Analysis
11/4/21
3 min read
Week 9 Discipline Index: Sean Payton's Saints Do Not Beat Themselves
After a stellar victory against the Houston Texans, the Los Angeles Rams are on top of the 33rd Team’s Discipline Index once again with a record of 7-1. Los Angeles will be in for a thrilling matchup in Week 9 against the now Derrick Henry-less Tennessee Titans on Sunday Night Football.
Here is how the top-10 of the Discipline Index looks heading into Week 9:
As a reminder, the 33rd Team’s Discipline Index combines the number of penalties, penalty yardage and turnovers on a per-game basis in order to show which teams are able to play the most mistake-free football in any given week.
The New Orleans Saints managed to snag a win against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in part due to their excellent discipline. This caused them to vault up four spots into the top 5. Sean Payton's Saints do not beat themselves. And regardless of who their quarterback will be going forward after Jameis Winston's ACL injury, New Orleans will lean into their rushing attack, defense, and discipline to push towards the playoffs.
Although the Rams have put on a clinic for how to be disciplined this season, there is another team that is starting to make a push in the midst of a tough schedule: the New England Patriots.
With a lot of new pieces this year, the Patriots have committed an uncharacteristic amount of penalties to this point in the year. That is until the past two weeks where the Patriots have started to surge.
This has culminated in New England compiling their first winning streak of the season and a huge victory on the road against Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers. In the win, the Patriots were able to force Herbert into two costly turnovers while also only committing four penalties for 30 yards. This resulted in the Patriots rising six spots to No. 17 in our Week 9 Discipline Index. While there are still many things that need to be worked out for New England, Bill Belichick’s team may be starting to become what some people thought it would be after all the free agent signings this past offseason. In Week 9, the Patriots have another tough task ahead of them with a visit to North Carolina to take on the Carolina Panthers.
Another team that deserves recognition for this past week is the Philadelphia Eagles who rose a whopping 12 spots to become the No. 14 team in our Discipline Index. Philadelphia only forced one turnover, but they were much more disciplined when it came to penalties, as Nick Sirianni’s squad only had four of them for 15 yards. This showed on the scoreboard in Philadelphia’s most dominant win of the season against the Detroit Lions. Philadelphia takes on the Chargers in Week 9.
Here is how the rest of the Discipline Index unfolds:
