FanPost

Extra graphs: Penalty graphs, now with averages [Updated]

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.

SEC-2021-Avg-04-penalties-bar

SEC average penalties: 2021
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.

Alabama-Texas-A-M-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for Texas A&M (6), Alabama (8): 2021, wk06
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.

Alabama-Auburn-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for Auburn (7), Alabama (11): 2021, wk13
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
Alabama-Florida-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for Florida (7), Alabama (11): 2021, wk03
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
Alabama-Mississippi-State-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for Mississippi State (6), Alabama (6): 2021, wk07
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.

Alabama-LSU-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for LSU (6), Alabama (9): 2021, wk10
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!

Alabama-Tennessee-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for Tennessee (12), Alabama (4): 2021, wk08
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
Alabama-Arkansas-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for Arkansas (6), Alabama (5): 2021, wk12
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
Alabama-Ole-Miss-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for Ole Miss (7), Alabama (5): 2021, wk05
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.

Alabama-Georgia-Avg-2021-03-penalty-avg-bar

Penalties for Georgia (6), Alabama (7): 2021, wk14
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.

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