The Fabulous Peltoncast celebrates its milestone 10th episode by sponsoring Jermaine Kearse’s page on Pro Football Reference. After discussing that, your hosts preview Husky hoops and this year’s crop of elite freshmen, recap the Seahawks’ blowout win at Atlanta and how the playoff picture cleared up, preview UW’s season-defining visit to UCLA on Friday night and review the microbrews from last Saturday’s tailgate.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM THE FABULOUS PELTONCAST NO. 10 | View on iTunes

Contents

Intro – The Peltoncast’s foray into page sponsorship
4:00 – NCAA basketball and UW hoops preview
21:00 – Recapping the Seahawks finally winning a blowout, looking ahead to Minnesota and a view of the playoff picture (with special attention to the surging Panthers)
42:30 – Previewing the Huskies’ trip to UCLA after an easy win over Colorado
51:00 – Tailgating, with reviews of Ballast Point IPA, Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout and Dad’s Little Helper Black IPA and Deschutes Hop Trip Fresh Hop Pale Ale
52:00 – Fantasy, with this week’s waiver claims

This Week’s Links

– Jermaine Kearse player page on Pro-Football-Reference
– Kevin’s UW basketball preview (Insider)
– Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale page
– Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout page
– Dad’s Little Helper page
– Hop Trip Fresh Hop Pale Ale page

A day late but just in time for tonight’s busy sports night, the Fabulous Peltoncast returns with a Portland-heavy episode. (You might call it — and Tristan did — the Portlandcast.) Your hosts discuss emotions around tonight’s Stanford-Oregon game, the conclusion of the Sounders-Timbers playoff derby and debate the Blazers’ chalupa/McDonald’s giveaways before getting down to discussing the state of the Seahawks (complete with threat levels as a guide to concern) and previewing this Sunday’s game at Atlanta before wrapping up with a discussion of the microbrews Tristan tried at last Sunday’s Seahawks tailgate.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM THE FABULOUS PELTONCAST NO. 9 | View on iTunes

Contents

Intro – Who you got in Stanford-Oregon?
9:00 – Sounders-Timbers series update
12:00 – Blazers’ first week, plus the ongoing chalupa/McDonald’s controversy and how we would do it
24:00 – Emotions during the Seahawks-Buccaneers game and level of Seahawks concern
34:00 – Previewing Seahawks-Falcons
43:00 – Tailgating, with microbrew and Pok Pok reviews
52:00 – Fantasy, with this week’s waiver claims

This Week’s Links

– Chalupa reaction on Blazersedge
– Chasin Freshies Fresh Hop IPA page
– Pok Pok restaurant

In the latest Fabulous Peltoncast, your hosts celebrate the start of the NBA season by remembering past Sonics opening nights, Kevin sharing players for Tristan to watch this season, preview the Seahawks hosting the Buccaneers, discuss a pair of season-ending injuries to Seattle wide receivers and recap Kevin paying off a fantasy wager by shotgunning a beer before last Saturday’s Husky game.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM THE FABULOUS PELTONCAST NO. 8 | View on iTunes

Contents

Intro – Sounders in the MLS Cup Playoffs
4:30 – Sonics opening night memories, drafting out Sonics tickets
20:00 – 10 NBA players for Tristan to watch this season
32:00 – Previewing Seahawks-Buccaneers
39:00 – Analyzing season-ending injuries to Sidney Rice and Kasen Williams. Which will have a bigger impact?
46:00 – Tailgating and Kevin shotguns a beer
52:30 – Fantasy plus should the NFL take away touchdowns for taunting penalties? (The answer is no. Don’t be ridiculous.)

This Week’s Links

– Vine of Kevin shotgunning (audio may play)
– Seattle Times on Clint Dempsey’s slow start
– Breaking Madden: 44 Greg Schianos
– NFL considering taking TDs away for taunting

It’s another special edition of the Fabulous Peltoncast! With the help of special guest Chris Smith, your hosts break down the Seahawks surviving in St. Louis on Monday Night Football to win 14-9 on the game’s final play. They discuss a rough night for the offensive line, Sidney Rice‘s injury and Percy Harvin‘s upcoming return, quantify just how bad this offensive performance was in Seahawks history and look at the stars on defense who helped save the victory.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM THIS PELTONCAST | Listen on iTunes

Subscribers to The Fabulous Peltoncast may have noticed they got a condensed version earlier — the Huskies section only was accidentally added to the RSS feed. Here’s the full version, should you want to hear the entirety of this week’s podcast.

In this week’s extended episode of The Fabulous Peltoncast, your hosts discuss today’s momentous return of the Rainier R to its rightful place on the Old Rainier Brewery, Kevin‘s visit to the ESPN campus in Bristol, remember Don James after his death, discuss the state of the Washington football program, preview the Seahawks’ Monday Night tilt at St. Louis and look at the results of last week’s bet on their fantasy matchup.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM THE FABULOUS PELTONCAST NO. 7 | View on iTunes

Contents

Intro – The return of the Rainier R and Tristan waxes poetic on Rainier
12:00 – How the ESPN campus is like (or not like) “This is SportsCenter” commercials
19:00 – Remembering Don James as the Dawgfather
33:00 – The state of this year’s Huskies after losing three in a row (listen to just the Husky/James sections)
43:00 – Previewing the Seahawks at St. Louis, who is missing injured QB Sam Bradford, plus Percy Harvin‘s possible return (listen to just the Seahawks section)
56:00 – Tailgating/fantasy football, including the outcome of last week’s fantasy bet, this week’s late-night tailgate and waiver claims

This Week’s Links

– Restore the R Details
– George Karl a regular at Mecca
– The famous Dawgfather poster
– Seth Kolloen on Don James’ philosophy

It’s a special, bonus edition of the Fabulous Peltoncast! Your hosts break down the Seahawks’ 34-22 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night Football, highlighting the performance of the linebacking core, the defensive line, Kam Chancellor, Brandon Browner — really the whole defense — and looking at the roles played by Sidney Rice and Zach Miller in the passing game.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM THIS PELTONCAST | Listen on iTunes

First, some big news: we have a logo!

After discussing that, in this week’s jam-packed Peltoncast your hosts discuss Kevin’s computer (and its Knicks projection) becoming a news story, talk about Seahawks pessimism and the team’s third-down issues, preview their Thursday night visit to Arizona, relate the feeling of helplessness created by Marcus Mariota, grade the Huskies at the midpoint of their season, study the meaning of their penalty woes (see below), make this week’s NFL’s picks, recap last week’s special Gameday tailgate and finish up by comparing the Kansas City defense to the ’85 Bears in terms of fantasy value.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM THIS WEEK’S PELTONCAST | Find on iTunes

INTRO: Kevin’s famous computer
9:00 Seahawks: are people too worried about a 5-1 team? Plus investigating third-down issues and looking ahead to Thursday’s game at Arizona (listen to the Seahawks section)
24:00 Huskies: recapping Saturday’s loss to Oregon, midseason grades, penalty study (listen to the Huskies section)
42:00 NFL picks
45:00 Tailgating: Getting up early for Gameday and cream cheese takes our tailgate to the next level (listen to the tailgating section)
54:00 Fantasy – A friendly wager on this weekend’s Peltoncast showdown and comparing the Chiefs defense to the ’85 Bears

This Week’s Links

– Explaining SCHOENE’s prediction for the Knicks
– New York Post: “Knicks scoff at computer’s 37-win prediction”
– Why Kobe ranks so low in #NBArank
– Kevin on the Mix-Minus Podcast
– Jerry Brewer on the Seahawks’ issues and high expectations
– Football Outsiders FEI Ratings

2013 NCAA Penalty Research

In the analysis of the first half of the Huskies’ season, we discuss the role of penalties. Washington has been called for the second-most penalties per game in the nation and leads all FBS teams in penalty yardage.

The research with which I’m familiar on penalties and team success has been conducted in the NFL. In Pro Football Prospectus 2007, Aaron Schatz and Bill Barnwell found that  a small negative correlation (-0.31) between offensive penalties and wins (that is, teams with more penalties perform worse) but little relationship between defensive penalties and wins.

Using data from Sports-Reference.com, I quickly studied the relationship between penalties and yardage — both adjusted per 140 team plays on offense and defense to mitigate the effect of fast-paced offenses like UW’s that lead to more plays per game — and success and found a slightly positive correlation (0.15) between both and Sports-Reference.com’s Simple Rating for each team. Here’s how that looks graphically:

Note that the three teams in the country that have been penalized most frequently — UCLA (9.1 per 140 plays), Florida (8.7) and UW (8.6) are all top-20 teams. But really, the data from this limited sample show very little relationship between penalties and team success in the NCAA this season.

In case you were curious, despite the reputation for overofficiating (and the Bruins and the Huskies drawing laundry by the load), the Pac-12 doesn’t lead the nation in penalties per 140 plays (including non-conference games). That honor actually belongs to the new American Athletic Conference:

Conference Pen/G   Yd/G   Pen140 Yd140
--------------------------------------
American    6.9    58.8    6.8    58.5
Sun Belt    6.6    54.4    6.5    53.3
Pac-12      6.8    57.8    6.3    53.5
Big 12      6.4    56.4    6.1    53.1
ACC         5.8    47.2    5.8    47.1
SEC         5.6    45.3    5.8    46.5
MAC         5.6    49.5    5.6    49.4
CUSA        5.5    45.8    5.4    44.9
Big Ten     5.5    48.1    5.4    47.2
MWC         5.3    50.0    4.8    45.9

Average     5.9    50.4    5.8    49.1

Blame Arizona State: The Huskies’ opponent on Saturday is at the opposite end of the spectrum, committing 3.4 penalties per 140 plays, the nation’s seventh-lowest average. So if you see a flag during the game, assume it will go against Washington.