Lions-Giants Referee: Crew Revealed for Week 8

Scott Novak

Getty Scott Novak draws the attention of Bruce Arians in 2016.

The Detroit Lions have had their problems with referee crews lately, and will once again be tested by another group new to the league in 2019, even if the referee isn’t new to the Lions.

Scott Novak gets the assignment for the game as the league revealed, and he will be working his first ever contest as a referee in a game featuring the New York Giants.

It’s not the first time Novak has ever worked a game featuring the Lions, however.


Novak’s History

Novak has been in the league since 2014, even though he has been a referee since only the start of 2019, he’s been a side judge for most of his career. In 2017, Novak was a field judge, and this season, he got the promotion to full time referee. Novak’s first game, ironically enough, was Detroit’s tangle with the Arizona Cardinals in the desert to open the season.

That day, Novak wasn’t known for any outlandish calls or rule interpretations, calling 16 total penalties on both Detroit and Arizona combined. In fact, Novak might actually be one of the better officials going in terms of consistency with calls. Only once this season has he flagged a team over 10 times, and that was the Indianapolis Colts in a game against the Oakland Raiders.

Novak has thrown 88 flags total this season. While that sum seems like a lot on the surface, it’s fair to remember plenty of referees have easily surpassed this total by this point of the season. If the Lions and Giants were hoping for a crew that will let them play, Novak is the closest thing to that going in the NFL right now.

This should be welcome news for the teams, even though a good referees in the NFL is a fluid term that can always change by the day or week.


More Referee Pain

The Lions weren’t doomed as much by the referees in Week 7 as they were in Week 6, but the fans still lashed out at the officials, booing them lustily when they entered the field and when they threw flags. Many folks dressed up as referees in the stands to show their frustration with the way the Lions lost to the Packers earlier in the week.

Detroit was the victims of some poor calls in that game, the reverberations of which are still being felt around the NFL. The two illegal hands to the face calls and an uncalled pass interference penalty were the two biggest problems in that game the Lions had to overcome. They couldn’t, and ended up losing the game.

Sunday, the officials weren’t the reason the Lions lost, but their own sloppiness on defense certainly was. The Lions need to be more disciplined and play better in order to score a win, regardless of what role the officials play.

The hope is Novak won’t play a large role in the game, and given some of the numbers, that could also be the expectation as well.

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