We've had some costly penalties for this seems like in each game this year. We have made slight improvements, but still far from optimal. It could very well come back to bite us in a tight game. But yeah, it's been talked about enough, for now. At least until the point when a bad example of the face guarding without turning to find a pass gets us flagged on a game winning drive and jeopardizes a game. I don't think it's come close to anything like that yet, but it has kept some drives alive that should have ended.
I know against Wisconsin, 2 of our 3 pass interference penalties came on drives that ended in TDs. They were contributing factors to scores. 1 PI penalty against Ole Miss, it was on a TD scoring drive. 2 PI penalties against ULM, of course neither cost us points in the shut out. And none against UGA. So 6 PI calls against us, three assisting scoring drives. But what concerns me just as much are the passes we could have defended that were caught because we didn't turn the heads and the ball nearly grazed our players' helmets. That doesn't show on stat sheets but has also happened a number of times. But as the penalties go down, I think those will also.
We're 76th in the country in penalties per game, at 6.8 per game, and averaging 2 per game more than last year. I think this will come down, or I hope...
