Expect more penalty flags this week

The Eagles are the 3rd most penalized team per game in the league entering their Sunday Night Football match up against the Cowboys. They’ll probably end the game even higher on the list.

The NFL has assigned the crew headed by Jerome Boger to call the Eagles-Cowboys game. Boger’s crew has given out the most penalties per game.

Boger's crew averages 20.3 penalty flags per game, as the first chart shows, and it has called between 18 and 24 in each of its six previous outings in 2016. The NFL average is 16.5 calls per game, and Boger's total is 72.6 percent higher than referee Walt Coleman, whose crew has averaged 11.7 penalties per game.

Two weeks ago Boger’s crew called 23 penalties in the Monday Night Football game between the Jets and the Cardinals.

In a way, this might be a small advantage for the Eagles. The Eagles high amount of penalties are largely in part to their own undisciplined play, but they’ve also had a bunch of close calls go against them. They average 10.2 penalties per game, 3rd worst in the league. So they’re used to a lot of penalties. The Cowboys on the other hand are relatively penalty free, averaging just 6.6 penalties per game, the 4th fewest. A high penalty game from a tight officiating crew could help the Eagles by taking the Cowboys out of their element. Or it could hurt them and kill a scoring drive.