Falcons look to cut down on their penalties

Last season, Arizona was the seventh most penalized team with 108. The Oakland Raiders led the NFL with 148.

The Falcons had the third fewest (71) penalties in 2008 and fourth fewest (78) in 2009.

Smith and the assistant coaches have addressed the issue. They maintain a “penalty board” in the team’s meeting room.

“It shows all of the penalties, who made them and how many yards they have given up,” Smith said. “We try to make sure that it is an emphasis point. We talk about what a specific penalty did to that drive in that ballgame so that they understand the importance of it.”

In the 16-13 loss to Tampa Bay, Peters’ penalty was the most glaring, but there were two other special-teams penalties — offensive holding by Akeem Dent and an illegal block above the waist by Antone Smith — that caused drives to start inside the 10-yard line. On the Smith play, there also was an unnecessary roughness called against Jacquizz Rodgers that was declined.

“We have not been very efficient in a lot of areas, and that’s the thing that stands out the most,” Smith said. “Probably, the area where it’s been most apparent has been on special teams.”

There are some penalties that are “effort” mistakes. Those are not frowned upon as much by the coaches.

“If a guy is doing everything that he can to finish a play or do a play right, sometimes it’s tolerated,” offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey said. “It’s not acceptable, but you understand what the player was trying to do on a play.”

What likely sent VanGorder into a frenzy was that Peters’ mistake was a pre-snap penalty. The Falcons have had 10 penalties that were either offside, false start or encroachment.

“Those are frustrating for everybody,” Mularkey said.

Sometimes an offensive lineman might get beat, and instead of letting the defender get a free run to blast quarterback Matt Ryan, a holding call in that situation is understood by the coaches. The Falcons have five holding penalties, each by a different player.

It’s the penalties on special-teams plays that Smith finds irksome.

“We can’t live with it on special teams simply because those are spot fouls,” Smith said. “It flips the field. You can have a penalty that takes place on the 18-yard line on a kickoff return and the ball is [returned] to the [opponent’s] 40, and you say it’s only a 9-yard penalty [half the distance to the goal].

“No, it’s not. Instead of starting at the [opponent’s] 40, you are starting at the nine. It’s a 51-yard penalty. We actually keep track of penalty yards and the actual yards, the real yards.”

Some of the penalties have cost money.

Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson was fined $40,000 by the NFL for a hit he made on wide receiver Jeremy Maclin of Philadelphia. Safety William Moore was fined $7,500 for a hit he made on Tampa Bay running back Earnest Graham. Robinson has appealed, and Moore said he was “going through the process.”

Robinson, who was fined $25,000 last season for a hit he made on Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson, maintains that he is a clean and aggressive player. However, he plans to make adjustments to eliminate the penalties and fines.

“It’s a tough situation for guys that play a certain way,” Robinson said. “It’s one of those gray areas where you have to compromise a little bit and find what works.”

Moore was called for unnecessary roughness for his hit on Graham near the sideline.

“It just comes down to calming down and doing your job,” Moore said. “If you look at most of our penalties, they are between the whistles. Me, for instance, I’ve had a couple of plays where I had late hits out of bounds. I just have to play between the whistles. I’ve got to learn how to settle down a little bit and stick to the fundamentals of football.”

After having just four penalties for 35 yards against Seattle last week, Smith hopes that the early rash of penalties is just a blip on the radar screen.

“We certainly hope that at the end of the season, that trend is over, and we are one of the least penalized teams in the league,” Smith said.