GLENDALE, Ariz. -- When the Detroit Lions hired Jim Caldwell in January, part of what they sought in a coach was a highly disciplined individual who ran a highly disciplined football team.
Yet 10 games into Caldwell’s first season as the Lions’ coach, his team has racked up 73 penalties -- including eight or more in each of the past four games. That includes the nine for 80 yards Detroit rung up Sunday in a 14-6 loss to Arizona where the Lions actually committed 12 fouls, but had three wiped off the books.
When you look at total penalties -- including ones that have been declined -- it’s an even more gruesome picture for Detroit. The Lions have committed 12 penalties in three of the past four games and have been at 70 yards or more in penalty yardage over the past four games.
Those numbers -- the 73 penalties accepted and the 91 total penalties called -- put the Lions in the bottom 10 teams in the league in both categories.
“It’s always a problem,” Caldwell said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that. We have to improve in that area.”
For a little while, it looked like Detroit was actually cutting down on its penalties, but they are on pace to have more penalties accepted and penalties called than either 2012 or 2013. They are actually on pace to reach 2011 levels of penalties for Detroit, when the Lions had 146 penalties called and 127 accepted.
The penalty issues are in all phases. The Lions have had 36 offensive penalties (28 accepted) and 13 special-teams gaffes (10 accepted). Both are on pace to equal or surpass the totals of the past two seasons.
Defensively, the Lions have committed 42 penalties (35 accepted), which is also on pace to equal last season.
And all around, it hurts Detroit’s chances for success.
“Penalties, how many penalties did (Arizona) have today? Two or three,” running back Joique Bell said. “To our what, 10? Definitely self-inflicted.”
Actually, the Lions had nine penalties and Arizona had four, but his point remains. Two of Detroit’s defensive penalties gave Arizona first downs. Two of their offensive penalties cost the Lions major yardage offensively.
And then the taunting penalty on Julian Stanford on special teams with the Lions trailing late in the fourth quarter was unnecessary and something that seemed more plausible under the previous coaching regime.
When the referee, Jerome Boger, was explaining it to Caldwell on the sidelines, he didn’t see the player who did it, just the act and what it represented.
“He didn’t give me a number,” Caldwell said. “He had no idea. He just said someone stood up and flexed. We’ll look at it on film.”
When Caldwell does, he’ll see a team that is not playing anywhere near as disciplined as he would like them to and as they need to.
