Before I delve into the details of each of the Browns’ penalties this season, here’s an overview of the official tallies, which do not include penalties that were declined or offset by opponents’ fouls. Only once in 12 games were the Browns clearly the less-penalized team.
In sum, the Browns have been flagged 95 times for 716 yards, compared with 68 times for 494 yards for their opponents. For a parity-conscious league, that’s quite a disparity. Cleveland ranks second in penalties and third in penalty yardage. Their opponents are flagged somewhat below the league average.
In fact, it’s even more significant than the home/away differential. In these 12 games, the home team was assessed 71 penalties for 546 yards, compared with 92 and 664 for the visitors.
In the Jets, the Browns will confront their mirror image — the second least penalized team, third least yardage — and do so on the road, to boot.
As I discussed previously, fewer penalties, taken as a whole, don’t correlate with winning. In fact, the data above show that the losing teams were significantly less penalized (72-509) than their conquerors (91-701). I wouldn’t make too much of that, for several reasons, small sample size among them. Obviously, it’s folly to infer that getting penalized contributes to winning.
There’s much more at work here, and I’ll dig into the gamebooks next to get at the root of the Browns’ penalty problems this year. Because at this late date, very little can be done in terms of personnel. In December, it’s the army you have. Their ability to execute well in the fourth quarter of the schedule will determine their destiny, and penalties are one lens for understanding this.
