[Mick]

In our first two games, we suffered 10 offensive penalties, four sacks allowed, and eight fumbles: 11 "bad plays" per game.  A clean game against Army--one penalty and two sacks allowed, meant we averaged 8.3 bad plays per game for our first three.

Here's how that stat improved over our season:

First three games: 8.3 BPs per game
Games 4-6: 7.7
Games 7-9: 6.3
Games 10-13: 4.25
Games 11, 12, and 13 only: 2.0 per game

So...why weren't those ironed out in the beginning, one must wonder?  Penalties and missed snap counts seem fairly basic.  I was a terrible player for a terrible team, a novice really, but I played both ways in a nine game season and got called for one offensive penalty and one defensive penalty all year, both of which were borderline (a facemask where my hand banged off of a facemask but didn't grab it, and an encroachment penalty as a DT with poor lighting on a muddy, lineless field where the OL across from me must have been lined up in their backfield).  Why is it so difficult for a high level D1 player to get penalized and miss snap counts?

[Mick]

In our first two games, we suffered 10 offensive penalties, four sacks allowed, and eight fumbles: 11 "bad plays" per game.  A clean game against Army--one penalty and two sacks allowed, meant we averaged 8.3 bad plays per game for our first three.

Here's how that stat improved over our season:

First three games: 8.3 BPs per game
Games 4-6: 7.7
Games 7-9: 6.3
Games 10-13: 4.25
Games 11, 12, and 13 only: 2.0 per game

So...why weren't those ironed out in the beginning, one must wonder?  Penalties and missed snap counts seem fairly basic.  I was a terrible player for a terrible team, a novice really, but I played both ways in a nine game season and got called for one offensive penalty and one defensive penalty all year, both of which were borderline (a facemask where my hand banged off of a facemask but didn't grab it, and an encroachment penalty as a DT with poor lighting on a muddy, lineless field where the OL across from me must have been lined up in their backfield).  Why is it so difficult for a high level D1 player to get penalized and miss snap counts?