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NFL officiating crews have largely stayed in the background in the playoffs this season.

ESPN's John Clayton, in putting together his weekend preview, thinks the New York Giants could be in line for more holding calls with Ed Hochuli assigned to the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers. Count @DLucasTaylor among those wondering what the Hochuli assignment might mean more broadly.

Before taking a look at potential tendencies for Hochuli, we should note that the NFL switches to all-star officiating crews beginning in the championship round. As much as Hochuli seems to relish making calls, he cannot make all of them. Having a different crew could affect tendencies.

Referees do tend to be the ones calling holding against left tackles and roughing the passer.

The 49ers defeated New Orleans last week even though they declined the only penalty John Parry's crew called against the Saints. New Orleans declined two of the five penalties called against the 49ers in that game. Parry, who also worked the 49ers' game at Baltimore this season, appears in line to work the Super Bowl.

Hochuli's crew led the NFL in penalties for defensive holding. They also ranked high among the 17 crews for offensive holding and pass interference.

The chart shows where Hochuli's crews ranked among the others for various frequently made calls.
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Bernie Miklasz and I had much to discuss, including Jeff Fisher's hiring, during our weekly conversation Tuesday.

That audio is here.

One thing Bernie alluded to later in his program was the fact that Fisher's teams in Tennessee were known for playing through the whistle. Bernie was looking for a way to quantify that through penalty types. I've followed those trends for years and know Fisher's teams committed more personal fouls, specifically for roughing the passer, than most other teams in the league.

The chart shows the Titans with the most combined penalties for unnecessary roughness, roughing the passer, personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct from 2001-2010. Those are the years I could access readily via ESPN Sports & Information. Fisher was the head coach during those years. Seattle had the fewest; the Seahawks were among the least penalized teams overall under Mike Holmgren.

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No play from Week 16 caused more confusion in the NFC West than this one.

San Francisco 49ers rookie Kyle Williams slipped and fell onto his right shoulder during a kickoff return with 6:38 remaining in a 19-17 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

Williams slid and righted himself in one quick motion, winding up on his knees, facing backward.

Two Seahawks players, fullback Michael Robinson and linebacker Adrian Moten, slammed into Williams from opposite sides, knocking loose the ball and leaving Williams with a concussion.

Referee Ron Winter assessed a 15-yard penalty against Seattle, explaining that Robinson had struck Williams with a helmet-to-helmet blow.

I've heard from fans of both teams. Predictably, Seahawks fans tend to think officials erred in penalizing Williams for helmet-to-helmet contact, while 49ers fans tend to feel as though Seattle was taking cheap shots. Those lines of thinking miss the key issues, in my view.

All parties could have handled the situation better, starting with Robinson and Moten.

As noted following the New York Giants-Arizona Cardinals game in October, the rulebook calls for an official to "declare the ball dead and the down ended when a runner is out of bounds, or declares himself down by falling to the ground, or kneeling, and making no effort to advance."

Williams was kneeling and facing his own end zone when Robinson and Moten struck him. He had slammed one hand against the ball, clearly frustrated that his return had ended prematurely. He was no threat at this time.

At this point, the whistle should have blown. If one did, I did not hear it at the stadium or on the Fox broadcast.

But as the rules state, unnecessary roughness includes "running or diving into, or throwing the body against or on a ball carrier who falls or slips to the ground untouched and makes no attempt to advance, before or after the ball is dead."

That is what happened in this case. Yes, Williams was about to get up, but he paused while kneeling and facing his own end zone. He made no move to get up and run. The Seahawks should have tagged him down. There was no need to slam into him with full force.

Winter, the referee, emphasized helmet-to-helmet contact as the reason for the penalty. Replays showed what I would consider to be incidental, even minimal, contact between the helmets. The foul should have been for blasting a player who had slipped to the ground untouched and was making no effort to advance the ball.

Williams could have protected himself better by realizing the whistle had not blown and defenders could be charging toward him, misreading his intentions. But he was not at fault here. If officials were so sure Williams had declared himself down by "falling to the ground, or kneeling, and making no effort to advance the ball," then why no immediate whistle?

Robinson has not shown himself to be a dirty player. This was his first penalty of the season and his third for a personal foul in 86 career games. He and Moten obviously thought Williams was fair game. They wanted to force what would have been a pivotal fumble.

Frequent scuffling marked this game, but no 49ers players rallied to Williams' defense after Robinson and Moten converged on Williams. There were no indications any of them took offense to the hits. There was mostly confusion.

SEATTLE -- Veteran referee Ron Winter gets the call for the San Francisco 49ers' game against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field.

My periodic efforts to find meaning in officiating stats have led to the following chart. Hank Gargiulo of ESPN Stats & Information provided the officiating data.

I singled out some of the more regularly called penalties and sorted them for Winter based on where his crew ranks in number of such penalties called this season.

For example, Winter's crews have called 16 penalties for delay of game, most in the league. But his crew has called only two penalties for roughing the passer. That ranks 15th out of 17 crews this season.

Winter ranks relatively low in calls for pass interference and illegal contact. That is something to keep in mind for this game. Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner leads the league in penalties, with many for infractions during coverage.
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Officials have not flagged Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson since calling a 20-yard interference penalty against him in Week 11.

San Francisco was the opponent that day. The 49ers are the opponent Sunday.

Peterson's matchup with the 49ers' Michael Crabtree will be one to watch after Crabtree caught seven passes for 120 yards against the Cardinals in Week 11.

The chart shows Peterson ranking second behind Seattle's Brandon Browner in penalty yardage this season. Browner, like Peterson, is an aggressive corner. They appear willing to trade flags for tight coverage that can take a receiver off his game.

The Seattle Seahawks have welcomed physical play from their cornerbacks. They've demanded it, actually.

Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman have delivered. Both players picked off passes against the Washington Redskins last week. Both have used their size -- Browner is 6-foot-4, while Sherman stands 6-3 -- to great advantage at times.

Browner has gone too far in officials' eyes, however. Way too far. He leads the NFL in penalties with 15, four more than any other player. His total through 11 games already stands tied for the 14th-highest in a full season since 2003, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Browner averages 1.36 penalties per game, putting him on pace for 22 over a full regular season. That would be one more than the single-season record since 2003, held by offensive lineman Chester Pitts. Four more penalties would place Browner in sole possession of second place on the list.

The 15 penalties called against Browner include five for defensive pass interference, three for defensive holding, two for illegal contact, two for offensive holding on special teams, two for unnecessary roughness and one for roughing the kicker. The official play-by-play book from the Seahawks' game at St. Louis lists Browner as the guilty party for what would be a 16th penalty, but that penalty, for a helmet-to-helmet hit, was actually assessed against Kam Chancellor. The NFL corrects such errors within a couple weeks, usually.

Players sometimes change their ways. Browner's teammate, Robert Gallery, had 17 penalties in 2007. He has 16 penalties combined over the ensuing three-plus seasons.

The St. Louis Rams trailed the Seattle Seahawks by three points when they sent Brandon Lloyd up the left sideline on a deep route against Brandon Browner.

Browner, the Seahawks' 6-foot-4 cornerback, gave no cushion at the line of scrimmage. Video replays showed his toes practically touching the blue stripe signifying the line of scrimmage. Browner was even closer to Lloyd when the pass from Sam Bradford arrived. Browner smothered Lloyd as he played the ball, breaking up the pass.



There was contact, and lots of it, but no penalty -- not this time, anyway.

Similar scenes have played out throughout the NFC West this season. With virtually no help from the San Francisco 49ers, the division has become the land of illegal contact and defensive pass interference.

It's a place where opposing receivers can expect rough treatment, particularly when facing Browner and the Arizona Cardinals' Patrick Peterson. Each of those corners has six penalties for illegal contact or defensive pass interference this season. Each has brought a physical brand of coverage to his team.

The two biggest safeties in the division, Arizona's Adrian Wilson and Seattle's Kam Chancellor, each have two such penalties.

Officials have flagged the Cardinals 15 times and assessed 183 yards against them for illegal contact and defensive pass interference this season. Both totals are league highs, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Seahawks rank second with 12 such penalties (for 103 yards, which ranks seventh).

The Rams rank seventh with eight such penalties. The 49ers have only three, tied with Kansas City and Chicago for second-fewest in the league behind the New York Giants (two).

New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin thought referee Tony Corrente and crew should have flagged San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis for holding in the final seconds of their game Sunday.

"I think that it’s safe to say that that was defensive holding, yes," Coughlin told reporters this week.

Coughlin's counterpart, Jim Harbaugh, thought Willis operated within the rules when the Pro Bowl linebacker met Giants tight end Jake Ballard with an aggressive jam near the line of scrimmage.

"His arms never got involved," Harbaugh told reporters. "He was playing Ballard off the line, saw his head dip down and I thought it was an outstanding play. There’s allowed to be contact within the first five yards. I have to disagree with coach on that, that he was tackled. I didn’t see Ballard be tackled by Patrick Willis."

For Coughlin, banking on such a call from Corrente might have been a losing proposition. More on that in a bit.

The non-call helped turn over possession on downs, allowing the 49ers to run on the clock on a 27-20 victory at Candlestick Park.

Replays showed Willis lowering his right shoulder and driving it into Ballard's midsection at the line of scrimmage. Willis placed his left hand just below Ballard's right hip. Pausing the video did make it appear as though Willis were preparing to execute a form tackle. The impact lifted Ballard off the ground. But when Ballard landed, he released freely. By then, 49ers defensive end Justin Smith had batted down Eli Manning's pass.

The play made me wonder whether this particular officiating crew called these types of penalties more or less frequently than the crews associated with the other 16 referees. Turns out the crew working the 49ers-Giants game, headed by Corrente, is the only current crew to make zero defensive holding calls against linebackers since the start of the 2009 season.

There have been 59 such calls since 2009, according to ESPN Stats & Information. A referee's crew sometimes changes membership, potentially affecting tendencies, but Corrente's crew has remained largely the same since 2009. Every other crew, including the one led by Clete Blakeman, who has been a referee only since 2010, had made at least one defensive holding call against a linebacker since 2009.

What does this mean? Perhaps nothing. It's possible Corrente's crew has worked games featuring fewer potential holding calls against linebackers. It's also possible his crew is more lenient on these calls.

In this case, a call against Willis would have been more controversial than a non-call, in my view. I'm not convinced Willis violated the rules. Making a call in that situation would have given the Giants a first down, wiping out Smith's pass breakup. Had the Giants then scored and won in overtime, officiating would have been the story of the game.

It's a footnote at this point, but an interesting one given Corrente's history.

The 2011 Official Playing Rules and Casebook of the National Football League devotes 1,127 words to the section on roughing the passer.

Twenty-two words near the end sum up the spirit:

"If in doubt about a roughness call or potentially dangerous tactic on the quarterback, the referee should always call roughing the passer."

That sentence pretty much absolves referees from blame for penalizing acts that seem to be borderline infractions.

We discussed one such penalty against the Arizona Cardinals' Calais Campbell earlier.

Campbell leads the NFC West in roughing-the-passer penalties since 2009 with three. Teammate Clark Haggans, the San Francisco 49ers' Ahmad Brooks, the Seattle Seahawks' Raheem Brock and ex-Seahawk Patrick Kerney have two apiece since then.

Instead of focusing on players, I've put together a chart showing how many roughing calls each of the 17 current referees has called since 2009. Note that Clete Blakeman was not a referee until 2010. Officiating crews change members from time to time, but the referees are the ones responsible for most roughing calls, so these numbers hold up better.

Some referees call more penalties than others overall. Some have surely encountered more instances of roughing than others. But if you're a defensive end eager to mete out some old-school punishment on the opposing quarterback, it wouldn't hurt to know which referee was working the game that day.
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Two NFC West left tackles are heading in opposite directions on the penalty front.

St. Louis' Rodger Saffold has seven of his nine penalties over the Rams' past three games. Seattle's Russell Okung has zero after drawing six over the first three games.

Injuries and difficult matchups can influence penalty counts for offensive linemen in particular. Left tackles need every edge they can get even when healthy. Injuries can lead to holding or moving before the snap to get a jump on opponents.

Saffold's run of penalties began with three during a difficult matchup against Brian Orakpo and the Washington Redskins in Week 4. Saffold incurred three more penalties against Green Bay in Week 6 before suffering a leg injury late in the game. He committed another penalty against Dallas last week.

The ankle injury Okung battled early in the season likely contributed to the six penalties he incurred in the first three weeks of the season. Okung has not always appeared full strength even since then, but the team's bye week had to help.

The chart shows the nine NFC West players with at least five assessed and declined penalties this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Saffold leads the NFL.

San Francisco's Anthony Davis shows up with six, but I think he has largely gotten his penalty problems under control recently.

Two of Davis' six penalties were for tripping violations against Philadelphia. Davis adjusted his technique on cut blocks, eliminating the rolling motion that invited the tripping calls. His most recent penalty, for illegal formation, was not his fault. Receiver Ted Ginn Jr. lined up off the line against Detroit.

Arizona's Patrick Peterson is trending with five penalties over the past thee games. He had three against Pittsburgh in Week 7, including one when he memorably jumped offsides, then tried to call timeout before incurring the penalty. Hey, it was worth a try.

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The San Francisco 49ers had already built a 24-3 lead against Tampa Bay when Ted Ginn Jr.'s 25-yard punt return moved them into position for one more scoring drive before halftime.

A holding penalty against 49ers rookie Chris Culliver threatened to negate much of the return, but a 15-yard penalty against the Bucs' Adam Hayward for unnecessary roughness seemed like just the break San Francisco needed.

There was one problem for the 49ers.

Officials ruled the penalties offsetting. As a result, the 49ers would take over where Ginn had fielded the punt, way back at the 49ers' 17-yard line. With only 33 seconds left in the second quarter, the 49ers handed off to Frank Gore for a 2-yard loss, ending the half.

Referee Terry McAulay was correct in his ruling. The 49ers would have benefited from the 15-yarder only if the penalty against Culliver had been for five yards, at which point the "5 vs. 15" rule would have applied as follows:

If one of the fouls is of a nature that incurs a 15-yard penalty and the other foul of a double foul normally would result in a loss of five yards only, the major penalty yardage is to be assessed from the previous spot.

That stipulation did not come into play here because the penalty against the 49ers, for holding, was a 10-yarder. San Francisco "settled" for that 24-3 lead, then scored on the opening drive of the second half, all but putting away the game.

The chart shows NFC West players with the most accepted and declined penalties through Week 5, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Seattle Seahawks' Brandon Browner leads the NFL with eight, including three on special-teams plays. His penalties on defense were for pass interference (twice), holding (twice) and illegal contact.

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It's been a rough first four games for NFC West teams in the penalty department, and not just in the tripping department.

Officials have flagged teams from the division 153 times, assessing penalties covering 1,054 yards. The other divisions average 118 penalties and 835 penalty yards, according to ESPN Stats & Information. No division has as many in either category.

The totals count declined penalties.


The chart below shows all 14 NFL players with at least five declined and assessed penalties this season. Five of them play for NFC West teams.

On a side note, penalties for unnecessary roughness are on the rise, with 57 having been called through the first four weeks of the season. There were 25 through the first four games of the 2007 season. That number has risen to 37 (2008), 41 (2009), 53 (2010) and now 57.

I doubt players have gotten any rougher unnecessarily. Officials are likely calling these penalties more aggressively. Calls for unsportsmanlike conduct are also up. There have been 17 through four games this season, up from an average of nine at this point in the previous four seasons.

The NFL levied five fines against the St. Louis Rams during their game against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3.

That included $7,500 fines against guard Jacob Bell (chop block), cornerback Bradley Fletcher (horse-collar tackle) and tackle Jason Smith (unnecessary roughness), plus $5,000 against receiver Danario Alexander for roughing the kicker. Fletcher received a second $7,500 fine for unnecessary roughness.

Fletcher and San Francisco 49ers guard Chilo Rachal each had three penalties in Week 3. As a result, Fletcher and Seattle's Russell Okung now are tied for the NFL lead with six penalties apiece, including declined penalties. No one else has more than five.

The chart shows all NFC West players with at least three this season.

Seattle is tied for the NFL lead with 35 accepted or declined penalties, same as Oakland. San Francisco is fourth with 31. The Rams are fifth with 30. Arizona is 17th with 22.
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Penalties were costlier than usual for NFC West players in Week 2.

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Raheem Brock's disputed $15,000 fine for hitting Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was not the only one levied this week.

I'm tracking down a few others for Friday, including a sure fine for the facemask penalty against Arizona Cardinals tight end Jeff King at Washington. King was trying to save a touchdown return on special teams. There were nine personal-foul penalties against NFC West players and their opponents in Week 2.

Penalties go against individuals, but sometimes responsibility is shared.

Cornerback Brandon Browner's 39-yard penalty for pass interference during the Seahawks' game at Pittsburgh comes to mind as one potential example. Browner had a rough game overall, but he was supposed to have safety help on this particular play against Mike Wallace in the end zone.

The chart shows NFC West players with at least two penalties, declined or accepted, through the first two weeks of the season.

Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung has not appeared fully up to speed since returning from an ankle injury, in my view. He had two more penalties in Week 2, giving him five for the season -- two more than he had in 10 games last season.

Overall, Seattle has the most penalties in the division (24 for 138 yards), followed by Arizona (20-158), St. Louis (20-122) and San Francisco (18-127).

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NFL officials flagged Seattle Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung three times in 10 games last season.

They matched that total against Okung in the 2011 opener at Candlestick Park.

The high total confirms in my mind the thinking that Okung wasn't quite up to speed in his first game back from an ankle injury. He was also facing a very strong San Francisco 49ers defensive front featuring Justin Smith, who had two sacks. One penalty was declined. Another was offsetting.

Facing the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2 will present similar challenges (insert Bill Leavy joke here). Even though the Steelers struggled in their opening-week defeat at Baltimore, their defense was instrumental in drawing three penalties against the Ravens' offensive line. Officials flagged center Matt Birk, guard Ben Grubbs and tackle Bryant McKinnie for holding in that game.

Officials flagged Okung for holding (twice) and a false start. Okung's three penalties last season were for false starts, with two coming during the second half of a 34-18 home defeat against Atlanta in Week 15.

The first chart shows three-year totals for NFC West teams, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Totals count declined penalties.

The Oakland Raiders have the most during that time with 320, counting a league-high 17 in Week 1. The 49ers rank sixth with 260, followed by the Arizona Cardinals (254) and St. Louis Rams (254). The Seahawks are 15th with 234. The Falcons (176), Indianapolis Colts (177) and Jacksonville Jaguars (184) have the fewest.

Officials have flagged NFC West teams 999 times, more than they've flagged teams from any other division. AFC East teams have drawn the fewest (828).

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The second chart shows NFC West individual leaders for 2011. Officials have flagged five players from the division more than once.

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