The investigation of current St. Louis Rams' defensive coordinator Gregg Williams in the bounty scandal has prompted some to wonder just how long it was going on, and if it was just isolated to the New Orleans Saints. It's also begged some to look into just how much it affected the Saints on the field, and according to Football Outsiders, the Saints had more unnecessary roughness penalties on average than any other stops in Williams career, but the number of roughing the passer penalties were about the same.
Reviewing Penalty History Of Saints, Gregg Williams After NFL Investigation
Over the last two seasons, the Saints certainly have been flagged for roughness more than most other teams. In 2010-2011, they earned 15 Unnecessary Roughness penalties on defense, plus eight Roughing the Passer penalties. (There were no Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalties, but those are pretty rare overall.) The average team in this two-year span earned 7.7 Unnecessary Roughness penalties and 6.0 Roughing the Passer penalties. The Saints were in the top five for Unnecessary Roughness both seasons.
As Football Outsiders shows, from 2001-2009, no Gregg Williams defense had more than four unnecessary roughness penalties in a single season or more than five roughing the passer penalties. This doesn't necessarily show Williams did not employ the same type of bounty system when he was with the Washington Redskins and the Tennessee Titans, but maybe that the Saints players were just more "gung-ho" about acting out the system.
Check out all the details of the investigation here. Head to Canal Street Chronicles for more on the Saints.
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