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Saints still lead NFL in penalty yards thru 4 weeks (398), overwhelmingly on defense (328). Offense has 12th fewest penalty yards (70).
Could change after MNF (teams in blue have played just 3 games), but unlikely to fall out of No. 1 (or No. 32, depending on your perspective) pic.twitter.com/8sKg2rkHe6
— John Sigler (@john_siglerr) October 5, 2020
With the majority of NFL teams having played four games to start the 2020 season, and the New Orleans Saints are still an outlier when it comes to penalties. While they were fouled just four times for 67 yards in their win over the Detroit Lions, the Saints still lead the league in total penalty yardage (398), averaging nearly 100 yards per game.
Most of that can be attributed to defensive penalties; their offense has yielded just 70 penalty yards, the twelfth-fewest number in the NFL. The defense leads the league with 328 penalty yards. About 61.3% of that yardage has come from defensive pass interference fouls alone, where New Orleans has given up nearly as many yards (244) as the next three teams combined (252 from the Indianapolis Colts, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and New England Patriots, who have played just three games so far).
Things will continue to normalize as the sample size grows with more games being played. This week, the New York Jets and Chicago Bears each racked up more than 100 penalty yards, helping to close the gap between the Saints and the rest of the NFL. But that’s not company the Saints want to keep, and even now they are an outlier among outliers — the NFL average for defensive penalty yards per game is just 113.4. The Saints have nearly tripled that.
Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders called out the NFL’s officiating after Week 3’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, publicly asking why opposing defenders were allowed to get away with penalty-worthy moves that earned flags for his Saints teammates. Through four weeks, the Saints have been the beneficiary of just 19 penalties, the seventh-fewest in the league (tying with the Patriots, who play Monday night).
And there were moments when the referees took aim at the Saints for fouls in coverage against Detroit. Linebacker Alex Anzalone was flagged twice, once for DPI and again for illegal contact, on moves that didn’t appear very egregious but still helped lead to Lions touchdowns. Free safety Marcus Williams was also penalized for competing on a contested catch, despite having turned his head around to look for the ball.
Maybe the NFL’s officiating brotherhood is still stinging from last year’s rebuke, when Saints coach Sean Payton helped introduce a new rule making pass interference subject to replay review (it didn’t take; the rule was ineffective and criticized for slowing down game flow, and abandoned after one year). That was a big affront to their authority and it’s easy to explain this trend away as them looking for any reason to penalize Payton’s team. But you’d think they could be better professionals and not stoop to that.
Whatever the case, the Saints must continue to clean up their act. Giving up so many free yards to opposing teams has put them in too many tight spots this season. Whether it’s changes in coaching instruction or play style, the Saints have to keep tweaking things to limit the impact penalties can have on their games. It’s tough enough to beat one opponent, much less two.
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