When the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to Lucas Oil Stadium to take on the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4, Land Clark will be the head referee, according to a release from the NFL Communications department.
Clark has been a referee in the NFL for seven years and has several highly experienced referees on his crew. He also has a rookie line judge in former Pac-12 ref Jeff Hutcheon. This is Clark’s fifth season as a head referee, previously serving as a field judge.
The Steelers played in a game officiated by Clark last year in their Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Nine penalties were called against the Steelers in that game at home and six against the Cardinals.
If you are frustrated with the number of penalty flags thrown in the NFL this season, the Steelers-Colts game should be no exception. Clark and his crew are ranked second in flags thrown this season, with 50 across three games. That is despite the first game of the season having just seven total penalties.
In the two weeks since, Clark’s crew has thrown 21 and 22 penalty flags, respectively, for 175 and 177 total yards, per NFLPenalties.com. To be fair, his crew’s most common penalty call is a false start. They have 12 of those, which are usually pretty black and white.
The number of offensive holding calls could be interesting for the Steelers. The Steelers have five offensive holding calls against them through three games, but it should have a larger impact on the defense. T.J. Watt and some of the other pass rushers are constantly held, so that could benefit a Steelers defense that is already very tough to move the ball against.
As with the rest of the league, Clark’s crew calls a lot of illegal formation penalties, averaging two per game so far.
Up until Week 3, the Steelers were one of the most penalized teams in the league. Mike Tomlin vowed to correct those issues that were holding the team back from reaching its full potential. Ref crews were brought into practice throughout last week, which resulted in fewer penalties. There were just three penalties for 15 yards called against the Steelers. In Week 2, Broderick Jones committed three penalties in one drive, for comparison.
