Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills are part of the NFL’s featured schedule for Week 12, on the road to face the Houston Texans for Thursday Night Football. So what might a national audience expect to find in terms of officiating? Well, you may want to plan accordingly because this crew brings with it the potential for a dragged-out evening of football.
The head official will be Adrian Hill, who has called 160 penalties on the year — good for second-most in the league. Funny enough, The Bills had Alex Moore’s team last week, which is the league-leading crew in penalties called. In the end, Moore only called nine total penalties in Bills-Buccaneers.
As for Hill, he will be a fresh face for both teams since neither Buffalo or Houston has had him as an official this season. The Bills had Hill and crew for two games in 2024: one against the New York Jets where 22 penalties were called, and one against the Detroit Lions where only 11 penalties were called.
The reason it could be a long game is because this crew has already called three games this season with at least 20 penalties levied. This includes last week’s game between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs. There has only been one game this season where he’s called single-digit penalties.
Expect a good amount of offensive holding penalties being called, since that’s the most popular penalty called by this crew. There’s potential for it to be magnified with right tackle Spencer Brown and left tackle Dion Dawkins having their hands full with the talented edge rushers of the Texans.
Defensive pass interference is their third-most-called penalty, so perhaps quarterback Josh Allen could try to get a call or two in the vertical passing attack. Hopefully fans don’t hear Hill too much during the game, but there’s a good chance his voice will be singing you to sleep.
