NFL Week 18 Officiating Angles: Finding Edges in Broncos-Raiders, Falcons-Saints and Cowboys-Commanders

We went 2-1 last week, bringing this column to 32-19 (+11.1 units) on the year. We cashed the Chiefs and Raiders against the spread, but lost on the Steelers-Seahawks Under. 

Now, with the final regular-season slate fast approaching, we have isolated three Sunday games in which officiating assignments could affect the betting outcomes.

Joe Gibbs (not the Hall of Fame coach, the NFL referee expert who tweets @NFLrefstats1) is collaborating with SportsLine this season to provide weekly, referee-based betting angles. He analyzes the NFL ref assignments from the moment they're released each Tuesday.

Before you make any Week 18 NFL picks or NFL parlays, you need to see what Gibbs and SportsLine senior analyst Larry Hartstein have to say about the officiating crews' tendencies.

We can tell you Hartstein and Gibbs are betting Under 38.5 (FanDuel) in Broncos-Raiders, in part because Shawn Hochuli drew the assignment. In Hochuli's career, the Under is 26-11-1 (70%) in divisional games.

This will be the Raiders' second game with Hochuli this season, the first a 16-12 home win over the Jets that also stayed Under.

"Hochuli is calling 20% of overall penalties on defensive backs this season, below the NFL average of 24.5%," Gibbs noted. "This crew has called the fewest defensive pass interference penalties and is tied for the fewest illegal contact flags."

Hartstein also is sharing key officiating angles in Falcons-Saints and Cowboys-Commanders! You need to see this critical referee data before locking in your picks!

So what's the play for Cowboys-Commanders? And what other officiating edges can be found on the Week 18 slate? ... Join SportsLine right now to see Larry Hartstein's Week 18 NFL officiating trends, all from the expert who went 53-34-3 in the SuperContest last year!