Shawn Hochuli Is Officiating Sunday’s Steelers-Cowboys Game: Prepare Yourself For Offensive Penalties

Shawn Hochuli is slated to officiate the Pittsburgh Steelers Week 5 primetime matchup against the Dallas Cowboys. Which could mean plenty of flags on each offense. Per the nflrefstats Twitter/X account, Hochuli has the highest rate of offensive penalties of any referee in football.

Hochuli has served as an NFL referee since 2014. If his name sounds familiar, he is the son of Ed Hochuli, one of the most well-known officials in NFL history.

So far, the Steelers haven’t been overly penalized on offense. They rank about average in false starts (four) and holdings (five). The Cowboys have been flagged more often, six false starts and eight holdings. Overall, Dallas has been flagged more as a team, 32 to Pittsburgh’s 28.

In Week 4’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts, Pittsburgh’s offense was penalized three times. Once for unnecessary roughness on OG Spencer Anderson, once for delay of game, and once for a false start on OG Mason McCormick.

Sunday night’s contest will be the first Steelers’ game Hochuli has worked this season. He officiated two of their games last year. Pittsburgh went 1-1 in those contests, falling to the Cleveland Browns but beating the Seattle Seahawks. In the former, the Steelers were penalized six times to the Browns one while in the latter, the Steelers were flagged twice while the Seahawks were penalized four times. Dating back to 2020, the Steelers are 5-1 in games Hochuli has served as head referee.