The Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills will have referee Carl Cheffers and his crew on the call for Sunday’s divisional round playoff game.
Cincinnati doesn’t see Cheffers a ton despite his impressive resume, though he was on the call in late November when the Bengals took down the Titans.
According to Football Zebras, Cheffers is in his 23rd season and has overseen 17 playoff games, including a pair of Super Bowls.
Notably for the Bengals and Bills, according to data compiled by Sharp Football Analysis, Cheffers has led the NFL in penalties per game in each of the last two years.
Something especially noteworthy for the Bengals — only 43 percent of those were called on the home team.
According to Sharp, not only are the Bills 6-1 with Cheffers are referee during the Josh Allen era, there’s this:
“A closer look at penalty percentages in key categories with Carl Cheffers shows a clear edge for the home team. He called 69% of combined defensive holding, offensive holding, and defensive pass interference penalties on the road team. That is above average.”
Cincinnati’s game with the most penalties called against them this year? That win over the Titans with Cheffers’ crew.
Disclaimer: A lot of this sounds bad but that’s just the reality of the matchup. Last week with Clay Martin’s crew the Bengals were seemingly favored in similar ways in the officiating matchup.
The league has clearly told officials to dial back the number of flags in the playoffs and let the players play. That’s probably going to continue in Buffalo, where the Bengals will want a comfortable enough lead to distance themselves from Allen, which would remove the officiating factor, anyway.
