NFL announces officials for Panthers’ wild-card playoff game vs. Rams

On Saturday at 4:30 pm, the Panthers and Rams will officially kickstart the NFL playoffs. When they do, they'll have Clete Blakeman and his team of referees calling the game. Thankfully, it's not Brad Allen, who is being tasked with the Jags-Bills contest.

What is interesting and perhaps disheartening is that there's no repercussion for Allen's horrible, game-altering miscues in Saturday's Week 18 contest in Tampa Bay. The crew was positively dreadful, making wrong call after wrong call.

Yet, here they are, in the playoffs. It is alarming, but the good news is that the Panthers won't have to deal with it. They could, in theory, see Allen again if they manage to stay alive in the playoffs, but that's a problem to be solved another day if they survive the weekend.

There are some interesting things to note about Blakeman:

• High penalty frequency (averages over 15 per game)
• Averages 129.4 penalty yards per game, suggesting that more penalties are in the 10-15-yard range

Perhaps most interesting is that Clete Blakeman reffed the Panthers' biggest game ever: Super Bowl 50. No fan has forgotten some of the rulings in that game, such as the Jerricho Cotchery "drop" or the batted fumble that should've been ruled dead on the touch.

Regardless, that was a long time ago, and it probably has no bearing on this game. And after what the Panthers went through last week, let's all hope they get a much fairer penalty flag this time around.