Shawn Hochuli, NFL leader in penalty flags thrown, assigned to Saints-Seahawks

Ah jeez. The New Orleans Saints will exit their bye week by kicking off against the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football this week, visiting Lumen Field for the second time in three years. And they’ll be working with (hopefully not against) referee Shawn Hochuli and his crew, which has thrown more penalty flags (87) than any of their peers this season.

Now, to be fair, penalties per game would be a better metric — several crews have already taken a bye week, while Hochuli’s staff have managed six games in as many weeks. In that case, Scott Novak’s crew ranks first (with 16 fouls per game) and Hochuli falls all the way to … second place (14.5 per game). At least he ranks third in total penalty yards (734) and penalty yards per game (122.3).

The good news for New Orleans is that Hochuli has been harder on home teams than visitors, tossing 48 fouls for 421 penalty yards on hosts against 39 flags for 313 penalties on visiting teams. Maybe that trend holds throughout their prime-time game. Another unfortunate trend, however, is that the Saints are 1-2 with Hochuli on hand since he was promoted to referee in 2018 — including their playoff elimination loss to the Buccaneers in January this year.

Either way, the Saints have to play well enough for the officiating to not matter. New Orleans goes into this game with the fifth fewest penalties called against them (30) while also seeing the fewest beneficial fouls (22). Seattle isn’t too far behind with 35 fouls against them and 29 beneficial penalties. The less face time Hochuli gets on Monday night’s broadcast, the better.

List

Forecasting Saints' remaining schedule after 5-game start to 2021