The New Orleans Saints enter one of the tougher games on the back half of their schedule at 5-8 going up against the 8-5 Washington Commanders. The referee for this matchup has been announced via footballzebras.com, and it will be Shawn Hochuli with his crew.
Hochuli has been one of the referees with a higher penalty count on the season and also tends to average high numbers in the games he calls. So far this season, he has called 12 games, throwing the third most flags (215), for the fourth most penalty yards (1,426), and averaging 14.5 flags per game for 118.8 yards.
The thing that is a positive for Hochuli is that he calls very even games for both sides, calling an even 7.25 penalties per game for both home and away teams, showing no disparity or favoritism for either side in matchups solely off of where they are playing.
Hochuli is relatively new to being a head referee, so his history with these two teams is fairly limited compared to some others. In games where he was head referee, the Saints are 2-5 and the Commanders are 0-3, so neither team is particularly favorable in this matchup from that standpoint, either.
In fact, Hochuli has not called a game with Washington in it since 2020, which is an interesting point to note, and the last time the Saints won with him on the field was early in the 2021 season. Overall, a somewhat weird pairing this weekend, and hopefully it will make for some good football.
