Analysis: Trouble before the snap plagues the NFL, and hardly anybody’s worse than the Vikings

Multiple choice question of the day is, “Which three words from the mouths of NFL officials annoy you most while watching grown professionals who, believe it or not, do practice their craft on a regular basis?”

A, “False start, Number …” (fill in the blank).

B, “Illegal formation, Number …” (fill in the blank).

C, “Illegal shift, Number …” (fill in the blank).

Or …

D, All of the above, and any other presnap penalty in the NFL rule book.

Answer: D. Definitely D.

“I don’t know,” said Vikings nose tackle Harrison Phillips. “As a defensive guy, I kind of love the illegal formations and the false starts and guys lined up wrong.”

Except, of course, when it’s happening to the Vikings offense. Which, in case you haven’t noticed, is way too often despite the team’s 5-1 record heading into Thursday night’s game at the Rams (2-4).

The Vikings have 21 offensive presnap penalties in six games. That ties Seattle for third-most behind Miami (29) and Cleveland (27). They have had presnap penalties contribute to nine stalled drives. That’s tied with Seattle, Denver and the Chargers for third-most behind Cleveland (13) and Houston (12).

For the record, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips insists the Vikings are at least trying to prevent the game’s easiest mistakes to avoid.

“We have refs at practice,” he said. “They give me a sheet after every practice. We’ve been a lot cleaner throughout practice. We just have to carry that over into games. We need to clean that up.”

Thursday would be a good time to do so.

While the Rams aren’t very good right now, they are the very best at avoiding penalties. They lead the league in fewest flags (33) and fewest penalty yards (237). The Vikings are tied for 13th in number of penalties (53) and 17th in penalty yards (340).

Penalties are part of a fast, physical game filled with chaos and collisions. But presnap penalties are just mental errors. Boneheaded blunders. Easily correctable, yet not always fixed.

According to NFLpenalties.com, the Vikings have 22 presnap penalties when including defense and special teams. That’s tied for fourth-most. The Vikings also are the only team in the league to be flagged at least once for each of these presnap infractions: false start (10), illegal formation (four), delay of game (three), illegal shift (two), illegal motion (one) and offensive offsides, which was a guy, Jordan Addison, just flat out lining up offsides.

“It does feel like there are a lot of flags,” Wes Phillips said Oct. 15, a day after the Bills and Jets were flagged 11 times apiece for a combined 204 yards on “Monday Night Football.”

“Whether officials are just throwing them more, or there are that many more infractions or a combination, I don’t know.”

Through seven weeks, teams are averaging 7.6 penalties of all sorts per game. That’s on pace to be the highest since 2019 (8.01).

As for presnap penalties, teams are averaging 2.57 per game. That’s up .41 from last year and .60 from 2022 and would be the highest since NFLpenalties.com began charting penalties in 2009.

“Obviously, there’s been a point of emphasis made with illegal formation and the offensive tackles being on the line of scrimmage,” Vikings right tackle Brian O’Neill said. “So you’re going to see a spike there and then it will revert to the mean, the way it used to be, after a while.”

O’Neill has one of those illegal formations. So does left tackle Christian Darrisaw.

The Vikings also are one of three teams that has two players with at least three false starts: left guard Blake Brandel (five) and center Garrett Bradbury (three). Cleveland and Miami are the other teams.

Brandel, an otherwise effective first-year starter, is tied for second in false starts. Houston’s Laremy Tunsil — the guy flagged for three false starts and six presnap penalties in a Week 3 loss at Minnesota — leads the league with seven false starts.

Kansas City’s Jawaan Taylor joins Brandel with five false starts. Those are the only false starts for the two-time defending Super Bowl champions. The Chiefs also have league lows in offensive presnap penalties (six) and stalled drives in which a presnap penalty was committed (two).

“Aside from the obvious points of emphasis at the line of scrimmage this year, I would say another reason is play-callers are getting more exotic,” said Harrison Phillips, the nose tackle. “And they’re using cadence as a weapon a lot more. That puts a lot of pressure on the offense.

“Seven years ago when I was playing, we maybe got three or four double counts a game. Now, every other play is a double count, a triple count, a silent, silent-two. You’re going to see more penalties.”

You can say that again.