I'd probably go with incompetence, but there are certainly arguments to be made that that level of incompetence isn't possible. As a Cowboys fan, I see a lot of this. I think it was the recent win at Philly where the Eagles were not called for a single penalty. Doesn't seem implausible, but it's actually pretty rare. I think I read it has only happened 15-20 times in the last 5 years, or something, and the Cowboys have been the opposing team in 5 of those games. That's even more unlikely.
In football, when holding occurs on every play, any major discrepancy is penalties makes the game completely suspect.
But they are also incompetent, and laughably biased to help offenses.
Holding, false starts (seriously, linemen move on like every play before the snap), and OPI aren’t called nearly enough. Plus terrible passes that aren’t catchable unless a receiver can phase through a defender like a ghost are called dpi, plus the uncatchable balls that still get flagged, like the one to win the saints/vikes nfc title game a decade ago.
Plus dpi is way to strep for the crime in the nfl. It can totally change a game. Same with 5 yard defensive holding being an auto first down on 3rd and 11.
And then just the general biases toward some teams and QBs. It’s just not a good product.
CFB refs aren’t much better, but at least we get fun innovative offenses.