The Bucs trail only the Buffalo Bills for most penalties committed

With 16 on Sunday, Bucs keep piling up penalties at alarming rate1h ago    ESPNAndrew AstlefordTAMPA, Fla. -- After his team committed 16 penalties on Sunday, Lovie Smith knows the Tampa Bay Buccaneers need fewer flags in their lives."Penalties really hurt us throughout the day," the coach said Monday. "I think there were nine or so that were called in the third quarter alone. We can't have that. We've had some problems with penalties, but not like that. A lot of them were really big -- I think 142 yards or something like that. That adds up in the end, [with] hidden yardage that really makes a difference."The 16 penalties for 142 yards in a loss to the Washington Redskins mark the fifth time that the Bucs had double-digit penalties this season. They average an NFL-worst 10.7 penalties per game. By comparison, the San Francisco 49ers average a league-best 5.3.The Bucs trail only the Buffalo Bills for most penalties committed, with the Bucs having 64 in six games and the Bills 72 in seven."A lot of penalties," Bucs center Joe Hawley said of Sunday's game. "Some of them might have been questionable. There were a couple unnecessary roughness [penalties] that got a little chippy. But I was proud of the way our guys stuck up for one another and played hard. We didn't take anything from anybody. But yeah, you can't have penalties like that. ... You just can't do it."The undisciplined play continued a trend for Tampa Bay this year. The Bucs' penalty total against the Redskins was made even more glaring when compared to Washington's penalty count -- four penalties for 20 yards.Smith seems to be at a loss for why penalties are still an area of concern this late into the season."I can't tell you," he said."Some of the penalties you see, you can live with a little bit. You shouldn't have that many. A couple of the ones, guys were trying to pull guys off of their teammates. Whether hand-fighting on a big receiver like Mike Evans, you have to put that one down there, too. Gerald McCoy's stumbling, somebody pushed him and he runs into the quarterback. Some of the things like that, it's hard to stop them from doing that. That's going to be a part of it."But 16 for 142 yards, it can't be that. We'll keep working on it, just like we'll keep working on everything else."