I made it clear I limited my comments to THIS season, because the original article focused on THIS season’s stats because it focused on THIS YEAR’S Super Bowl teams

OKay, I'm going to reserve my right to comment further to you, but based upon your past two posts my way, you are tempting me to simply cut the convo after this post.

Why?

Because FIRST -- two posts ago -- you cited a "recount" of roughing 2014 penalties even tho I clearly mentioned in posts #1 & #44 that roughing stats referenced in this thread were three-season totals.

Now, you somehow claim that the "original article" itself "focused on THIS YEAR'S Super Bowl teams."

'Fess up, Steve_Seattle, are you reader-challenged -- or what?

Go back to said "original article" and jump down to paragraph 4...WHAT does it say?

"Over THE PAST THREE YEARS

the Seahawks have done something no one in the white-socks-and-black-shoes, stuck-in-the-1950s NFL ever dreamed possible, or legal.

SINCE 2012

Seattle has been at the top of the NFL in wins (tied with 36), Super Bowl appearances

and ...PENALTIES.

Now onto paragraph 5, right after the above:

"The best team in the league has been penalized so many times (416)

IN THE LAST THREE SEASONS

that I'm pretty sure the fluorescent yellow trim on the Seahawks uniforms is actually just residue from all the penalty flags."

Did you REALLY just waste minutes of my life having to capitalize, underline, italicize, and large-font obvious phrases THRICE referencing THREE seasons and "since 2012"???

I think (not a forecast, tho) we're done. Your basic "intake" level is apparently zero -- even AFTER the last post when I gave you an op to correct yourself. If you have to be thusly "hand-held" in this forum, then you need some remedial education before you bounce back in here.

Either that, or the reality may be that there are some fans so blinded by their fan identity that they eyes won't accept basic plain facts right in front of their noses.

Certainly, if you humble yourself and apologize, who would I be to ignore that, given that I've done the same thing too often to God, Himself???

In 2014/2015, the year of the so-called "cheaters" Super Bowl, the Seahawks had 144 penalties compared to the league average of 110. Virtually ALL of the 34-penalty difference was comprised of procedural penalties, not dirty play. The difference between the Seahawks and the league average::

False start - +14
Offside - +8
Neutral zone infraction - +5
12 men on field - +3
Encroachment - +1
Illegal motion - +2

Those add up to a difference of +33 procedural penalties, which makes up 33/34ths (about 97%) of the difference between the Seahawks' penalties and the league average. In other words, the Seahawk penalty stats do not support the conclusion that they are an unusually dirty team; they are right around the league average for what you might call "rough" penalties.

Ask any coach if penalties help them win, and they will look at you like you are crazy. How many times have you heard a coach say, "The penalties killed us"? Quite often. The notion that the Seahawks rode to the Super Bowl because of penalties that weren't called is ludicrous; they got to the Super Bowl DESPITE the penalties that WERE called.

When I called "BS" I was not challenging the accuracy of your stats, but your use of them, the conclusions you drew from them, and their relevance to THIS YEAR'S team.