14-year NFL referee Clete Blakeman and his crew are set to officiate the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 16 game against the Seattle Seahawks according to Football Zebras.
This is the second game that Blakeman has officiated for Kansas City this season, with the first game coming against the Tennessee Titans in Week 9. That game was the Chiefs’ most penalized game (10) this season up until last week’s 11-flag game by Carl Cheffers.
Since Blakeman was promoted from field judge in 2010, Kansas City has a 9-6 overall record in games officiated by Blakeman. That includes some pretty notable losses, where penalties played a big part like the AFC title game against the New England Patriots or the Los Angeles Rams game in 2018 when the NFL replaced Blakeman’s regular crew with an “All-Star” officiating unit.
Through 13 games this season, Blakeman’s crew has thrown the fifth-most total flags with 194 on the season, but they average the third-most flags per game in the NFL. This crew is right around the league average of dismissed penalties (26) and they also have a pretty even split of penalties called on the home (83) and away (85) team.
The penalties this crew calls with the most frequency are offensive holding (29) and false start (28). The Chiefs are near the top of the league in offensive holding (19), but they’re dead last in the league in false start penalties (5). Defensive holding (14) and defensive pass interference (14) are also among the lead penalties for this officiating crew, followed by illegal formation (8) and delay of game (8). Overall, Chiefs Kingdom should expect a second consecutive week with a lot of penalty flags on the ground.
