Analysis

9/8/21

2 min read

Discipline Index Parallels Buccaneers' Super Bowl Run

After all was said and done in 2020, the New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers and Houston Texans were the top three teams in the 33rd Team’s Discipline Index, which accounts for how disciplined a team has played throughout the season using total turnovers, penalty yardage and total penalties on a per-game basis. 

There are many different takeaways from the final Discipline Index of the 2020 NFL season. For instance, due to extra games from the playoffs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks were both able to pass teams that missed the playoffs. The Buccaneers rose two spots thanks to their run to the second Super Bowl in franchise history. The Buccaneers put an exclamation mark on their season in the Super Bowl, holding the high-octane Chiefs to just nine points while also having no turnovers and only four penalties for 39 yards. 

This was a long way for the Buccaneers to come, considering they were 32nd in the NFL in the Discipline Index at the start of the season. This speaks to how much the Buccaneers progressed throughout the season while also making them one of the clear Super Bowl contenders, with Tampa Bay being able to retain all of their key pieces from last year on top of adding players like Gio Bernard, Joe Tryon and Jaelon Darden this offseason. 

Here is how the rest of the Discipline Index panned out at the season’s end:

Discipline Index

RELATED