The New Orleans Saints will remain at home this week for a third straight game (and a fourth straight week with the bye) to take on the Los Angeles Rams, and the referee has been announced as Brad Allen for this matchup. Allen has been one of the least interfering referees this season and has been pretty even in his calls for both home and away teams as well.
In games he has been the head referee, the Rams have a 6-5 record, and the Saints have a 5-4 record, so both are favorable but near even. Allen has already called a Rams game this season as well, their matchup with the Green Bay Packers, which ended in a Packers victory. In that game, he called 7 penalties for 39 yards against the Packers, and 5 penalties for 30 yards against the Rams, which is a very stingy game by all accounts.
So far this season, he has the second least penalty yards given overall with 860, and the only referee with less is John Hussey (who has been referee for two less games this season). He also has the fourth-fewest flags thrown on the season (the least of referees with at least 11 games called in 2024), and the third least flags per game (11.27).
Of those 11.27 flags, 5.09 per game were called against the home team, while 6.18 per game were called against the away team, so the Saints may end with a slight advantage there, but very minimal if so. Overall, Allen has been stingy with his flags this season, which could be good or bad, depending on how many actually occur on the field.
