Zebra Watch #7

So much for the Chiefs having an officiating crew that doesn’t like to throw flags.

Last week at Arrowhead Stadium, Gene Steratore’s crew handled the Titans—Chiefs game. That group came in averaging nine penalties a game. Last Sunday, they had 16 flags, one of the most penalized games in the league. They split those evenly between the teams.

That performance knocked Steratore’s crew out of our top spot for fewest flags. That honor now belongs to Walt Coleman’s crew, averaging 9.3 penalties per game. The gap between least active and most active is closing a bit. Jeff Triplette’s crew is averaging 16.2 penalties per game. They had just 10 in their game last week.

That’s a 6.9 penalty gap. A month ago the difference between top and bottom was 10.5 penalties. Hopefully that means there’s more consistency in the officiating from crew to crew.

I do know this: if you are the home team and you see you’ve got Terry McAulay’s crew, you like your chances. The home team is 6-0 with that group in charge.

The best crews for road teams are Steratore, Bill Carollo and Tony Corrente. All have had visitors win four of their games this year.

WEEK #7

Home/Away numbers in red for winning team

2008 OVERALL