Do penalties matter?

[Black&Blue_]

Three of the top five penalized teams (in yardage) made the playoffs in 2012. Two of them played eachother in the Super Bowl. Coaches always talk about needing to clean up penalties, but it doesn't look like, on paper, such an important factor in football games.

I feel like redzone offense/defense, big plays (generating them and limiting the number against you), and turnover margin are the three most important things in football right now.

 

[Smoke Screen]

I feel you are undervaluing having a head coach that doesn't suck donkey dick at every opportunity. I would rate that up in the top 3 for sure.

 

[Collin]

Depends on the type and timing of the penalties, obviously.

 

[Black&Blue_]

I know I'm painting in broad strokes, but i just thought that was interesting.

I saw an article where Chip Kelly was dismissing time of possession importance, which makes sense. Doing something with the football is more important than how long you have it. I was just exploring the value of other cliche stats, like penalties. I think some coaches might worry so much about penalties that they cut the balls off of their whole team.

 

[Purrsy]

I do think so. They're drive killers.

Mitchell gave the Eagles a 1st and ten on 3rd and long after we had them stopped on the first drive, and then they shoved it down our throats and got the score, and pretty much didn't let up after that.

I think if you're a good enough team to overcome them, obviously it doesn't matter as much.

But overall, with that broad stroke you're talking about yes. I think they matter a whole lot.

Such as our offense is simply not good enough to overcome a false start. It's really not. Yards are precious, and in our case, penalties are a killer.