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Ranking NFL teams by penalties

By Dave Brown | dave@nflen.com |



Believe it or not, the St. Louis Rams lead the NFL in penalties in the 2012 regular season, by a wide margin. Maybe if we look back prior to the season and see that the Rams were the youngest team in the NFL, with the youngest offense and the seventh youngest defense, those penalty numbers begin to make more sense. Don't be too worried about these high numbers, Rams fans, at least not yet. As the Rams grow as a team, the penalties should begin to decline.


The Atlanta Falcons had the fewest penalties in the NFL during the 2012 season, and have experience on both sides of the ball. The fundamentals and execution are in place, and the 13-3 record is proof, along with an NFC championship game appearance.

The scourge of the NFL and the new bad boys, those Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders had 10 teams record more penalties than they did for the 2012 regular season. The Lions recorded 147 penalties in 2011 and 123 in 2012, an improvement overlooked by fans caught up in the after school soap opera some players became involved in.

The Raiders recorded a rather high 189 penalties in 2011 and probably had the largest improvement in execution and discipline on the field in 2012. I know it's hard to swallow this, but that is a positive sign for Raiders fans moving forward.

The entire list is below. This information was gathered from NFL Game Statistics Information Systems.



2012 NFL penalties by team
  1. St. Louis Rams 150
  2. Dallas Cowboys 140
  3. Tennessee Titans 134
  4. Cleveland Browns 132
  5. Washington Redskins 132
  6. Seattle Seahawks 131
  7. Baltimore Ravens 130
  8. Philadelphia Eagles 126
  9. Houston Texans 125
  10. Green Bay Packers 124
  11. Oakland Raiders 124
  12. Detroit Lions 123
  13. Indianapolis Colts 122
  14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 122
  15. San Francisco 49ers 121
  16. Arizona Cardinals 118
  17. Cincinnati Bengals 117
  18. New England Patriots 117
  19. New Orleans Saints 117
  20. Carolina Panthers 116
  21. Chicago Bears 115
  22. San Diego Chargers 115
  23. Buffalo Bills 114
  24. Denver Broncos 112
  25. Jacksonville Jaguars 110
  26. Kansas City Chiefs 107
  27. Pittsburgh Steelers 105
  28. Minnesota Vikings 103
  29. Miami Dolphins 95
  30. New York Jets 95
  31. New York Giants 90
  32. Atlanta Falcons 69

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