ram]

it's ridiculous: Tru's face mask penalty for example.

For real. I'm still trying to figure out how that got flagged. I thought the rule stated that you had to grab the mask and then turn it. I didn't see that.

 

[Oldgeek]

A "running" team that faces 1st and 15 or 2nd and 20 isn't going to sustain drives.

 

[CGI_Ram]

It is only the fact if your team is Good enough to OVERCOME the bad calls and the very untimely penalties that bring back big plays or scores as we ALL saw TA have most of his early successes in the league ALWAYS get called back for BS. Thought the guy was cursed. Offsides in games not played in Seattle is something we can solidly overcome. Screw the youth Excuse guys. Our guys have played tons of football and that one is just to basic unless your QB is new or you can't hear him PERIOD. I do think the refs and even some certain guys really want TV time when we play. If we are a good enough team to pull off those long 3rd downs like we always felt no distance was too far when Warner was behind center on 3rd down. A lot is team confidence and we lack that with all the new players. Hope Foles takes a step up next week as he is a first read guy and we need to see him make without forcing other big plays. Its a combination of reads and vision as his arm is what he's paid for. I know time to accomplish this is neccesary too. Need a REAL backup OLG cause we will need him.

For other old people remember Chuck Noll who brought such fear in his players that they always led the league in the least amount of penalties. Some bad ass players who had respect for their coach to not cause these penalties. Coach fisher is loved but I don't think he is feared like Noll was as Lombardi was and even Laundry had a low penalty record most years. Its about deep respect men. I'm sorry , its not the youth thing we keep repeating. I truly wonder from what I've seen up close is coach Fisher deeply respected? Are you being held to a higher level of serious play? Sorry so heavy. IT CAN BE CORRECTED!

Fisher certainly talks the talk about reducing mistakes and penalties, but it's true... We don't really know how he enforces those things. I'm not sure how you create "fear" outside of benching a player?

 

[V3]

I don't know how he can stop it. I mean, clearly they coach their players in the ways to avoid penalties, but I think playing fast and aggressive is going to lead to more penalties than the more methodical teams. It's a give and take thing. IMO, there's really no correlation between the amount of penalties a team commits and their overall record, so it's kind of just an annoyance more than anything serious. See the seahawks, for example.

2011: 2nd most penalties in the league
2012: 4th most
2013: Most
2014: Most

It's not so much the amount of penalties as much as it is the type of penalty and when it occurs. You also have to factor in if their offense can overcome stuff like that. If your offense isn't built to overcome deficits or difficulties, you're going to have a tougher time with penalties. The Seahawks may be a running team but they can hit you multiple times with big plays which allows them to overcome many of their self inflicted setbacks. Heretofore, the Rams haven't show that propensity. The hope is that a new QB, OC, and matured WRs will allow for that. We'll see.

 

[V3]

For real. I'm still trying to figure out how that got flagged. I thought the rule stated that you had to grab the mask and then turn it. I didn't see that.

It's the same reason as every other year. Fisher's teams have a reputation. The refs know his players play to the edge and beyond so they'll flag ANYTHING that's even close to a penalty. People may want the refs to call just what's there and not go by reputation but that's not how it works. Stuff moves so fast that sometimes they have to guess. Those guesses will almost always go against Fisher's teams. And let's be honest here, Fisher's teams DO commit a lot of legit penalties.

If Fisher wants it to change, he's going to have to have his players play extremely disciplined for a long period of time and he's going to have to complain more about the calls that are wrong. Complaining about the refs may backfire but continuing the status quo sure isn't working.

 

[FRO]

Youth and inexperience can lead to penalties too. He has had some of the youngest teams in the league. That should be less and less of an excuse going forward with this team growing up.

 

[-X-]

It's not so much the amount of penalties as much as it is the type of penalty and when it occurs. You also have to factor in if their offense can overcome stuff like that. If your offense isn't built to overcome deficits or difficulties, you're going to have a tougher time with penalties.

Maybe. But without any empirical evidence on it, we're just assuming the Rams are the team most affected by their own setbacks. It's just as easy to say that seattle's defense gives the offense more opportunities than ours does, but there's no way to prove that either. Even if you looked at team snap counts on offense, you'd find Philly at the top due to the pace of their game. And really, when is an offensive penalty (for any team) not a potential drive killer or TD eraser?

None of this is to say that the penalties this team commits are excusable or shouldn't be cleaned up. I'm just trying to say that there's no correlation between penalties and success (or lack thereof). The team with the lowest amount of penalties last year was the Jaguars. The year before that it was the Dolphins.

 

[blue4]

Youth and inexperience can lead to penalties too. He has had some of the youngest teams in the league. That should be less and less of an excuse going forward with this team growing up.

A lot of our key players are coming up on contract years. They should be grown up already. I expect some holding, false start out of the new OL, but the rest should know better by now.