Veteran referee Craig Wrolstad has been assigned to Week 8’s New Orleans game, yet another road trip to face an AFC opponent: the Indianapolis Colts. But there’s some good news. New Orleans is 7-3 in games Wrolstad has refereed, and his experienced crew is one of the better-regarded outfits around the league.
Wrolstad has worked as a referee since 2014; before that, he spent 11 years in the NFL as a field judge. This season his squad has thrown just 82 penalty flags (22 of them dismissed), with their 60 accepted penalties ranking third-lowest among the 17 officiating crews. Their 564 penalty yards rank sixth-fewest.
But 33 of those fouls have come against visiting teams, with 27 going against the home team. Like with many other crews, Wrolstad’s squad has signaled more infractions for offensive holding (10) and false starts (9) than anything else, though they’re vigilant for defensive pass interference penalties (6 of them for 137 yards).
What’s concerning is that they’ve flagged visiting teams 5 times for DPI and just once on the home team, so the handsy Saints secondary must play clean football in front of them. New Orleans leads the league with 10 DPI fouls for 176 yards; no other team has more than 6 of them.
Here’s who has been at fault on those DPI penalties:
- Paulson Adebo: 4 foul on 185 cover snaps
- Marshon Lattimore: 2 fouls on 272 cover snaps
- Alontae Taylor: 1 time on 242 cover snaps
- Pete Werner: 1 time on 224 cover snaps
- Marcus Maye: 1 time on 145 cover snaps
- Isaac Yiadom: 1 time on 95 cover snaps
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