Eight-year NFL referee Ron Torbert and his crew have been scheduled to officiate the New Orleans Saints’ Week 2 game with the Carolina Panthers, per Football Zebras. Torbert did not work a single Saints game in 2020 after doing so twice in 2019, and New Orleans has a 5-2 record in games he has refereed. Before being promoted in 2014, he spent four years working as a side judge.
Last week, Torbert’s crew were assigned to the Giants-Broncos game. They called 9 fouls (tied for the second-fewest in the league for Week 1) for 99 penalty yards (sixth-fewest), though a pair of the flags were declined. It included two unnecessary roughness fouls against each team as well as two pass interference penalties on the Broncos defense. The Saints secondary must continue to be careful in coverage.
And in 2020, Torbert’s three most-frequent foul calls were false starts, offensive holding, and defensive pass interference. For added context, here is how the Saints, Panthers, and Torbert’s crew compared to the NFL average last season, per NFLPenalies.com:
| Defensive pass interference | Offensive holding | False starts | Total penalties | |
| Torbert | 1.19 | 1.75 | 1.81 | 11.1 |
| New Orleans | 1.06 | 0.83 | 0.67 | 5.98 |
| Carolina | 0.44 | 0.75 | 0.69 | 5.09 |
| NFL average | 0.58 | 0.89 | 0.96 | 5.39 |
