Through the first four games of the season, the Bills have been committing penalties at an alarming rate. They currently have the most in the league with the next closest team nine behind, according to NFLPenalties.com.
Not surprisingly, this isn’t sitting well with the coaching staff, in particular Rex Ryan. In an effort to reduce the rate at which the whistle blows against his team, Ryan has instituted a policy he used during his time with the Jets. Bills players will have to do pushups when a penalty is committed during practice.
“If a guy gets a penalty during the practices, then we’re gonna make sure that all of us are gonna do 10 pushups or whatever,” Ryan said via ESPN. “The rest of the team will do pushups and that person (being penalized) will stand up, just to see how many people he is affecting.”
And, it won’t be just players on the 53-man roster who will be subject to hitting the ground for an infraction. Players on the practice squad are also included.
“I hadn’t seen it to that extent, as far as every penalty in practice, no matter what,” safety Corey Graham said. “They even have the scout team going, and things like that. So I hadn’t seen it to that level. But I think it’s good. I think it makes you aware of what’s going on and let’s you know that there’s consequences.”
Bigger consequences are, of course, how penalties impact the games. During Buffalo’s game against the Giants, Buffalo committed 17 penalties and had touchdowns wiped on two occasions. In particular, the personal fouls have become a growing concern.
In addition to Ryan voicing concern, players have also expressed a need to clean things up, like quarterback Tyrod Taylor.
“A couple of us guys have already talked about addressing it and it’s definitely something we have to bring up going into next week,” Taylor told the team’s official site. “Just talking to the players and stressing the importance of the yardage that we lose and just playing smart football. We’ve got to eliminate turnovers and penalties. You’ve got to play smart to win in this league.”
Winning games in the NFL is hard enough as it is. Having to overcome additional yardage or free plays given to the opposition just makes it that much more difficult. Life for the Bills would be much easier if they didn’t have to do it the hard way.
