Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills hosted the New York Jets for the last regular-season game ever at old Highmark Stadium, and likely the last game ever. A bunch of flags flying would have marred the celebration, and as I anticipated the officiating crew played along and kept their flags in check.
Interestingly, while low in volume the flags were characteristic of the two teams’ energy levels. The Jets’ flags reflected a team that had no interest in playing football at any level, let alone a professional one. Amped up in red helmets and looking to give fans one last hurrah, the flags for the Bills reflect a team that chose violence over their division rivals.
The league average has steadily fallen all year, with the gray bars showing the lowest averages so far in the 2025 season. Despite the low bar set by the league in Week 18, the Bills and Jets went even lower. This game just did not feature a ton of flags.
As you’d expect, the yards follow suit. In the usual measure of assessed yards, the Jets and Bills were nearly perfectly even. When you add in yards impacted by flags though, the Bills nearly double while the Jets stand pat. That’s your first clue on the relative severity of the thrown flags and how it might reflect team personality this week.
As I mentioned above, these flags are indicative of a team that simply did not give a **** to be on the field. The first flag of the game was for too many men on the field on offense.
You might have noticed for the purposes of the graphs over the years, I tend to abbreviate flag names. That’s not really for the graphs, it’s for my data. Do you know how many times I’d have had to type “offensive holding” this year if I spelled it all out? The answer is 43. Factor in other common flags like “false start” and you can see why I type in shorthand. So if you see one completely typed out, that means it’s so rare I don’t see ANY use whatsoever in a shortcut.
Offensive too many men on the field? Really? That was the eighth flag of that type this year. Eight. Of 3,467. Do you know that scene in Willy Wonka where the math teacher asks Charlie how many bars of chocolate he opened trying to get a Golden Ticket and the number is so low the math teacher gives up on calculating the percentage? This is the penalty equivalent to that.
False starts are pretty much always an unfocused penalty so that needs very little explanation. Sometimes a team will get a delay of game on purpose to give their punter a strategic advantage, and the Jets’ delay came on a punt. The idea is that if you’re around midfield, the extra five yards of...
