A hypercritical eye on officiating has been one of the central themes to the 2015 season. That will remain the case on Sunday for the conference championship games.

The fun begins at 3 p.m. when the Denver Broncos host the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship. To the chagrin of some Patriots fans, the lead official will be Ed Hochuli.

Since 2010, the Patriots are 3-4 in games officiated by the muscular official. The last time Hochuli officiated a Patriots game was last November when the Pats won 27-26 over the New York Giants on a last second Stephen Gostkowski field goal.

However, the Patriots were called for 93 yards in penalties, while the Giants were called for 49 yards worth of infractions.

Oh, as for the Broncos record in Hochuli-officiated games since 2000?

7-0.

Yes, that spans a different era of Broncos football but that’s pretty weird.