Detroit Lions rookie Terrion Arnold has had an up and down start to his NFL career these past four weeks. On one hand we've seen some encouraging things that show that he is going to be the player we all expect him to be. On the other hand he leads the league in defensive penalties with eight. That is a lot.
Last week I suggested that the Lions dial him back a bit and have him come off the bench for a couple weeks while he works on technique and some Lions fans weren't too happy about that idea. One of the biggest complaints was that most, if not all, of his penalties are ticky tacky and weak.
Maybe they're right. Maybe the officials are picking on Arnold. So I went and clipped each penalty. Let's take a look together and make some rulings.
Week 1: Defensive pass interference
Arnold starts at the top of your screen and then motions to the bottom. This is a tough one. You can make the argument that the ball is uncatchable, but you can also say that Arnold engages too early and prevents Cooper Kupp from having a chance to catch the ball.
It's so close that it's hard to rule against the official on this one. If he engages in the endzone a second later, we're talking about a good rep here. But he doesn't do that.
Ruling: Official got it right
Week 1: Defensive pass interference
Bottom of your screen here. This one is clear as day. He grabs the receivers arm while the ball is in the air and then never turns his head back. He just jumps right into him. If he doesn't grab the arm, he might have an outside chance of getting away with the jumping into the receiver part, but he's dead to rights here.
Ruling: Official got it right
Week 2: Defensive pass interference
Bottom of your screen here. This one is ticky tacky for sure. There's some hand fighting going on at the end, but Arnold is looking back at the ball and the receiver falls. If he stays upright this isn't getting flagged. Arnold didn't throw him down or trip him. It's just good tight coverage if you ask me.
Even on the TV view you can't really see anything. Even if the announcer is saying there's a shove, I see no shove at all. You can maybe say he tried to put his hand in front of Palmer's face, but that seems incidental.
Ruling: Official got it wrong
Week 2: Face Mask
Top of your screen here. I mean that one is clear as day. He face masked him alright. The NFL fined him for it too.
Ruling: Official got it right
Week 3: Defensive pass interference
Bottom of your screen here. You hate it, but this is a pass interference. Arnold engages too early and jumps into his man ahead of the ball getting there. You just can't do that.
Ruling: Official got it right
Week 4: Defensive holding
It's ticky tacky, but the fact is that Arnold got his around the player and grabbed his jersey and held on long enough to get the call. I don't like it because it didn't see to move his man off the route, but he did get handsy here and that's going to get called every time.
Ruling: Official got it right
Week 4: Defensive holding
Bottom of your screen. I mean come on guys. That's clear as day right there. Arnold grabbed on and never let go until they were both on the ground. Not sure what Arnold was trying to do here, but you defintley can't do that.
Ruling: Official got it right
Week 4: Defensive pass interference
I'll admit that this one is hard, but Arnold does engage early here and he does engage a lot. At the same time it looks like the receiver simply fell. It's not the easiest to call, but you can't dispute there's a lot of engagement happening early. He's grabbing again.
Ruling: Official got it right.
What's the fix?
This actually seems pretty easy to fix from where I'm sitting on the couch. It's all in the hands. He has to stop grabbing receivers when he feels he's in trouble. Most of the time he's not. He's with his man and can attempt to make a play, but he grabs instead of trying to just beat his man.
Maybe it's a confidence thing, I don't know. But if he just stops getting handsy too early, half of these should go away. The other half is just engaging a little too early. This is essentially why I suggested he just get dialed back a smidge for a couple games to work on this stuff. He could come out on the other side looking like a really solid rookie corner.
