Go back and think about some of the most controversial officiating moments of the 2017 NFL season. It feels like so many of them involve the New England Patriots. In fact, many have gone so far as to say that the referees cheat for the Patriots and are consciously avoiding calling penalties against them.
Though the zebras are supposed to be neutral observers and call games like they see them, it’s hard to ignore that the referees cheat for the Patriots don’t have at least a little bit of an edge in a game in, game out basis.
Take the contest between the Patriots and Jaguars last week in the AFC Championship Game, for example.
But maybe the most damning evidence of referees cheating for the Patriots wasn’t in the controversial calls, but in the final stats from the game.
Total Penalties and Penalty Yards in AFC Championship Game
Jacksonville: 6/98
New England: 1/10
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How does a team get called for just one penalty in a game? There have been several examples of teams going through an entire game without a penalty in NFL history, but the last was in 2011.
The last time a team was whistled for just one flag in a playoff game? New England in the AFC Championship Game in 2011.
The Patriots were second in the NFL this year in penalty yardage differential and averaged outdoing teams by a full penalty per game. New England was also fourth in the NFL in team penalty yards per play.
The margin isn’t all that big in the grand scheme of things, but it’s worth remembering that the bigger the game, the more the Patriots seemed to have the help from the officials. When the Patriots needed to beat the Jets in Week 17 to clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC, they were +5 in penalties and +45 in penalty yards. Two weeks earlier in Pittsburgh, the final penalty tallies read 6/63 for the Steelers and 2/4 for the Patriots.
The Pats have been flagged just five times this postseason, and that comes on the heels of them being called for just 11 penalties in three playoff games last year.
In seven previous Super Bowls in the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era, the Patriots committed more penalties than their foes on three occasions. However, all three of those Super Bowls came early in Brady’s career. New England’s advantage in penalty yards in its last two Super Bowls was +42 yards against Atlanta and +34 yards against Seattle. The Pats have been whistled for more than five penalties in just one Super Bowl of the seven they’ve played during this run of dominance.
Referees have called an average of 5.57 penalties per game in seven New England Super Bowls in the Brady/Belichick era. In 2017, NFL teams averaged 6.66 penalties per game called against them.
The Eagles, for good measure, were No. 23 in the NFL in penalties against at 7.1 per game.
Normally speaking, the penalty props during the Super Bowl are usually even. Every now and again, teams are as high as -200 to have more penalties than they’re opposition in the Big Game. With all of this in mind, though, the Patriots only tabbed to have 4.5 penalties in the Super Bowl. The Eagles have an over/under of 5.5 penalties.
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