Stupid Internet Football Sites, Penalties, and the 2017 Pittsburgh Steelers

[Mojouw]

Or why Mojouw cries manly tears into his beer every week. Because these jag-offs get paid for this? C'mon this is utter nonsense.

Seriously, check this out. http://www.steelersdepot.com/2018/01/looking-ahead-steelers-need-better-defense-2018/

Standard slapped together article about the Steelers defense and too many penalties. Playing on the undisciplined and bad coaching themes without coming right out and saying it.

BUT...here's the thing -- it kinda sorta isn't true. Look at this here actual set of data and information -- https://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalties.html?sort=numpen

Steelers have 101 penalties which is only 6 more than the vaunted paragons of discipline the New England Patriots. Steelers were only assessed 61 more penalty yards against than the Pats.

Really the only penalty number that absolutely jumps off the page is the far too high # of unnecessary roughness penalties - thanks Mike Mitchell!

Back to my original point -- this is terribly bad "writing". It took me about 25 seconds to find sortable penalty data (now of course this assumes the site I found is reliable) and begin to draw some useful and meaningful conclusions about the Steelers defense. But this clown vomits words into a computer and expects people to read it?

I might need a break from Steelers Depot. Seriously, 8 out of 10 stuff posted to their site is nonsense. Don't get me started on Steelerswire and Behind the Steel Curtain. Gracious.

[SteeleReign]

Steelers Depot is a quality site. Get over yourself.

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[Born2Steel]

Again, great information. I think another penalty stat that would be interesting to look at is situational defensive penalties that help an offense get a first down. When the defensive penalty prevent a defense from getting off the field. OR, same thing worded differently, when an offense gains a first down due to a defensive penalty. That would be a very interesting stat to me.

http://www.nflpenalties.com

According to this, the Patriots opponents received the 3rd highest number of penalties against. The Patriots gained the most yards by penalty by 57 yards. The Patriots lead the league in net yards by penalty by 50 yards.

Still looking for how many times the Patriots were given a fresh set of downs due to penalty. Do they even keep that stat?

Aha! Found it. Guess who got the most first downs by penalty.
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalty-first-downs-per-game

[Mojouw]

Again, great information. I think another penalty stat that would be interesting to look at is situational defensive penalties that help an offense get a first down. When the defensive penalty prevent a defense from getting off the field. OR, same thing worded differently, when an offense gains a first down due to a defensive penalty. That would be a very interesting stat to me.

http://www.nflpenalties.com

According to this, the Patriots opponents received the 3rd highest number of penalties against. The Patriots gained the most yards by penalty by 57 yards. The Patriots lead the league in net yards by penalty by 50 yards.

Still looking for how many times the Patriots were given a fresh set of downs due to penalty. Do they even keep that stat?

Aha! Found it. Guess who got the most first downs by penalty.
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalty-first-downs-per-game

What a surprise! I agree that it we would be fascinating to see how many opposing team drives the Steelers extended by penalty vs league average etc.

[teegre]

What a surprise! I agree that it we would be fascinating to see how many opposing team drives the Steelers extended by penalty vs league average etc.

Likewise, the Taperiots opponents got the least first downs by penalty.

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/opponent-penalty-first-downs-per-game

[Mojouw]

Steelers Depot is a quality site. Get over yourself.

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Mostly it was a joke. I think I have long lamented that I am not fortunate enough to get paid to watch and write about football for a living.

Much of Steelers Depot is great and I check the site daily. Anything by Alex K and Dave B is excellent. I also enjoy the podcast by Dave and Dave. However most things posted by Marczi and Abate are the internet equivalent of a radio host throwing something out there they know will light up the phone lines. I ditched sports talk radio and the majority of the pro sports related internet to get away from that. Sad to see it creeping into Steelers Depot more and more each week.

For instance, this article - http://www.steelersdepot.com/2018/01/analyzing-steelers-penalty-frequency-yardage-2017/

Notes the Steelers rank 13th in the league. Sounds like there is a boatload of room for improvement. In reality, not so much - https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalties-per-game

Difference between the least penalized team per game and the Steelers is 1.2 penalties. So I mean, you can fix that by just wearing Patriots jerseys next year. The refs won't know what to do!

[pczach]

Again, great information. I think another penalty stat that would be interesting to look at is situational defensive penalties that help an offense get a first down. When the defensive penalty prevent a defense from getting off the field. OR, same thing worded differently, when an offense gains a first down due to a defensive penalty. That would be a very interesting stat to me.

http://www.nflpenalties.com

According to this, the Patriots opponents received the 3rd highest number of penalties against. The Patriots gained the most yards by penalty by 57 yards. The Patriots lead the league in net yards by penalty by 50 yards.

Still looking for how many times the Patriots were given a fresh set of downs due to penalty. Do they even keep that stat?

Aha! Found it. Guess who got the most first downs by penalty.
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/penalty-first-downs-per-game




And even those numbers seem flawed.

In every important game the Patriots play against the best opponents, they seemingly get called for less than 2 penalties for next to zero yards. In every playoff game or big regular season game, you get the feeling the Patriots opponent has to defeat the team and overcome the officials. It can't just be a small group of people that feel this way.

It is the single most infuriating thing about the Patriots and the NFL right now. I understand football. I watch a ton of football. I know what penalties are. I watch them doing the same acts that the other team is doing, but the yellow flags just never seem to come out of the pockets of the officials.

For the life of me, I can't understand the how or why of I it. It just doesn't make any sense to call things differently for one team.

I also want to clear something up. It's not superior coaching. There are players grabbing other players, just like every other team. There is contact with receivers more than 5 yards down the field and while the ball is in the air. It simply isn't called. We already know about all the calls that go their way with replay and what is or isn't a catch or touchdown. They are seemingly on the winning side of it every time.

I could understand it or attribute it to luck if it were just one season of good fortune, but this has been happening for a long time with no signs of stopping.

Again, there's no real explanation for it. I don't understand how favoring this team helps the NFL and I'm surprised there aren't more people outraged by it.

[EzraTank]

Anyone that can defend this year's defense is clueless. When Blake Bortles puts up 54 points on you in two HOME games that's sad.

This year when the team needed stops against the biggest teams they not only fell short ... they flat out sucked. I mean look at the Pats. Bortles was driving at the end and some no name CB makes a play.

And there is nothing comforting knowing that the same exact coaching staff is returning with the same players aside from a few new draft picks.

Who and what is going to replace Shazier (I really doubt he ever plays again)?
Mike (pound my chest) Mitchell blows?
Who is going to cover the guys running wide open down the field?
Stuffed the run "sometimes"? When you average 106 yards/game you aren't stuffing anything.

Maybe, just maybe it's time to switch to a 4-3 defense and build a front four that can get actual pressure on a QB. Outside of Watt, I don't think any other LBer can even come close to being consistent in this area.

But at this point I just want anyone that could make our defense even "half" better. We have all the offensive pieces in place and probably a 2-3 year window there, let's fix this crap NOW!

[Fire Goodell]

Patriots first TD drive against the jagoffs was aided by like 60 penalty yards or something? From that moment I knew the refs weren't going to allow a Jacksonville win and turned the TV off. I was right.

[Mojouw]

Well, this thread went down the drain pretty quick.

FWIW, Gilmore is far from a no name CB. He was basically the most sought after DB this off-season.

The Pats and penalties thing does need explained a bit. They got called for a relatively similar number of overall penalties as other NFL teams, but it sure doesn't seem like they ever come in momentum swinging moments does it?

[Born2Steel]

It's not the number of penalties called, or the number of penalty yards, ONLY. The times at which these penalties occur is what drives the conspiracy. Just in the divisional round against the Titans, there were 3 defensive penalties called against the Titans on one drive. That doesn't seem weird at all. BUT, they were all called after a 3rd down stop, that would have given the Titans the ball back. Instead, the Patriots get a new set of downs. All 3 on the same drive. Patriots ended with a TD. These things just keep happening. I DO NOT BELIEVE THERE IS A NFL CONSPIRACY! But...I do believe the officiating is slanted. Not as bad as the NBA maybe, but a close second.

[Fire Goodell]

It's not the number of penalties called, or the number of penalty yards, ONLY. The times at which these penalties occur is what drives the conspiracy. Just in the divisional round against the Titans, there were 3 defensive penalties called against the Titans on one drive. That doesn't seem weird at all. BUT, they were all called after a 3rd down stop, that would have given the Titans the ball back. Instead, the Patriots get a new set of downs. All 3 on the same drive. Patriots ended with a TD. These things just keep happening. I DO NOT BELIEVE THERE IS A NFL CONSPIRACY! But...I do believe the officiating is slanted. Not as bad as the NBA maybe, but a close second.

Not to mention holding or some offensive penalty would get called on the Titans almost on any play that would have resulted in a first down. That game really shouldn't have been that much of a blowout if the refs had no hand in it.

[Born2Steel]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/brandon-marshall-might-hate-patriots-183333488.html

[86WARD]

Steelers Depot is a quality site. Get over yourself.

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It’s gone downhill lately. There’s a lot of opinion on that site but not very good writing. A lot of topics come from discussions that are started here.