The Tennessee Titans are set to host the Seattle Seahawks in the penultimate home game of the season. These two teams have very different goals at this point of the campaign, with Tennessee playing for pride Seattle having legitimate playoff aspirations.
Shawn Smith and his staff are tasked with keeping order in Sunday’s game.
This will be Smith’s second game that he’s officiated for both of these teams in 2023. He was in charge during the Seahawks’ season-opener against the Los Angeles Rams, along with the Titans’ Week 4 contest against the Cincinnati Bengals.
According to NFLPenalties.com, Smith and his team have been one of the more strict officiating units in the NFL.
After 13 games, his staff ranks in the top seven when it comes to the number of flags thrown (200, fifth-most), penalties accepted (161, seventh-highest), and penalty yardage (1,324, seventh-highest).
Listed below are the top five most frequent penalties that Smith and his staff have called through the first 15 weeks, as well as the five that have been called the least.
Now that we’ve covered all of that, let’s take a closer look at the tendencies of this particular officiating crew in order to get a better idea of what to expect come Sunday afternoon.
Home and road penalty splits
- Number of penalties called on home teams: 85
- Penalty yardage on home teams: 736
- Number of penalties called on away teams: 76
- Penalty yardage on away teams: 588
Most called penalties
- False start (26)
- Offensive holding (23)
- Unnecessary roughness (20)
- Defensive pass interference (19)
- Defensive holding (Eight)
Least called penalties
- Illegal shift (One)
- Low Block (One)
- Chop block (One)
- Tripping (One)
- Defensive too many men on the field (One)
