Buffalo Rumblings
A big AFC East rivalry will be renewed during Sunday Night Football in Week 5, with the Buffalo Bills hosting the New England Patriots for one final clash at the original Highmark Stadium. To mark the occasion, the Bills will roll out their new NFL/Nike Rivals uniforms for the first time, with whiteout conditions expected to blanket the evening air around Maye.
This week, referee Shawn Hochuli and his crew will brave the early October conditions in Western New York, and also the wrath from a crowed set to “whiteout.” That’s right, the son of the man whose biceps are the stuff of NFL legend will put his own arms on display Sunday evening.
The younger and now also veteran Hochuli has called 61 total flags this season, which is tied for fourth-most among officials in the league. Hochuli’s arms got in a lot of work in his last game officiating the Los Angeles Chargers against the New York Giants — a game where he called 22 total penalties.
Interestingly, in Hochuli’s other three games this season he’s called exactly 13 penalties each. Last season, neither the Bills nor the Patriots played a game that was officiated by Hochuli.
There’s nothing really out of the ordinary when it comes to the kind of penalties Hochuli and his crew calls. The leading one is offensive holding (called 11 times) followed by false starts (nine calls). Now he does call
defensive offside a bit (seven), which could just be a coincidence or maybe it’s something his crew focuses on. One last thing worth mentioning is that the away teams in three out of four games with Hochuli’s crew were called for more penalties than the home team.
