Penalties - Week 10 vs Detroit

Week 2 under new coach Jason Garrett continued a trend that might have started a few weeks back - cleaner games with regards to the penalties. The Cowboys have been called for 20 more penalties for 189 more yards than their opponents in 2010, but in the last 5 games, the totals have dropped dramatically. 24 flags for 201 yards for the Cowboys and 32 flags for 247 yards for the Cowboys' opponents since the first New York game.

Of course, not all penalties are created equal. On the ledger, Leonard Davis is down for a 4 yard holding call. What that really means is he cost the Cowboys 2 points, a possession, and quite easily, it could have been the game with his holding infraction in the 3rd Quarter. A very close call indeed.

Game 10 vs Detroit:

Wk	Q	Player	Penalty	Yards	Unit	FD
10	2	Kitna	Delay of Game	5	Off
10	3	Free	False Start	5	Off
10	3	Davis	Holding	4	Off
10	4	Witten	Pass Interference	10	Off
10	4	Colombo	Holding	10	Off
10	4	Colombo	False Start	5	Off

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Totals for : 6 penalties, all accepted for 39 yards and a safety. The offense had all 6 penalties, as the defense and special teams played a very nice, clean game.

Worst Offender: Marc Colombo was called multiple times, but you might consider Leonard Davis' safety penalty to be the most damaging of them all, so perhaps we should just go ahead and allow the right side of the line to split the award.

Here are your season totals - Keep in mind, my totals include declined and offsetting penalties. For football reasons, they matter way more than just accepted penalties.

This is through Week 10:

OFFENSE

Player	Total	Hold	Presnap	Ill Block	Other
Colombo	8	1	5	0	2
Austin	6	0	2	2	2
Free	7	1	6	0	0
Gurode	5	3	1	0	1
Witten	5	0	3	0	2
Barron	3	3	0	0	0
Romo	3	0	1	0	2
Davis	3	2	1	0	0
Bryant	2	0	0	0	2
Kosier	2	2	0	0	0
Bennett	1	0	0	1	0
Holland	1	0	1	0	0
Jones	1	0	1	0	0
Kitna	2	0	2	0	0
Costa	1	1	0	0	0
Totals	50	13	23	3	11

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Marc Colombo takes over the team lead and also has his first holding penalty of the season. I just congratulated him last week for being the last OL regular not to hold. Jinx.

DEFENSE

Player	Total	Offside	Rough	Pass Inf	Other
Jenkins	6	0	0	5	1
Ware	5	4	0	0	1
Brooking	3	0	1	2	0
Olshansky	2	1	1	0	0
Ratliff	2	0	1	1	0
Spencer	2	2	0	0	0
Brent	2	1	0	0	1
Scandrick	2	0	0	1	1
Sensabaugh	1	0	0	0	1
Bowen	1	0	0	0	1
Newman	1	0	0	0	1
Ball	1	0	0	0	1
McCann	1	0	0	1	0
Totals	29	8	3	10	8

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SPECIAL TEAMS

Player	Total	Offside	Rough	Ill Block	Other
Church	1	0	0	1	0
Buehler	1	0	0	0	1
Scandrick	1	1	0	0	0
Hamlin	1	0	0	1	0
L Williams	1	0	1	0	0
McBriar	1	0	0	0	1
Ball	1	0	0	0	1
Ladocuer	1	0	0	0	1
McCray	1	0	0	0	1
Newman	1	0	0	0	1
Totals	10	1	1	2	6

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Based on many requests, I have constructed yet another chart below that will help you put some of these numbers into proper context. Below is the week by week penalties that were accepted for the Cowboys and their opponents in each game. This way, you can see how Wade did vs Garrett or how the Cowboys did against their opponents in a scenario that would account for different tones by different officiating crews throughout the season. Enjoy:

Week	Dal Pen	Yards	Opp Pen	Yards
Wk 1-Was	12	81	5	42
Wk 2-Chi	6	50	2	10
Wk 3-Hou	8	49	5	32
Wk 4-Ten	12	133	4	40
Wk 5- Min	11	91	5	45
Wk 6- NYG	5	42	6	46
Wk 7- Jac	3	20	6	36
Wk 8- GB	5	40	2	20
Wk 9- NYG	5	60	8	69
Wk 10- Det	6	39	10	76
Totals	73	605	53	416

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Bob Sturm is host of BaD Radio on The Ticket 1310 AM Mondays through Fridays at 12-3 p.m. He also hosts The Ticket's Cowboys pregame show. Follow Bob on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bobanddan Bob offers his exclusive analysis after games on SportsDayDFW.com

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