Eagles-Cowboys Could Be Littered with Yellow Flags Thanks to This Ref Crew

Penalties, a reason many are citing to explain the decline in TV ratings this NFL season, are not going away anytime soon for the Eagles.

Jerome Boger, and his crew, have averaged the highest number of penalty flags per game this year and they are officiating Sunday night’s Eagles-Cowboys battle.

According to ESPN, Boger’s crew averages 20.3 flags per game, which leads all NFL officiating crews. This number includes penalties which are also declined or offsetting.

Boger’s crew was off last week.

Even scarier than the average number of penalties per contest called by the crew is the minimum number called. In every game this season that Boger’s crew worked, there has been at least 18 penalty flags thrown. The crew maxed out at 24 one week.

For comparison, the NFL average so far is 16.5 penalties per game.

As Kevin Seifert of ESPN writes, this crew does not ‘let them play.’

Boger’s crew quite clearly errs on the side of calling a penalty. For further context on the way it approaches games, keep in mind that there have been 10 games this season in which the total number of penalties has been less than half of Boger’s average (10 or fewer). About 60.7 percent of all games in the NFL have been called with fewer than 18 penalties, the lowest total Boger has produced in a game.

However, Boger’s crew has called the third-fewest “behavior” related penalties so far this season. That includes personal fouls, unnecessary roughness, unsportsmanlike conduct, and roughing the passer.

Also, according to the data, as Seifert points out, we should expect a lot of yellow hankies in the secondary.

Boger’s total of 37 passing penalties is more than twice that of seven other crews. But before Dez Bryant & Co. get too excited about drawing penalties, they should know that Boger has also called a league-high seven offensive pass interference penalties. That’s more than twice what 12 of the 16 other crews have called. No pushing Sunday night — on either side.

Eagles-Cowboys. It should be fun.