Fixing the penalty problem

[Packgator]

It looks like the recent problems with those irritating five yard penalties is recognized and being addressed with an emphasis on little or zero tolerance. Hopefully it will result in fewer offsides, motion, and false start penalties next season.

http://www.packersnews.com/archives/news/pack_26107317.shtml

Zero tolerance: McCarthy no longer is letting penalties go unnoticed.

During the first minicamp, McCarthy and his staff didn’t do much when a player committed a foul because they were so focused on installing and teaching their schemes that they didn’t want any interruptions. That’s not the case in this minicamp.

Several times on Saturday, players were yanked out of a drill for committing an infraction. In the morning practice, rookie tackle Josh Bourke committed a false start and immediately was replaced by Will Whitticker. Rookie defensive end Johnny Jolly jumped offsides and was replaced by Cullen Jenkins. In the afternoon practice, rookie guard Jason Spitz jumped offsides and was replaced by Daryn Colledge. The guilty players did push-ups.

By Rob Demovsky
PackersNews.com

[Noodle]

The guy they needed out there getting punished was Clifton, king of the stupid false start.

Of course I'm in favor of this emphasis on eliminating penalties, but don't pretend that Sherman was lax on this. He brought in refs for practices and had guys run when they committed penalties. He even benched Carroll for his continued problems.

What Sherman didn't do was bench guys like Clifton for false starts. Those are the penalties that can just take the life out of you, and the Pack seemed to always get them at the worst times. It's one thing to make rooks and guys like that do push ups during minicamp. It's another to bench a guy like Clifton during a game. We'll see how tough M3 is when the bullets start flying.

[cpk1994]

The guy they needed out there getting punished was Clifton, king of the stupid false start.

Of course I'm in favor of this emphasis on eliminating penalties, but don't pretend that Sherman was lax on this. He brought in refs for practices and had guys run when they committed penalties. He even benched Carroll for his continued problems.

What Sherman didn't do was bench guys like Clifton for false starts. Those are the penalties that can just take the life out of you, and the Pack seemed to always get them at the worst times. It's one thing to make rooks and guys like that do push ups during minicamp. It's another to bench a guy like Clifton during a game. We'll see how tough M3 is when the bullets start flying.

Yeah but Sherman wasn't qucik enough with the yank on Carroll. Carroll committed at least 5 penalties in the Detroit opener last year before Sherman yanked him. And they were of the 5yds and a first down veraity.

[Scott Campbell]

You can't afford to bench guys for penalty infractions unless you've got decent depth on the roster.

[Patler]

Benching Clifton and getting Favre killed on a blindside hit is probably not a good solution to Clifton's penalty problem!

In fairness to Sherman, his teams were not highly penalized, and were actually fairly low in that area the first 3 years or so. The penalty problem started to show up during the 2004 season and increased thereafter.

[MJZiggy]

Benching Clifton and getting Favre killed on a blindside hit is probably not a good solution to Clifton's penalty problem!

In fairness to Sherman, his teams were not highly penalized, and were actually fairly low in that area the first 3 years or so. The penalty problem started to show up during the 2004 season and increased thereafter.

Why is that?

[Noodle]

I don't know why it has happened. To be honest, I can forgive some of the stuff Carroll gets called for -- it's all happening wicked fast, and if he blows the coverage, it could be six. And in any event, AC did improve signficantly as the year went on.

But I find Clifton's mistakes incredibly irritating. This is what the JSO had to say about him in it's year end grading, http://www.packersnews.com/topics/re...4170113.shtml:

Chad Clifton, LT
Wasn’t as consistent as he was in 2004, when he graded out as one of the team’s top two linemen. His 10 penalties led the offense and ranked second on the team. Became Mr. False Start, with seven such infractions that often killed drives. Also had three holding penalties. Rarely got flat-out beat in pass protection and appears to have several good years left.
Grade: C-plus

I mean, c'mon! He ain't no newbie, and we're not talking about desperation holds intended to save his QB. No, we're talking about one of the dumbest damn penalties you can have.

SC says, but oh, we can't risk having Cliffy sit a series because Favre might get hurt. Well, then what do you suggest? An ass chewing? Sherman tried that, as indicated in this article from 2003, a year in which Clifton again led the team in false starts, http://www2.jsonline.com/packer/news/dec03/191712.asp. And here was Cliffy's nonchallant response when Beightol blew up on him at the end of this year, http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/spor...087&ntpid=124:

"Beightol has reached had-it-up-to- here time with left tackle Chad Clifton's false start penalties. Clifton had two false starts last week against Chicago, giving him seven on the year.
"To me, it's ridiculous," Beightol said. "We work hard on doing the little things and being disciplined. It takes away from his game. I've told him that. . . . It's an indicator that he's not focused on that part of (his game)."
Clifton admitted he has to improve but didn't seem overly concerned about the problem.
"There's no excuse for it. But if it happens - any bad play, not just a penalty - you have to put it behind you," he said."

So if you don't bench him, what do you do? I say a series or two off wouldn't get Brett killed (hell, waggle right, Favre's better on the run anyway) and would sufficiently drive the point home to Cliffton that he's got to focus.

[Scott Campbell]

SC says, but oh, we can't risk having Cliffy sit a series because Favre might get hurt. Well, then what do you suggest?

Add depth. Then you can sit guys.

And that's not what I said.

[Noodle]

And that's not what I said.

Ahhh, cripes you're a stickler about the creative paraphrase. First of all, how can I attack your position unless I mischaracterize it?

Ok, here's your exact quote: "You can't afford to bench guys for penalty infractions unless you've got decent depth on the roster."

Since you can never assume in the NFL that anyone is irreplacable, it seems to me we'd have adequate depth at tackle to allow Cliffton to sit a series or two, though I don't think I'd call any 7 step drops. You have to agree that his consistent problem with false starts needs a major corrective, and I can't think of a more major corrective than loss of play time.

[No Mo Moss]

Noodle, your Keith Richards pic looks a lot less like Skeletor than the "real" Keith Richards I just saw on TV.

[Noodle]

Yeah, that was takin' in me pre-Fiji days. You try fallin' out of a bleedin' coconut tree and see how good you look, mate. 'Course, the years of livin' the ol' dolce vita probably didn't do me mug much good either.