The stat that will hold us back: 1005 yards

We hit the 1000 yard mark on the season vs. the Giants. A milestone indeed. In penalty yardage. (1005 to be exact)



If one thing is going to hold us down this playoff run its penalties. I'm not trying to be negative, just looking at what has happened all year long with our penalties its our key players that are the ones getting called.

Michael Bennett logged his 9th penalty called on him for a total of 64 yards on the season. That puts him in 4th place in yardage right behind Browner (91) Sherman (86) and Russell Wilson (65)



While I have nothing to compare it to of what other teams average or are experiencing, it just seems like we are getting flagged/flogged every other down. It comes with being a physical team, and we've had our share of questionable calls go in our favor but if we make it to the Super Bowl and lay a 10-12 penalty game, everyone will be blaming the refs.



Just thought i'd toss this out there for discussion. I'm not a hater, just worried the penalty game is going to kill us when we make our long run.

Physical stuff during the play is going to happen, it's the stupid procedural stuff that is frustrating. Especially when we were among the least penalized in the league for years under Holmgren.

The Ravens led the NFL in penalties and penalty yardage last year.

Turned out OK.

I believe that the most penalized team in the NFL last year was the Ravens.... Doesnt mean we shouldnt strive to improve.. but some of it comes from reputation. Its just the price of doing business. The offensive side of things is a different matter..

Penalties is definitely a weakness of Pete Carroll coached teams. Pete has not shown himself as being a strong disciplinarian, and it shows in the form of the number of penalties we have committed over the past 4 years. They would have killed Mike Holmgren.

But hopefully, the strengths will overcome the weaknesses. I'll take a heavily penalized 12-2 team over a well disciplined 7-7 team any day of the year and twice on Sundays. But if we don't win the SB this year, the root cause is more than likely going to be some sort of penalty.

DavidSeven":r9f2fe4g said:

The Ravens led the NFL in penalties and penalty yardage last year.

Turned out OK.

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lol this

12-2 .... Keep on keepin on

The real question is... how was a 6'3, 240 Kam Chanchellor called for a penalty for hitting a defenseless WR with a shoulder jab not strong enough to knock a 5'8, 190 WR off the ground and ... yet the helmet to helmets to Miller and Lynch go uncalled.

Pandion Haliaetus":u0212mrd said:

The real question is... how was a 6'3, 240 Kam Chanchellor called for a penalty for hitting a defenseless WR with a shoulder jab not strong enough to knock a 5'8, 190 WR off the ground and ... yet the helmet to helmets to Miller and Lynch go uncalled.

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That Miller hit bothered/worried me. I was thinking worse case scenario concussion done for the year when I saw just Willson following that

Pandion Haliaetus":chyy0ykg said:

The real question is... how was a 6'3, 240 Kam Chanchellor called for a penalty for hitting a defenseless WR with a shoulder jab not strong enough to knock a 5'8, 190 WR off the ground and ... yet the helmet to helmets to Miller and Lynch go uncalled.

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While the Cincy punter gets a broken jaw on what is a "clean" hit. The NFL is dumb.

Yeah, I mean is this *really* necessary on a punter? Dude better get a fat fine for that.

The hawks are aggressive. Penalties are a byproduct. 12-2 ... Meh.

I think one would have to offer a bit more of a sample size than the 2012 Ravens alone, to view 1000 yards in 14 games as acceptable. If 7 of the last 10 champions were also heavily penalized, then you'd have something.

All that aside, enough is in place for us to start fine tuning things and the reduction of penalties is likely high on the to-do list. It seems we've been better as of late...no?

Glad we are getting it out of the system during the regular season

Since we're #2 in the league in penalties and are the best team in the league by "Power Ranking" consensus, DVOA, passer rating differential, big play differential, record, margin of victory and every other conceivable aggregate metric of team dominance, we can infer that penalties aren't the biggest factor for success. In fact, based on that we could infer that penalties are correlated with success, although that might be rash.

Getting Percy Harvin back is twice as likely as the team suddenly committing fewer penalties and getting Percy Harvin back would have twice the impact on wins and losses. Therefore, worrying about Percy Harvin is 4 times as valuable as worrying about penalties.

formido":2k9xrsus said:

Since we're #2 in the league in penalties and are the best team in the league by "Power Ranking" consensus, DVOA, passer rating differential, big play differential, record, margin of victory and every other conceivable aggregate metric of team dominance, we can infer that penalties aren't the biggest factor for success. In fact, based on that we could infer that penalties are correlated with success, although that might be rash.

Getting Percy Harvin back is twice as likely as the team suddenly committing fewer penalties and getting Percy Harvin back would have twice the impact on wins and losses. Therefore, worrying about Percy Harvin is 4 times as valuable as worrying about penalties.

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Plot twist: Percy Harvin comes back and leads the team in penalties

Defensive penalties can be overcome or diminished into FG attempts, but offensive penalties can kill drives, momentum, and leave points off the board. It's damn tough in this league to convert after a ticky-tack hold that was nowhere near the ball or a false start when you know the damn snap count.

I think it is quite obvious that the officials are flag happy with the Hawks. It has affected stats and cost the Hawks a lot of drive extensions. It played a big part in both the Niners and Colts game, but whatever. I just want to see the same calls the other way when they are doing the same thing. The Lynch hit was HARD and I was worried. That is a man right there.

I hope the Hawks just clean up the procedure stuff.

HawkWow":2adei6sk said:

I think one would have to offer a bit more of a sample size than the 2012 Ravens alone, to view 1000 yards in 14 games as acceptable. If 7 of the last 10 champions were also heavily penalized, then you'd have something.

All that aside, enough is in place for us to start fine tuning things and the reduction of penalties is likely high on the to-do list. It seems we've been better as of late...no?

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We had 8 penalties today and 9 the previous game against the Niners. That's right at our season average of 8 per game, so no, we are not getting better.

Hmmmm 8 for 50 or 9 for 85...think I'll go with better this week.