USA Today article of analysis of Saints penalty disparity (1 Viewer)

gtaz21

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Yeah, here it goes ... I TOLD YOU SO.

This article is exactly what stat I was saying I wanted to see. What is the comparison between Saints opponents' number of penalties when they play the Saints vs their number of penalties when they don't play the Saints. Also, what kind of impact are those penalties having in the games? In this article, a sportswriter has done just what I asked for. He went to an analytics company and got them to crunch the numbers. Verdict? The disparity of Saints penalties vs their opponents is the largest its been in their opponents favor since they started keep track of the data 20 years ago. What else? Guess who the least penalized team is in the NFL? Yep, that's right ... whoever is playing the Saints that week. Which is what I thought. It doesn't matter whether you're one of the most penalized teams in the NFL or one of the least penalized teams in the NFL. If you're playing the Saints, you will be the least penalized team in the NFL for a week. That is proof-positive that the NFL is shafting the Saints week-in-and-week-out.

Also, Saints opponents get the most first downs via penalty than the opponents of any other team in the NFL. That answers the question of what kind of impact are the penalties having on the game. There can be no bigger impact than repeatedly extending drives for teams.

The only question remaining to be answered is, WHY? It could be revenge for introducing the PI challenge to the game. It could be that the NFL doesn't want the Saints in the Super Bowl. It could go way back to Bountygate. Or, it could be all of the above. I don't care. I just think it sucks.
 

Yeah, here it goes ... I TOLD YOU SO.

This article is exactly what stat I was saying I wanted to see. What is the comparison between Saints opponents' number of penalties when they play the Saints vs their number of penalties when they don't play the Saints. Also, what kind of impact are those penalties having in the games? In this article, a sportswriter has done just what I asked for. He went to an analytics company and got them to crunch the numbers. Verdict? The disparity of Saints penalties vs their opponents is the largest its been in their opponents favor since they started keep track of the data 20 years ago. What else? Guess who the least penalized team is in the NFL? Yep, that's right ... whoever is playing the Saints that week. Which is what I thought. It doesn't matter whether you're one of the most penalized teams in the NFL or one of the least penalized teams in the NFL. If you're playing the Saints, you will be the least penalized team in the NFL for a week. That is proof-positive that the NFL is shafting the Saints week-in-and-week-out.

Also, Saints opponents get the most first downs via penalty than the opponents of any other team in the NFL. That answers the question of what kind of impact are the penalties having on the game. There can be no bigger impact than repeatedly extending drives for teams.

The only question remaining to be answered is, WHY? It could be revenge for introducing the PI challenge to the game. It could be that the NFL doesn't want the Saints in the Super Bowl. It could go way back to Bountygate. Or, it could be all of the above. I don't care. I just think it sucks.

The thing is, this pretty much validates Saints fans' points made that the officiating has been blatantly biased. Not because we get penalized, but rather because opponents hardly get penalized. The penalties for first downs disparity is the real kicker. Many of them are penalties they seldom call in other games. Watching the Seahawks-Vikes game is a good example. Time and time again we saw contact on wide receivers and potential holding penalties not get called, yet we see far more incidental contact get penalized on the Saints.

I've said since August that the officials are going to have an agenda and will exploit the new pi review rules to make a point. They have, and it's rather transparent. The media has been slow to report on stuff like this because they don't want to make the league look bad. The NFL has a lot of clout in the media, so exposing this disparity is easier said than done. Kudos to the writer of this article. We need more people speaking out and holding the NFL and officials accountable for bad behavior.
 
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Yeah, here it goes ... I TOLD YOU SO.

This article is exactly what stat I was saying I wanted to see. What is the comparison between Saints opponents' number of penalties when they play the Saints vs their number of penalties when they don't play the Saints. Also, what kind of impact are those penalties having in the games? In this article, a sportswriter has done just what I asked for. He went to an analytics company and got them to crunch the numbers. Verdict? The disparity of Saints penalties vs their opponents is the largest its been in their opponents favor since they started keep track of the data 20 years ago. What else? Guess who the least penalized team is in the NFL? Yep, that's right ... whoever is playing the Saints that week. Which is what I thought. It doesn't matter whether you're one of the most penalized teams in the NFL or one of the least penalized teams in the NFL. If you're playing the Saints, you will be the least penalized team in the NFL for a week. That is proof-positive that the NFL is shafting the Saints week-in-and-week-out.

Also, Saints opponents get the most first downs via penalty than the opponents of any other team in the NFL. That answers the question of what kind of impact are the penalties having on the game. There can be no bigger impact than repeatedly extending drives for teams.

The only question remaining to be answered is, WHY? It could be revenge for introducing the PI challenge to the game. It could be that the NFL doesn't want the Saints in the Super Bowl. It could go way back to Bountygate. Or, it could be all of the above. I don't care. I just think it sucks.

I get it, it sucks that we got shafted last year, but threads like this are pretty juvenile. Firstly, you completely ignore the following from the article you quoted:

"A big part of the problem is limited sample size. Analyzing the game from a quantifiable perspective like this works in other sports like baseball and basketball because there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of data points to work with, whereas football begins and ends very quickly, relying on a 16-game regular season and four-stage postseason tournament. Instances like this are easy to explain away as an outlier, a freak accident, against what recent history informs us. That said, it’s totally understandable if fans aren’t satisfied with that explanation. It’s frustrating to see your team get fouled for what the other squad gets away with, week in and week out. "

The sample size is not big enough to draw any statistically significant conclusions. So while the graph looks good to conspiracy theorists, it can't be interpreted in any meaningful way beyond that which is trivially obvious (the saints give up more penalties than their opponents).

Also, how are you able to watch football if you are so sure it's rigged? If the refs are trying to screw us, why get so emotionally involved dedicating time and effort into this sport? If you claim conspiracy when we lose you should also be happy to accept that the 2009 superbowl victory was a farce, and at that point you are basically just watching WWE.
 
The sample size is not big enough my arse.
Have you watched any Saints games this season ElGato? If you have then your EYES should tell you that we have trivially been called for the same penalties that our opponents have not. Conspiracy or not it’s obvious bro.
 
Kind of a stretch to call this a "USA Today article," but yeah, the data here is staggering. Unfortunately, this just a fan blog-type of article that isn't going to be mainstream enough to make any noise on its own.

Perhaps someone should send this to Florio or someone to see if it can get some traction.
 
The sample size is not big enough my arse.
Have you watched any Saints games this season ElGato? If you have then your EYES should tell you that we have trivially been called for the same penalties that our opponents have not. Conspiracy or not it’s obvious bro.
I have watched every single game. What's your point though? I think we have been on the wrong end of some calls, but it doesn't appear to be some massive conspiracy. Refs are human they make mistakes. Some of them may even be corrupt and we should try point that out where we can. But threads suggesting some kind of conspiracy by the NFL against the saints seems asinine.

Why watch football if you believe the league is actively intervening in games? And why bring it up if you don't believe it is a conspiracy?
 
It stops short of explicitly implying the disparities are a revenge tour by officials and the article will not likely get as much visibility as you would like. But these things have a tendency to grow legs sometimes and if it gets picked up by others it could end up helping us down the stretch.
 

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