The Tennessee Titans head back on the road this Sunday to face the Houston Texans after dropping their Week 16 contest to the Seattle Seahawks.
The Titans won their first game away from Nissan Stadium a few weeks back, and they now have the chance to win consecutive road games for the first time since 2022.
To do so, the Titans will have to break another streak.
After dominating the AFC South to start the new decade, Tennessee hasn’t won a division game over the last seven tries dating back to last season. That reality, combined with the Texans fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive, could lead to a very chippy contest.
Referee Scott Novak and his staff are tasked with keeping Sunday’s division contest in order.
This will be Novak’s first Titans game that he’s officiated this season. However, this will be the second Texans game in which he’s been the lead official, with the first being Houston’s Week 3 matchup with Jacksonville.
According to the NFLPenalties.com, Novak and his team have been one of the more lenient officiating crews this season.
After 14 games, his staff ranks in the bottom three when it comes to the number of flags thrown (182, tied-third fewest), penalties accepted (148, tied-third fewest) and penalty yardage (1,182, fewest).
Listed below are the top five most frequent penalties that Novak and his staff have called through the first 16 weeks, as well as the five that have been called the least.
Now that we’ve covered all of that, let’s take a closer look at the tendencies of this particular officiating crew in order to get a better idea of what to expect come Sunday afternoon.
Home and road penalty splits
- Number of penalties called on home teams: 77
- Penalty yardage on home teams: 603
- Number of penalties called on away teams: 71
- Penalty yardage on away teams: 579
Most-called penalties
- False start (31)
- Offensive holding (25)
- Delay of game (15)
- Defensive pass interference (13)
- Illegal contact (Nine)
Least-called penalties
- Offensive offsides (One)
- Intentional grounding (One)
- Illegal blindside block (One)
- Running into the kicker (One)
- Offensive pass interference (One)
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