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Good and bad news for Buffalo: Referees assigned to Bills Chiefs AFC Championship game

Chris Pirrone

Sep 18, 2022; Paradise, Nevada, USA; NFL referee Clete Blakeman
Sep 18, 2022; Paradise, Nevada, USA; NFL referee Clete Blakeman / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Its no secret that many believe that NFL officiating crews seem to favor the Kansas City Chiefs.

Most NFL fans are well aware of the memes, media discourse and fan accusations about the Chiefs getting favorable calls, including suspect roughing the passer calls on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.

Here's what we know about Sunday's AFC Championship officiating crew

The officiating crew for this weeks AFC Championship game has been named. Clete Blakeman is the lead referee. Unfortunately, Blakeman's officiating crew has called the most penalties on average per game this season, averaging almost 16 penalties called per game.

Blakeman's crews called 252 penalties in 16 games, the highest penalty totals in the NFL this season, according to NFL Penalty Data.

The referee crews led by Blakeman handed out an average of 133 penalty yards per game.

Bills tackles Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown are both in the top 5 for most penalized players in the NFL this year, with a majority of calls against them due to false starts and holding.

The good news about the Blakeman officiating crew

There is also some positives for the Bills in this officiating assignment.

The Chiefs are only 6-5 when Blakeman is officiating. As Mike Sando of TheAthletic analyzed, this .545 winning percentage with Blakeman is one of the lowest of any officiating crew.

This is very favorable news for Buffalo, especially when compared to most other NFL officiating crews:

Mahomes has a 7-0 record when Clay Martin referees his games, counting the Chiefs’ 23-14 victory over the Houston Texans in the divisional round Saturday. but.Mahomes has undefeated records with lots of referees. He’s a combined 25-0 with Brad Rogers, Tra Blake, Jerome Boger, Adrian Hill, Scott Novak and Alan Eck.

- Mike Sando, TheAthletic

The last time Blakeman and his crew officiated a Chiefs game was January 25, 2023 against the Raiders. It was the last time the Chiefs, with Mahomes as the starting QB, have lost a game (other than their Week 11 loss to the Bills this year.) In the Raiders game, there were nine flags from Blakeman's crew totaling 64 yards, with five flags against the Chiefs. Most importantly, the Raiders were able to physically get after Mahomes, who only completed 61% of his passes, was sacked twice, and had three QB hits against him. The Raiders won 20-14.

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Chris Pirrone
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