Here’s your Week 12 referee assignment: veteran referee Brad Allen and his crew will officiate the New Orleans Saints’ upcoming road game with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. The Saints are 5-3 in games with Allen at referee, while the Falcons are 5-6, dating back to his debut in 2014.
Allen’s crew is known for letting the teams play; they’re averaging the second-fewest penalty flags per game this season (10.6), with an emphasis on offensive holding fouls (16 in 9 games) and false start infractions (15), as well as defensive pass interference (9). But on the whole they’ve stayed off of cameras and let the two teams play ball.
And that’s good news for the Saints, who are averaging the fourth-most penalty yards per game (59.2) this season. The Falcons are averaging 49.3 penalty yards each week, which is close to the league average. The New Orleans defense is yielding more yards by penalty (33) than any other defense around the league, so they’ll need to watch their hands and play a clean game on Sunday.
