The Minnesota Vikings might already be at a disadvantage when they take on the Green Bay Packers this weekend inside U.S. Bank Stadium.
Whenever the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers get together, there always seem to be a few questionable calls made by the game officials during the matchup.
Vikings fans will gripe about the Packers offensive linemen never getting flagged for their holding habits that seem to occur during the majority of each contest while there are some Green Bay fans that are probably still mad about the laughable roughing the passer call on linebacker Clay Matthews when they faced Minnesota in 2018.
This week, we found out which officiating crew will be working Sunday’s game between the Vikings and Packers. Unfortunately, the recent history of the officials who will be on the field this weekend heavily favors the team that wears that ugly combination of green and mustard yellow.
Officiating crew favors Green Bay Packers on Sunday, not Minnesota Vikings
When Minnesota hosts their NFC North rivals inside U.S. Bank Stadium, the contest will be officiated by a crew led by Shawn Hochuli.
On Wednesday, former NFL executive Michael Lombardi passed along a little nugget related to Hochuli’s crew that isn’t going to excite anyone from the Vikings fan base.
"“The Packers and Vikings will be officiated by the Shawn Hochuli crew. The road team has won eight consecutive games officiated by Hochuli. Overall, home teams are 1-8 with Hochuli this season and 6-18 over the last two years.”"
So it looks like Minnesota, a team that has recently struggled with penalties, could have two opponents this weekend in both the Packers and the game officials.
Heading into Week 11, the Vikings are averaging the second-most penalties per game in the NFL (7.7). Conveniently, Green Bay has only been penalized 4.3 times per matchup this season, which is tied for the fewest in the league.
Hopefully, Minnesota can score enough points and create a large enough margin on Sunday that the calls made by the game officials won’t have an impact on the result. Otherwise, things could get ugly inside U.S. Bank Stadium this weekend.