By FEAR CHURCHWELL – Web Writer
Football is a game of toughness, perseverance and, most importantly, discipline. Although football is made of many components discipline is what makes the difference in football.
It has always been around, teams play whole seasons of undisciplined football. Recently, however, the definition of undisciplined football has incorrectly centered down to one factor. Penalties.
The National Football League franchise, the Detroit Lions are currently being criticized for their excessive 11 penalties for 88 yards against the Minnesota Vikings in a 34-24 win on Sep. 8.
Despite the large amount of penalties and penalty yards, viewers fail to realize that, the Lions played a fairly disciplined game. The Lions defense held the Vikings offense to 2-10 on third down, sacked Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder three times and forced three interceptions. These stats show that the Lions are not as undisciplined as it seems.
The principle of undisciplined play does not only extend to NFL, but also to high school football. Clarke Central High School’s first opponent of the year Marist School was an example of undisciplined football by both teams in a 29-18 Marist victory.
The Clarke Central defense allowed 418 yards of rushing allowing three Marist players to rush for over 100 yards while also fumbling the ball 4 times (1 fumble lost). Marist fumbled the ball 3 times (one fumble lost) and allowed 297 yards of passing. Not to mention the combined 15 penalties by both teams.
Clarke Central had eight penalties for 45 yards and Marist had seven for 45 yards. The large amount of penalties may have been a factor in the overall play and discipline of each team that game, but it wasn’t as defining as the amount of yards allowed and fumbled balls.
There is no doubt that penalties affect the outcome of football games, but there are many more factors that define what makes a good football team.
