The unwanted NFL record that the Philadelphia Eagles are on pace for in 2021
The Philadelphia Eagles have fallen to a 1-2 record this season for a glaring issue within the team's core discipline.
A disciplined team is the most important thing in the game of football. Most head coaches will drive home the ideology of fundamentals deep within a player's head that should hopefully become second nature.
The Eagles have found themselves in a precarious position to achieve one of the worst NFL records that exists: the most penalized team ever.
A heavily penalized team can and will change the course of the outcome. Penalty yards can become very treacherous in the NFL.
Moving the chains and achieving a new set of downs is the number one way that a team can score. If the team happens to be stopped short of the goal-line, a field goal can be the difference between a victory and a loss.
With their excessive penalties, the Philadelphia Eagles are getting in their own way when it comes to trying to score points.
How many penalties are the Eagles averaging a game?
The Eagles are finding themselves in one of the worst positions in the NFL. As mentioned above, a penalty-ridden game can and will come back to ruin the momentum a team has.
The Eagles have committed 35 penalties in their first 3 games.
That's the MOST to start a season in team history. https://t.co/RLL3UR1UwD
The Eagles are currently averaging a staggering 11.7 penalties per game, according to teamrankings.com. That is absolutely atrocious for any NFL professional team.
Here's how the penalties can hurt a team. Let's say those penalties are for 10 yards each (given the level of the penalty committed). That is around 120 yards of offense given back to the opposing team, which can easily equal a touchdown or field goal.
Conversely, that is also 120 potential yards taken on by the offense, perpetually backing themselves up without any hope of marching down the field to score.
The Eagles committed 13 penalties in their last game against the Dallas Cowboys. That may not be the entire reason why they lost, but giving Dak Prescott that much yardage to work with can easily equal points scored.
With a final score of 41-21, it could be said that those 13 penalties killed what offense the Eagles could have amassed.
With 11.7 average penalties committed by the Eagles per game, that also equals about 77.3 penalty yards given per game. The Eagles are currently second in the league for penalty yards.
With 35 committed penalties in the span of three games, the Eagles have so far exceeded the record for penalties set in 1956. That can't be what Coach Sirianni wants from his team this early in the season.
After 3 games, teams with most penalties counted against:
1) 1-2 #Eagles - 35
2) 2-1 #Bucs - 27
3) 2-1 #Chargers - 26
Teams with fewest:
1) 3-0 #Rams - 7
2) 0-3 #Colts - 9
3) 4 teams tied with 16. [#Titans, #Bears, #49ers, #Chiefs]
It's no shock here that the least penalized team in the league happens to be the undefeated Los Angeles Rams.
With this number, the Eagles will be on pace for 198 penalties this year. That record currently belongs to the 2011 Oakland Raiders, who had 163 penalties.
The Raiders went on to have an 8-8 record that season. The Eagles would be wise to clean up their penalties, as an 8-8 record would not be good enough to send them to the playoffs this season.