Note: I have added tables of the penalties for added context.
Looking at the raw penalty numbers, it is hard to to see the signal under the noise. krnxprs had a great suggestion on a layout and I think the following implements it. One thing that isn't in the data are the penalties not called. Well really the egregious missed penalties since there are always penalties that could be called and aren't. Another data point that I don't think gets recorded is penalties that are called, but declined. You will have to determine the amount of sodium you wish to ingest as you read what follows.
I added the mean for the SEC (dashed line) and the mean +/- the SEC standard deviation (dot-dash line). Also this dataset includes the SECCG data.
All SEC teams
This first graph is the average by game for each team.
Well,
we aren't the most penalized SEC team.
That is Ole Miss' honor.
We are above the SEC average (6.342) at 7.333 though.
What stood out to me was LSU being below average (in average penalties)
and only Kentucky had a lower average.
Team | Avg |
---|---|
Alabama | 7.333 |
Arkansas | 7.875 |
Auburn | 5.750 |
Florida | 7.375 |
Georgia | 5.111 |
Kentucky | 4.250 |
LSU | 4.500 |
Mississippi State | 7.625 |
Missouri | 7.375 |
Ole Miss | 8.375 |
South Carolina | 5.500 |
Tennessee | 6.000 |
Texas A&M | 7.125 |
Vanderbilt | 4.625 |
Away games
Next I figured that I would divide the games by home vs away (and one neutral site).
Let's look at the away games first.
Three of our away games had an above average number of penalties: Florida, Texas A&M, and Auburn.
Mississippi State was the lone away game with a below average number of penalties
(despite their infernal bells).
I'd imagine crowd noise had an effect,
but without knowing what penalties were called its hard to make a definitive statement on that.
Eventaully I hope to be able to pull the penalties and the penalty types out of the dataset
and maybe then it will be possible to gauge the effect of crowd noise... somewhat.
I was surprised that we weren't that far above average against Texas A&M.
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | Defensive Holding |
Alabama | Defensive Pass Interference |
Alabama | Defensive Pass Interference |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | Offensive Holding |
Alabama | Offensive Holding |
Alabama | Personal Foul |
Texas A&M | Defensive Holding |
Texas A&M | Delay Of Game |
Texas A&M | Delay Of Game |
Texas A&M | False Start |
Texas A&M | Offensive Holding |
Texas A&M | Personal Foul |
It turns out that Auburn was the only away opponent to have an above average number of penalties when playing us.
But they were still well below the number of penalties called on us
and just above the SEC average.
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | Delay Of Game |
Alabama | Delay Of Game |
Alabama | Face Mask |
Alabama | Face Mask |
Alabama | Holding |
Alabama | Illegal Block |
Alabama | Illegal Block |
Alabama | Pass Interference |
Alabama | Personal Foul |
Alabama | Roughing Passer |
Alabama | Targeting |
Auburn | Delay Of Game |
Auburn | False Start |
Auburn | False Start |
Auburn | Ineligible Downfield On Pass |
Auburn | Offensive Holding |
Auburn | Offensive Holding |
Auburn | Personal Foul |
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | Defensive Offside |
Alabama | Defensive Offside |
Alabama | Defensive Pass Interference |
Alabama | Defensive Pass Interference |
Alabama | Delay Of Game |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | Illegal Block |
Alabama | Intentional Grounding |
Florida | Defensive Pass Interference |
Florida | Defensive Pass Interference |
Florida | Defensive Pass Interference |
Florida | Defensive Pass Interference |
Florida | False Start |
Florida | Offensive Holding |
Florida | Substitution Infraction |
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | Defensive Offside |
Alabama | Illegal Block |
Alabama | Illegal Formation |
Alabama | Offensive Holding |
Alabama | Pass Interference |
Alabama | Unnecessary Roughness |
Mississippi State | False Start |
Mississippi State | False Start |
Mississippi State | False Start |
Mississippi State | Holding |
Mississippi State | Intentional Grounding |
Mississippi State | Intentional Grounding |
Home games
The results were reversed for the home games. We were below average against three of our home opponents: Arkanasas, Ole Miss, and Tennessee. Versus LSU we were above our season average, but so were they. And both teams were above their averages by about the same amount. So I guess I'd call that a wash.
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | Defensive Holding |
Alabama | Delay Of Game |
Alabama | Delay Of Game |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | Illegal Formation |
Alabama | Intentional Grounding |
Alabama | Offensive Holding |
Alabama | Personal Foul |
Alabama | Personal Foul |
LSU | Delay Of Game |
LSU | False Start |
LSU | Illegal Formation |
LSU | Ineligible Downfield On Pass |
LSU | Intentional Grounding |
LSU | Offensive Holding |
The one graph that stands out to me is Tennessee.
Their season average was just below the SEC average.
When they played us,
not only were their number of penalties above their average,
but they had twice as many penalties against us than their season average.
In fact they were above two standard deviations not just of their season average,
but also the SEC average.
I guess what I am saying is that Tennessee had a whole slew of penalties when they played us!
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | Delay Of Game |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | Roughing The Kicker |
Tennessee | Delay Of Game |
Tennessee | False Start |
Tennessee | False Start |
Tennessee | False Start |
Tennessee | False Start |
Tennessee | False Start |
Tennessee | Illegal Formation |
Tennessee | Illegal Forward Pass |
Tennessee | Pass Interference |
Tennessee | Personal Foul |
Tennessee | Personal Foul |
Tennessee | Personal Foul |
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | Defensive Pass Interference |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | Offensive Holding |
Alabama | Offensive Holding |
Alabama | Offensive Holding |
Arkansas | Delay Of Game |
Arkansas | False Start |
Arkansas | False Start |
Arkansas | False Start |
Arkansas | Intentional Grounding |
Arkansas | Kickoff Out Of Bounds |
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | 12 Men On The Field |
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | Pass Interference |
Alabama | Pass Interference |
Alabama | Personal Foul |
Ole Miss | False Start |
Ole Miss | False Start |
Ole Miss | Holding |
Ole Miss | Holding |
Ole Miss | Holding |
Ole Miss | Holding |
Ole Miss | Pass Interference |
Neutral game
There is not much to say here.
We were below average and they were above average,
but we were still called for one more penalty than they were.
Team | Type |
---|---|
Alabama | False Start |
Alabama | Holding |
Alabama | Holding |
Alabama | Pass Interference |
Alabama | Pass Interference |
Alabama | Pass Interference |
Alabama | Personal Foul |
Georgia | False Start |
Georgia | False Start |
Georgia | False Start |
Georgia | Offensive Holding |
Georgia | Pass Interference |
Georgia | Pass Interference |
Conclusion
Given the data we can't claim that we always get penalized more than the other SEC teams. On the other hand, keeping in mind the caveats at the start of this piece (uncalled penalties, declined penalties) it is possible that reality is closer to our subjective feelings. Data analysis can only be as good as the data it starts with. The one exception to this, Auburn and you know why...
Maybe in the future I can rewrite my code so that we can look at all SEC games and compare the number of penalties vs the average for the home and away teams.