This column -- a collaboration with NFL officiating guru Joe Gibbs -- went 37-23 (plus 11.7 units) last season using referee tendencies in our handicapping. We're off to a 2-1 start this year. We hit the Under 42.5 in Steelers-Falcons (18-10 Pittsburgh win) and squeaked out a cover on Seahawks -5.5 (26-20 Seattle win), but missed badly on Browns -2.5.

Gibbs (not the Hall of Fame coach, the NFL referee expert who tweets @NFLrefstats1) is working with SportsLine again to deliver three weekly bets. Before you make any Week 2 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.

A former lead writer for Covers and The Linemakers, Hartstein combines a vast network of Vegas sources with an analytical approach he honed working for Pro Football Focus. Hartstein tied for 52nd place (out of 1,598 entries) in the 2022 Westgate Las Vegas SuperContest, going 53-34-3 ATS. His weekly contest selections form the basis of his NFL best bets column, which is 81-49-2 (62.3%, +26.85 units) since its inception in 2022.

We can tell you Hartstein and Gibbs are betting the Giants +2 (DraftKings) at Washington, in part because ref Scott Novak drew the assignment.

Home teams are 28-49-3 ATS (37%) in Novak's career, the lowest ATS percentage of any referee since his debut in 2019. In addition, divisional home teams are 10-20-1 ATS (33%) in Novak's career. 

Over the past two seasons, Novak's crew has called an above-average 52% of its overall penalties on the home team. That continued in Week 1 when his crew called seven penalties on the host Chargers and just two on the visiting Raiders. (Los Angeles won 22-10 anyway).

The Commanders committed five of their seven penalties last Sunday on third down, the most impactful down.

Hartstein and Gibbs also are sharing key officiating angles in Colts-Packers and Rams-Cardinals. You need to see this key referee data before locking in your picks!

So what's the play for Cowboys-Browns? And what other officiating edges can be found on the Week 1 slate? ... Join SportsLine right now to see Larry Hartstein's Week 1 NFL officiating trends, all from the expert who is up 25.95 units on his NFL picks!