5 things to know about the Vikings and Saints for Week 16
By Dustin Baker
New Orleans is the NFL’s most penalized team
Move over, Raiders stereotype, there’s a new troublemaker in town. Perhaps it’s not The Black Hole, but maybe The Golden Hole?
We digress. In 2020, no NFL team has accumulated more penalty yards than the New Orleans Saints. Through Week 15, the Saints have been dinged for 936 yards via penalty. That’s 67 yards per game.
Oofta, New Orleans faithful will probably “blame the refs” or something of that ilk. Reasonable onlookers will assert “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
The most chronic infringement to beset the Saints is defensive pass interference. Officials have called the infraction on New Orleans a whopping 17 times, which is the most in the business this season.
To a degree, this team is undisciplined. Last week, Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan flat-out punched a man. He was disqualified. Of course, that was only “one play,” but it was emblematic of New Orleans’ 2020 penalty malady. Watch for this tendency by the Saints on Christmas Day.