NFL tells referees to call playoffs like regular season

There is the perception that the referees let more things slide in the playoffs to let the players determine the outcome of the game. That means some things that get called during the regular season and might not get called during the postseason.

That might not be the case anymore with the NFL telling officials to call the playoffs like they would the regular season.

From Pro Football Talk:

"NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino said in a video distributed to the media that although the NFL saw a decline in penalties per game from the regular season into the wild card round, that isn’t the intent of the league. Instead, Blandino has told his officials that a penalty in the regular season should be a penalty in the playoffs, and a play they’d let go in the regular season should be a play they let go in the playoffs.“The philosophy in the postseason, the direction is no different from the regular season when we talk with our officials,” Blandino said. “We want them to call the game the same way. I know fouls were down this weekend, but the direction is the same, we want them to call the game the same way all year. We’ve told our officials, don’t be overly technical, we don’t want to call what you’d consider ticky-tack fouls. We want to make sure the fouls are there and we’re getting flags down when they are there, and not letting teams take advantage or push the envelope. That’s been the direction all year and it will continue to be the direction during the postseason.”"

Of course this doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen. The officials won’t want to be impacting the outcome of games.