The New Orleans Saints will stay home for the third straight year (and fourth straight with the bye) this week to take on the Los Angeles Rams. Brad Allen was announced as the referee for this game. Allen has been one of the least intrusive referees this season and has been fairly balanced in his decisions for both home and away teams.
In games he has been the primary referee, the Rams have a 6-5 record and the Saints have a 5-4 record, so both are favorable but nearly even. Allen has already called one Rams game this season, their match against the Green Bay Packers, which ended in a win for the Packers. 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 close game by any measure.
So far this season he has taken the second-fewest total penalties with 860, and the only referee with fewer is John Hussey (who refereed two fewer games this season). He also has the fourth-fewest flags thrown this season (the fewest referee with at least 11 plays called in 2024) and the third-fewest flags per game (11.27).
Of those 11.27 flags, 5.09 were called per game against the home team, while 6.18 were called per game against the away team, so the Saints may end up with a slight lead there, albeit a very minimal one. Overall, Allen has been stingy with his flags this season, which could be good or bad depending on how many actually show up on the field.
