NFL fans who suffered through a flag-happy parade of preseason games were wondering — hoping, truthfully – that the number of penalties called in those mostly meaningless scrimmages would drop dramatically once the regular season started and games began to actually matter.
For the most part, that’s been the case. There are always exceptions, however, and so far this season the Patriots have been one of the few.
Not known traditionally as being a heavily-penalized team, the Patriots are committing infractions at a dizzying rate. Through two games, New England has been whistled for 24 penalties that have been accepted. That’s the second-most in the league, behind only San Francisco’s 27. But the Patriots rank first — or last, depending on how you view this — in penalty yardage. With 263 yards marched off against them, the Patriots are gifting their opponents more than a football field’s worth of turf every contest.
Sunday’s 30-7 victory at Minnesota was achieved despite a record-setting day, and not in a positive category. The Patriots were penalized 15 times, which tied the franchise record set on Sept. 19, 1999; the 163 penalty yards broke the single-game mark of 146, set on Nov. 4, 2007. Both of those games were against the Colts.
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“We had a lot of penalties last week, we had a lot of penalties this week. It’s not just the penalties, it’s the yardage, it’s too many personal fouls,” coach Bill Belichick said. “One is too many. If each player gets one penalty, we’d set an all-time record. It can’t be, ‘Well, I just had one penalty.’ We have to play penalty-free. We have to do a better job of that. We have to coach it better.
“Not that we haven’t spent a lot of time on it, because we have. But that’s an area that we need to improve in.”
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The league’s point of emphasis during the preseason regarding certain rules had to deal with defensive holding and illegal contact. But the Patriots have been flagged for either of those infractions only once, a 5-yard defensive holding call against Darrelle Revis on Sunday.
Here’s a quick synopsis of the 24 penalties that have been called against the Patriots: 11 have come when on defense, 10 while on offense, and three on special teams. Four of the offensive penalties have been holding calls, followed by two false starts, two offensive pass interference calls, one facemask, and one illegal block above the waist. On defense, three times the Patriots have been called for roughing the passer (all three at Miami). The defense has been called for pass interference twice (both on the Vikings’ final drive), offsides twice, illegal use of hands, illegal block above the waist, unnecessary roughness, and the defensive holding call on Revis.
Individually, Nate Solder and Dont’a Hightower each have been penalized three times; Solder actually has been cited for four infractions, but two came on the same play Sunday, when the Vikings declined one and accepted the other.
“I can point to myself. I had three of them in two plays,” said Solder, who followed his two-in-one-play with a false start before the next snap. “I need to correct that.”
In spite of the easy win over Minnesota, the offense only had one drive that ended with a touchdown: the Patriots had a special teams score, and Devin McCourty returned his first-quarter interception to the Vikings’ 1. Too many times, a drive would stall after being interrupted with a penalty flag.
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“I’d say the No. 1 thing that stood out to me was the penalties. The times where we hurt ourselves, and put ourselves in really long-yardage situations, it’s just going to be tough to overcome those,” said offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. “The players know that, we’ve addressed it, and we’ll continue to try to coach it hard. I know they’re going to do whatever they can to try to eliminate those mistakes and continue to put ourselves in better down-and-distance situations as we go forward here.”
All penalties are costly, some more than others: Logan Ryan (34 yards) and Malcolm Butler (24) had defensive pass interference calls go against them that gave the Vikings the bulk of their yards on their final drive. An offensive pass interference penalty on Aaron Dobson wiped out a 26-yard completion to Danny Amendola. Dobson was whistled for setting a pick on a rub route, a call that’s being made more frequently.
“We’ve got to coach it better and avoid those kinds of mistakes, because it’s the difference between a great play and a minus-10 because it’s a penalty, and we certainly don’t want to incur any of those,” said McDaniels.
Last season, the Patriots were called for 69 penalties, second-fewest in the NFL behind Indianapolis. They’ve been among the top 10 teams for fewest number of penalties in each of the past seven seasons. So this two-game stretch is either an aberration, or an ominous sign that it will be another obstacle to overcome as the season inches along.
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“Everyone is unhappy with the penalties. We’re going to try and work hard to get better at that,” said Julian Edelman. “Some of the penalties are tough to control, just guys being aggressive and stuff like that. If we try to eliminate mental penalties and little penalties you can control, [we’d] be better off.”
Michael Whitmer can be reached at mwhitmer@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeWhitmer.