Cowboys at 49ers referee report: A familiar face on call for Sunday Night Football

Here is what you need to know about tonight’s officials.

The Cowboys have done their time on the bye week and are now ready to get back to football. Hopefully, they come out playing better than they did last time we saw them, but doing so with a road trip to face the 49ers won’t have anyone feeling optimistic. Before we check in on the referee crew for this prime time game, let’s take a look at how the Cowboys have fared with the flag all season long.

Our referee report for the Lions game labeled the officiating assignment as one that was favorable to the Cowboys, and that was reflected in them drawing half as many flags as the Lions. It still made no difference on the final score, but that’s an indictment of how bad the Cowboys played.

As it stands now, Dallas has fewer penalties called on them than on their opponents, and they also rank 13th in penalties and 15th in penalty yards. Some of that is impacted by the bye week, but the Cowboys are in a good enough spot thus far to not have to worry about penalties. That should remain the case with this week’s assignment.

Bill Vinovich is the most senior official in the NFL, though not the longest tenured. He reached the league as a side judge back in 2001, and made his way up to head referee status for the 2004 season. However, after just three seasons he was forced to retire due to a near-fatal heart condition that required emergency surgery.

After taking considerable time to recover, Vinovich returned to the sidelines as a substitute referee for the 2012 season. He had been a replay assistant in between all of this, but that season marked his return to actually officiating. The next year, Vinovich was back to the regular schedule of a head referee, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Vinovich has built a strong reputation as an official who lets teams play. It’s rare that his crew throws the flag ad nauseam, and last year marked only the second time in his long career that Vinovich’s crew assessed 200+ penalties in a year; even then, Vinovich was one of just two referees to call an 18th game last year, and that was what put him over.

There have been five seasons throughout Vinovich’s career as a head referee that his crew has finished dead last in the league in penalties called. A vast majority of his years have seen his crew in the bottom three as well. Simply put, Vinovich just doesn’t throw the flag that much. So far this year, he’s thrown the fifth-fewest flags, true to form.

Historically, Vinovich has been good news for the home team, with the host having a 134-113 record all-time. However, that has flip-flopped as of late, coinciding with a general decline in homefield advantage across the NFL. Since 2017, the home team is just 57-67 in games called by Vinovich, and they’re 1-5 this season. Interestingly, four of those five road wins featured the underdog winning; Dallas is a 4.5-point underdog currently.

All in all, Vinovich has called 19 Cowboys games as a head referee, with ten of them coming on the road. The Cowboys are 5-5 in those games, and 2-2 since 2017 when road teams started winning more under Vinovich. He was also on call for the Cowboys’ second postseason loss to the 49ers under Mike McCarthy, which came in San Francisco.

Vinovich has called 15 games for the 49ers, and ten of them have been in San Francisco. They’re 4-6 in those games, and are specifically 1-5 since 2017. For those good at math, that means the only time the 49ers have won a home game under Vinovich during the time that road teams have started winning more under the referee was against the Cowboys in the playoffs following that 2022 season. Of course.

Vinovich has been around long enough to establish a very reliable trend with his games. His crew won’t be too strict on teams, and instead lets them play the game with minimal interference. That used to mean a larger homefield advantage, but lately it’s flipped the opposite way and allowed visitors to play with a more even playing field. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Cowboys should win this one, but it does provide one less excuse for not coming out of this one victorious.