So the Washington Redskins lead the league in Penalty Yards by a fair margin. In 7 games they have 55 penalties for a total of 510 yards given away, or around 73 yards a game. Here are the responsible parties:
False Start: 9 - 45 yards
Jon Jansen 3 - 15 yards
Chris Samuels 2 - 10 yards
Derrick Dockery 2 - 10 yards
Chris Cooley 1 - 5 yards
Brandon Lloyd 1 - 5 yards
Defensive Holding: 5 - 16 yards
Kenny Wright 2 - 6 yards
Marcus Washington 1 - 5 yards
Mike Rumph 1 - 5 yards
Andre Carter 1 - 0 yards
Offensive Holding 15 - 129 yards
Jon Jansen 4 - 30 yards
Casey Rabach 3 - 30 yards
Chris Samuels 2 - 20 yards
James Thrash 2 - 20 yards
Demetrik Evans 1 - 10 yards
Christian Fauria 1 - 10 yards
Jeff Posey 1 - 9 yards
Rocky McIntosh 1 - 0 yards
Unnecessary Roughness: 4 - 51 yards
Sean Taylor 1 - 15 yards
Santana Moss 1 - 15 yards
Rock Cartwright 1 - 12 yards
Cornelius Griffin 1 - 9 yards
Face Mask: 6 - 60 yards
Warrick Holdman 2 - 20 yards
Kenny Wright 1 - 15 yards
Anthony Montgomery 1 - 15 yards
Adam Archuleta 1 - 5 yards
Sean Taylor 1 - 5 yards
Defensive Pass Interference: 3 - 78 yards
Carlos Rogers 2 - 37 yards
Kenny Wright 1 - 41 yards
Offensive Pass Interference:
Santana Moss 1 - 10 yards
Roughing the Passer:
Marcus Washington 2 - 30 yards
Illegal Use of Hands:
Mike Rumph 1 - 5 yards
Illegal Contact:
Shawn Springs 1 - 5 yards
Kenny Wright 1 - 0 yards
Taunting:
Clinton Portis 1 - 15 yards
Unsportsmanlike Conduct: 2 - 20 yards
Antwaan Randle-El 1 - 15 yards
Derrick Frost 1 - 5 yards
Offsides:
Sean Taylor 1 - 5 yards
Illegal Touch Pass (???):
Chris Cooley 1 - 5 yards
The above does not include team penalties or penalties that were unassigned to players on the NFL play-by-play. I included declined penalties because I didn't feel like rewarding stupid play just because someone else did something as or more dumb on the same play.
Most penalties: Jon Jansen with 7 penalties. Congratulations.
Most penalty yards: Kenny Wright with 62 yards. Congratulations.
Immediate thoughts: Randy Thomas is awesome. He is unquestionably the best player on our Offensive Line and has yet to be penalized this season. The rest of the line has 15 penalties for 115 yards. That's pathetic.
I was suprised that Marcus Washington is hitting quarterbacks late. Roughing the Passer penalties keep drives alive when they shouldn't; a hurried pass is a bad one meaning every roughing the passer penalty occurs when the line gets the kind of push we need. I love Marcus and he's one of our best defenders, but he's the only one lacking restraint (perhaps because he's the only one getting persistent pressure).
Overall the Redskins are a disappointing, undisciplined team. As much as I love placing blame on players for making stupid mental errors, it is also the coaches' responsibility to make sure the team is minimizing mistakes. Our penalty numbers are unacceptable: they are giving opposing teams opportunities where none existed, and are utterly correctable. Let's hope that this was addressed during the bye week for our upcoming game against Dallas. If we want to shellack the Cowgirls at home, we cannot afford these unnecessary mental errors.