Penalties can change the entire momentum of a drive and prove to be the difference between a punt and a touchdown. Drives tend to stall out when a holding call pushes the offense back to a 1st-and-20. Exhausted defensive linemen get demoralized when 3rd-and-12 turns into a first down after a pass interference. Penalties impact drives which impacts points, so shouldn’t teams with fewer penalties win more often?
The Panthers should sure hope so. In 2017 Carolina had the fewest penalties and lowest amount of penalty yardage in the entire league, per NFL.com. They also went 11-5 and made the playoffs.