NY Giants Currently Leading League in Undesirable Stat 

There are certain statistics NFL teams want to be among the league leaders in, and then there are those, such as penalties and penalty yardage, that they would happily take a seat in the basement.

For the New York Giants, they fall into the former category as, through two games, Big Blue leads the league in total penalty yardage. 

The Giants’ 195 penalty yards narrowly beat the Titans’ 193 for the top spot, despite the Titans leading the league in total penalties with 23, and the Giants being third with 20.

Fourteen of the Giants’ 20 penalties this season came in the Week 2 overtime loss to the Cowboys, with seven of those 14 coming on offense and five on the first drive alone.

Four of those penalties against Dallas were committed by offensive tackle James Hudson III, who leads the Giants in total penalties with five so far in two games.

“There were a number of them--some physical penalties, some offside. Far too many,” head coach Brian Daboll said after the game. 

“I wanted the guys to play physically in this game, be aggressive. Roughing the passer, DPI--there were a lot of penalties called in this game. … We certainly don’t want to have that many penalties.” 

The Giants are also tied with the Cardinals for having given up the most first downs via penalty (7).

Interestingly enough, the Giants’ most heavily penalized games over the last two seasons have come against Dallas. In Week 13 last season, they were flagged 13 times against the Cowboys, a significant increase from the four flags drawn in the Week 5 meetings earlier in the year.

That gives the Giants 27 accepted penalties in their last two meetings with the Cowboys, the latter team winning both of those games. 

During the Daboll era, the Giants have logged 333 penalties, not counting those that were declined. That’s an average of 83.25 flags per season. 

Their sloppy start this season has them on pace for 170 penalties, which, if they were to attain, would top the 2011 Raiders, who recorded 163 flags back in 2011 in a 16-game season in which they finished with an 8-8 record that year.