It's another week in the 2025 NFL season, and the Patriots are falling victim to an unfortunately known official team on call for their upcoming game against the Browns on Sunday. That was the case last week, as well, as the referees presiding over their matchup against the Titans had been problematic with their calls so far this season.
It certainly doesn't help when a team like the Patriots has made a habit of making foolish mistakes that make it easy for flag-happy officials to penalize them. Hopefully, that won't be the case this weekend, but given the reputation that Alex Moore's crew has already developed this year, that might not matter.
In fact, Moore and Co. are currently leading the league in penalizing teams the most through the first seven weeks of the season, averaging 21.9 flags per game. The Patriots experienced that when the same officials were presiding over their game against the Dolphins earlier this year, when they threw 28 flags, 22 of which were accepted, with the Patriots taking 12 for a loss of 75 yards.
Here we go again...Alex Moore's crew leads the NFL throwing an average 21.9 flags per game. They're second in declined flags per game, at 4.
— Alex Barth (@RealAlexBarth) October 22, 2025
Moore's crew previously worked the Patriots-Dolphins game in Week 2. They threw 28 total flags in that game. https://t.co/Y2D4Tj2toW
While blaming the referees is never a good look for any team or their fanbase, it's hard not to when they make their presences known as much as a group like Moore's has this season, and that could become a storyline for the Patriots again on Sunday.
The Patriots continue to be on the unfortunate side of bad referee crews this season
A point of emphasis this season, reiterated by Mike Vrabel, has been to avoid doing anything that could lead to piling up penalties in any given game. Of course, all teams practice to avoid being flagged for ridiculous things, but the Patriots haven't been too good at it so far this year.
They have to be especially careful in that regard, given that the official crew is known for penalizing teams the most in the league, and that will be the case this week with Moore's group. That will inevitably lead to some questionable calls, yet the Patriots need to avoid giving them any leeway to penalize them even more.
Those are the kinds of things that set a team up to lose, and they are in no position to have to fight against penalties to win a game.
If they want to continue their impressive win streak and regain a sense of home-field advantage, they cannot allow referees to interfere with that goal. There's no reason to make careless mistakes that lead to a loss of yardage beyond the expected infractions.
Given how significant that has been this season, the hope is that it won't continue once the games start to matter a bit more, like this week's matchup against the Browns. They'll have a lot of work to do to ensure they're going down the right path, and that starts in this game.