Commanders receive news that could easily lead to a frustrating NFC Championship Game against Eagles
The Washington Commanders are preparing to take on the Philadelphia Eagles for the third time this season, except this time there's a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.The teams split the regular season series and the winner of the third meeting will officially punch its ticket to New Orleans to take on the […]
The Washington Commanders are preparing to take on the Philadelphia Eagles for the third time this season, except this time there's a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
The teams split the regular season series and the winner of the third meeting will officially punch its ticket to New Orleans to take on the winner of the AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.
Sunday's game won't be an easy task, by any means, even if the Commanders beat the Eagles in a 36-33 thriller back in Week 16. Philadelphia is one of the NFL's best teams, but Washington received some news on Monday that has a very good chance at making the matchup harder – and even frustrating.
The league announced referee crews for Championship Sunday and the Commanders drew the unlucky assignment of Shawn Hochuli and Co. Per NFLpenalties.com, Hochuli's crew threw the third-most penalties per game during the regular season at 17.13 flags per game. 6.75 of said flags were attributed to the home team, 7.06 went to the away team, and 3.31 were dismissed. In all, they threw 274 flags over the course of 16 games, 221 of which were accepted.
False starts and offensive holding are Hochuli's top flags. His crew is tied for the fourth-most offensive holding penalties per game, at 2.88. That's certainly going to be under the microscope in a game where the Commanders are taking on a very talented defensive front without their best offensive lineman in Sam Cosmi. The Commanders were flagged for holding 27 times in 2024 and 21 were accepted, which places them in the middle of the pack, essentially.
What's most worrisome, though, is the fact that 69 of the 274 thrown flags came in the fourth quarter. That's just a little more than 25%, which is a fairly high amount. NFLpenalties.com didn't offer information pertaining to score differential in regarding the flags, unfortunately.
The NFL has come under fire this season for questionable refereeing and things really hit a head on Saturday during the Chiefs-Houston Texans game. Hopefully this weekend's games are without controversy, but that's obviously not guaranteed.
The one bright side to this is at least the Commanders didn't draw Clete Blakeman and crew – they threw the most penalty flags per game during the regular season and about 24.5% of their flags were thrown in the fourth quarter, as well.
A Commanders loss isn't ideal, but if they do lose, hopefully it's by their own undoing and not the people in white and black.
