8-year veteran NFL referee John Hussey and his crew have been assigned as the officials for the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 13 game against the Cincinnati Bengals according to Football Zebras.
Hussey was actually scheduled to officiate the Chiefs-Bengals game in the regular-season last year, but Ron Torbert was an unscheduled white hat substitution for Hussey at the last minute. Hussey would later go on to officiate the Chiefs-Bills divisional round game in the playoffs and this season he officiated the Week 2 win against the Chargers.
Hussey and his crew are among the NFL’s best this season. Of referees who have officiated 11 games so far, Hussey’s crew has the second-fewest penalties in the league with 96. Hussey has also dismissed the fourth-most penalties in the league this season (27)
A potential problem is that Hussey’s crew has called a disproportionate amount of penalties on the away team (54) compared to the home team (42). Kansas City is playing at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium this weekend.
Like most crews, false start (14) and offensive holding (13) penalties are up there for this bunch. The Bengals have been prone to false start penalties with 13 on the year, but the Chiefs have struggled with offensive holding 15 calls on the season.
Defensive pass interference (8) is one that both teams will have to watch out for in this game. The Chiefs had six of those penalties called against them this season, including two called by Hussey’s crew against Rashad Fenton back in Week 2. Their last defensive pass interference penalty came in Week 7 against the Chargers, though. The Bengals have four on the season with their most recent occurrence coming in Week 11 against the Steelers.
