The most penalty-heavy crew in the NFL this season is walking straight into the most penalized team. Referee Scott Novak will work Panthers at Packers on Thursday night at Lambeau Field (8:15 p.m. ET on Prime Video, 2:15 a.m. Friday in Cairo), according to the Week 8 referee assignments, and his crew has averaged 20.1 accepted penalties per game through seven weeks.
That is the highest average among the league’s 17 crew chiefs and well above the leaguewide figure of 14.7 per game. Green Bay, meanwhile, comes in flagged 9.3 times per game, the most of any team, and Carolina is not far behind at 8.7.
Novak’s crew has flipped its old style
The number stands out because it is so far from Novak’s history. From 2015 through 2025, games his crew worked averaged 11.7 accepted penalties, one of the lighter touches among referees, and his 2025 crew averaged 11.8. This season his seven games have produced 141 accepted penalties for 1,303 yards, about 186 penalty yards a game.
- Week 1, Ravens at Colts: 14 penalties
- Week 2, Packers at Jets: 27 penalties, 14 of them on Green Bay
- Week 3, Vikings at Buccaneers: 17 penalties
- Week 4, Chargers at Seahawks: 30 penalties
- Week 5, Bills at Rams: 24 penalties
- Week 6, Bears at Falcons: 16 penalties
- Week 7, Browns at Titans: 13 penalties
Last Sunday’s game in Nashville was Novak’s lightest of the year. But the Packers already know this crew: their Week 2 trip to the Jets was the second most penalized game Novak has worked this season.
The Carolina Panthers return to Lambeau Field in two days ⏳
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) October 27, 2026
The Packers are still angry about Detroit
The timing is awkward for Green Bay. The Packers left Ford Field on Sunday furious about a third-quarter unnecessary roughness call on Devonte Wyatt that set up a Lions touchdown, and referee Alex Moore’s explanation that the play “was over” did not calm anyone down. Green Bay was also flagged twice more for roughing the passer, making eight this season. Our story on the Packers and the officiating in Detroit has the full breakdown. Thursday’s game comes on a short week, with no time for the league to answer those complaints before kickoff.
Alex Moore gets Sunday night
Moore is not sitting this week out. His crew, fourth in the league at 17.7 penalties per game, has Eagles at Commanders on Sunday night at 8:20 p.m. ET (3:20 a.m. Monday in Cairo), the game the league kept in the Week 8 primetime slot despite both teams’ losing records. Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni is one of the three coaches whose $250,000 fines for conduct toward officials are on hold for the rest of the season, as long as there are no more outbursts. More on that deal is in our story on the coaches’ fines.
Adrian Hill, whose crew is third at 17.8 per game in the five games he has worked, has Colts at Jaguars. Hill missed Week 5 after the league suspended him for one game for his conduct toward a player in Week 4. Craig Wrolstad, second at 18.0, has Vikings at Lions, which puts the busiest crew after Novak’s on the least penalized team in football: Minnesota is flagged 5.7 times a game.
The rest of the Week 8 slate
Sunday, Nov. 1, all times Eastern:
- Clay Martin: Ravens at Bills, 1 p.m.
- Brad Allen: Titans at Bengals, 1 p.m.
- Ron Torbert: Cardinals at Cowboys, 1 p.m.
- Craig Wrolstad: Vikings at Lions, 1 p.m.
- Adrian Hill: Colts at Jaguars, 1 p.m.
- John Hussey: Raiders at Jets, 1 p.m.
- Alex Kemp: Browns at Steelers, 1 p.m.
- Alan Eck: Falcons at Buccaneers, 1 p.m.
- Brad Rogers: Chargers at Rams, 4:05 p.m.
- Clete Blakeman: Chiefs at Broncos, 4:25 p.m.
- Shawn Hochuli: Patriots at Dolphins, 4:25 p.m.
- Alex Moore: Eagles at Commanders, 8:20 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 2: Shawn Smith has Bears at Seahawks at 8:15 p.m. ET. Carl Cheffers, Land Clark and Bill Vinovich are off this week. Vinovich worked the league’s first game in France on Sunday, where Saints fans booed him for about 45 seconds at the coin toss.
Clay Martin’s crew is at the other end of the table. It has called 11.6 penalties per game, the fewest of any crew, and gets Ravens at Bills, one of the three big early games on Sunday.
Why the flag count matters
Penalties are up across the league. Through Week 7, the 107 games played have produced 1,570 accepted penalties. Troy Vincent, the league’s executive vice president of football operations, said at last week’s owners meeting that the 1,398 penalties called through Week 6 were the second most in NFL history, and he blamed part of that on starters skipping the preseason.
Roger Goodell has said the count alone is not a fair way to judge the officials. “Number of fouls can’t be an evaluation of officiating, necessarily,” the commissioner said last week. “Because we don’t commit the fouls, right? The officials are there to call the fouls, when they exist.” Thursday in Green Bay will test that idea, with the league’s most penalized team facing its busiest crew. We used the same approach for the Week 6 assignments.
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