Week 2 Officiating: Meet Ron Torbert and Crew
Name: Ron Torbert
Age: 62
Promoted To Referee: 2014
Last Game: 09/13/26 ARZ @ LAC
Last Lions Game: 11/27/25 – DET 24 @ GB 31
The Green Bay Packers committed 3 penalties for 20 yards. They were flagged a total of 4 times.
The Detroit Lions committed 5 penalties for 22 yards. They were flagged a total of 5 times.
Together there were 8 penalties for 42 yards. There were 9 total flags in this game.
Notable
Much like the Week 1 Alan Eck crew, Torbert's crew remained largely intact form last season, with a handful of changes including a new Down Judge (Daniel Gallagher) coming over form Carl Cheffers crew, and a new Line Judge (Tripp Sutter) form Bill Vinovich. Torbert's crew also added Jonathan Schwanbeck as replay Assistant, who was in the American Conference last season.
Based on Week 1 where this crew issued 15 flags to ARZ and LAC in week 1, including multiple false starts, Offensive Holding and DPI, they appear to be at their 2025 levels. Last year they had an emphasis on the line of scrimmage, but in Week 1 while the Offensive Holding and False Start penalties still led the way, this group also called several DPI (not a top 5 penalty in 2025), a face Mask, and an Illegal Block above the waist. The offensive holding and DPI align with both the Lions and Bills tendencies, so this game could end up being a flag fest, as Torbert's crew was 6th in the NFL in flags per game last year, but they do tend to throw 1.5 more flags per game more against the home team than the visitors, which will benefit the Lions.
While no Bill received more than one flag last week, their DBs accumulated five of the 12 flags thrown on them. The Lions meanwhile had Ya-sin with two of the nine flags (illegal contact and DPI) while the OL had three more (two Holds on Ratledge and Bartch and false Start on Sewell). The secondary as a whole had four of the nine, the two for ya-Sin and a DPI on reed (picked up) and a Illegal Use of Hands by Abney.
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