Photo Credit: Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog

MGoFilm Analysis 4.2: Breaking Down Penalties on Michigan

Posted onAuthorStephen Osentoski

Photo Credit: Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog

16 penalties for 141 yards. It’s a Michigan school record, and I’d surprised if it’s broken anytime soon. It was a flag-happy Saturday in Bloomington and Michigan felt the wrath that came with it. Whether it was a myriad of false start or delay of game penalties on the offense or a series of offsides and holding penalties on the defense, Michigan found a way to get the laundry on the field.

I was curious to compare how Michigan’s penalties compared to Indiana’s. After briefly watching the game, before the analysis, I predicted that there was a greater number of missed calls against Indiana than there were against Michigan, as well as a greater number of bad calls against Michigan than there were against Indiana.

Here were the penalty tallies from the Indiana video / post I uploaded yesterday:

  • Correct Calls: 4
  • Questionable Calls: 0
  • Bad Calls: 1
  • Missed Penalties: 7

This is without a couple plays that I missed, including the punt return towards the end of the game that set up a short TD drive for Indiana. There were clearly more missed penalties than called against the Hoosiers, with only 1 of the called penalties being a possible incorrect ruling.

So far, my theory was holding true. Plenty of missed calls without many incorrect ones for Indiana. Check out the Michigan penalty breakdown to compare how the referees judged the Wolverines:

So, the final tallies for calls against Michigan are as follows:

  • Correct Calls: 11
  • Questionable Calls: 3
  • Bad Calls: 4
  • Missed Penalties: 1

Overall, Michigan did play a sloppy game. Multiple personal foul, false start, delay of game, and offsides penalties were correctly called. However, Michigan had considerably more questionable or bad calls, totaling up to 7 compared to IU’s 1. There was only one penalty I could find in which the referees missed a penalty against the Wolverines.

The summary of the referees after both of the Indiana and Michigan analyses is this: The referees missed more penalties than they called against Indiana. They also called Michigan for far more penalties than they should have.

Despite playing a sloppy game, Michigan fans do have a valid reason to be frustrated with the officiating in this game. When they miss 7 penalties for one team and only 1 for the other, it raises some eyebrows. I don’t think it was quite as bad as some fans make it out to seem (I think the sheer number of penalties slightly exaggerated that response), but the referees were bad regardless.

Look out for my final video of this analysis coming out tomorrow, where I look at some critical calls of the game, including plays like the onside kick and the negated 60+ yard pass and catch to Cobbs that was ruled out of bounds. I’ll also address some of the feedback I received from both videos.

What did you think of the game film analysis? Tells us what you think and if you have any other parts of the games this season that you’d like to see analyzed and broken down. We’re all ears in the comment section below! 

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Stephen Osentoski
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