Analysis

Dion Dawkins a penalty magnet as Bills ground the Jets

Bills-Jets was overall a ho-hum day in the penalty-tracking business

By Skarekrow Dec 12, 2022, 7:00am EST

First off, I’d like to give New York Jets quarterback Mike White a shout-out, since this is sort of my recap post for the week. White took two of the hardest hits a quarterback has received in a long time without drawing a flag. Since this is the penalty recap, I’ll go on record and say they were clean hits made by Buffalo Bills defenders. White gutted it out and had a pretty good game overall, so kudos are warranted. Best wishes, Mike!

When it comes to penalties, there wasn’t much of interest this week, which is a sentence I should have saved until the end since now you won’t read the rest of this. Stay for the GIFs!

Standard and Advanced Metrics

Penalty Counts

The number of flags thrown on each team was pretty even, with the Jets having a slight advantage there. Buffalo had three declined, though, so our initial look at flags favors the Bills with two fewer penalties assessed.

Penalty Yards

Things play out pretty much the same with yards. On the assessed yards on flags that counted, Buffalo averaged 7.0 yards per penalty, while the Jets averaged 8.7 yards. That does suggest slightly worse penalty types for the Jets, but nothing crazy. When it comes to yards negated, Buffalo did a bit worse there, but not enough to close the gap.

Penalty Harm

Buffalo Bills

Pretty much the only interesting thing here is the day that left tackle Dion Dawkins had. Buffalo was called for eight penalties, and three were declined. Dawkins accounted for half of the called flags, with four, but only one of them was declined. That means he was responsible for 60% of the assessed penalties against the Bills on the day.

I’ve often felt that the penalty count bars (red ones) aren’t really needed. It seems pretty rare where a player has more than one flag of a particular type in a given game. Then we get three holding calls in one game to remind me why I do it. Thanks, Dion?

On the holding trio by Dawkins, the first wiped out a five-yard scramble by quarterback Josh Allen on 3rd & 2. That’s 10 assessed yards, five negated, and two negated downs for 3.5 Harm. That put the Bills at 3rd & 12, where Dawkins was promptly called for holding again. The “good” news is that Allen was sacked, and the Jets declined. For his final holding flag, Dawkins wiped out a seven-yard gain from wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie for 1.7 Harm.

All told, the Bills had 6.7 Harm, which is around their usual output for this season.

New York Jets

The false starts, offensive holding by long snapper Thomas Hennessy, and defensive holding from nickel back Michael Carter were all assessed for yards only. Carter’s defensive pass interference was assessed at 20 yards, and gave up one down. Tight end C.J. Uzomah wiped out a five-yard run by running back Zonovan Knight for 1.5 Harm.

Last but not least: the encroachment flag. Linebacker C.J. Mosley gave up three free downs, as it occurred on fourth down. Also, this was a six-yard flag, which isn’t the usual amount. Let’s take a look at the replay.

This looks like one of the wildest encroachment flags of all time, but I seemed to recall another one from a few years back. Maybe Mosley is in good company...