Detroit Lions Draw Lenient Official For Second Time This Season

The Lions will have a familiar face officiating their game in Germany.

Referee Clay Martin. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The officiating crew for the Detroit Lions' Week 10 game against the New England Patriots in Munich has been revealed.

When the Lions take the field at 9:30 a.m. E.T., their game will be reffed by Clay Martin and his crew. It will be Martin's second Lions game of the season, with the first being their Week 4 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

In that game, there were 17 penalties with nine on the Panthers and eight on the Lions. Detroit was penalized for four false starts, a defensive pass interference, an offensive holding and two delay of game penalties during the loss.

Martin is coming off a Week 9 game where he threw a career-high in penalty flags with 23 penalties between the Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys. It was the first game where his crew had called 20 or more penalties, as he hadn't had a game with more than 17 up to that point.

The veteran official has actually presided over two games where there have been less than 10 total penalties. For the season, his crew ranks fifth amongst all officiating crews in terms of penalties called.

However, that number is skewed by the fact that he hasn't had a bye week yet, as his per-game count of 13.44 is fifth-lowest. As a result, it can be inferred that Martin's crew could be a bit more lenient for Sunday's international contest. Martin ranks sixth in the league in dismissed flags per game at 2.56.

Martin's two most frequent whistles are for offensive holding and false start. He has called 29 offensive holding penalties, and 22 false starts. As a result, it can be inferred that there will be plenty of eyes on the line of scrimmage in Sunday's game.

Detroit is tied-for-18th in offensive holding penalties this year with 12, which equates to 1.5 a game through the eight games they've played this year. As for false starts, the Lions are tied-for-seventh in the league with 15.

New England is just ahead of Detroit in holding penalties with 14, while they have had less false start penalties with 12.

The Lions are now 5-6 with Martin as the head official in his career after the loss to the Panthers earlier this season.

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