I still believe it was a quick whistle, but I'll stop pretending when you stop pretending that this was the worst officiated game ever. If you have watched as much football as you claim, you know that that's a gross over-statement. Some of the playoff games were worse. Are we now going to say all the playoff games were "fixed"? Yes, the 'Hawks had some questions about some calls, but they blamed themselves more than anything. I've seen coaches and players MUCH more upset about the reffing after a game than the 'Hawks were. Again, most of the calls in question could have gone either way. Was the OPI against Jackson ticky-tacky? Yes, a bit. I said so to my wife as we were watching the game; however, PI is frequently called when I believe it shouldn't be or not called when contact is much more severe than when it is. It's called inconsistently, no question. Had that been a DEFENDER pushing off on a WR to get the ball, they would call it 100 times out of 100. Doesn't the DB supposedly have as much right to the ball? Had that call not been made, the Steelers would be whining. Jackson clearly gained an advantage by pushing off. It allowed him to change direction to get back to the ball, and it got him seperation from the DB. Yes, it was a big call, but it was going to be no matter what the refs called or didn't call. Either way, the refs were going to be criticized. Same thing with the Big Ben's TD. Why did the ref run in spotting the ball, then change it to a TD? I don't know. Regardless of the call, it was going to get reviewed. Would the replay official reverse the call to a TD if he had been called short? Who knows? Would the Steelers have gone for it on 4D? They say YES. What was their 4D conversion rate on the season? 100%.
If somebody wants to say the Steelers got most of the close calls to go their way, I won't argue, but as I said before, the calls usually favor one team or the other in a game, sometimes more drastically than in other games.
Refs are human and they have a very difficult job to do. Instant replay has helped some. It just gets tiring to read the same garbage after every time there's a game where one team feels they got the short end of the stick from the refs. Knee-jerk fans make all kinds of wild accusations without a shred of proof that the game was "fixed" by the refs, league, networks, sportsbooks, or some "they" who wanted a certain outcome.
Another play I'm unsure what should have been ruled was where Darrell Jackson's 2nd foot goes out of bounds and therefore no catch and TD. Makes sense. However, that 2nd foot hits the endzone pylon, knocking it down, before he steps out of bounds. I always thought the pylon was an extension of the endzone and if you hit it TD. I guess that doesn't count if you have not established possession in bounds first. Do you know for sure?
I don't recall his 2nd foot hitting the pylon. I could be wrong, but the way I recall it, his left foot was already down when he made the catch. His right foot was in the air when he caught the ball and then it stepped clearly out of bounds. I think his LEFT foot then hit the pylon, but after his right foot was already out. Again, I could be wrong, but that's what I remember.
The Indy game had some bad calls and it certainly appeared that the officials were favoring Indy over Pitt. But not to the extent of this game.
With regard to the PI nullifying the TD. I saw the defender slap Jackson's arm and then grab it before he pushes him off. The ref, who was standing about 10 feet from them, only saw the push-off. I'd sure like to hear the ref state to the media what he saw.
I've never seen a spot call changed to a TD without another ref talking to the original spotter first. That didn't happen here and no other ref signalled TD, nor were any of them in position to either. Again, we'll never hear from the ref on why he changed his call, because the NFL is the NFL and the ref's are above it all. But we all saw him signal the runner (BenR) down at least 2 or 3 times, then signal TD. That is utter crap.
Watch the one-foot play again, if you can. The 2nd foot (right I think) knocks the pylon down before it lands fully out of bounds. Nobody said anything. I'm not sure how it should be ruled because the pylon rule might require infield possession before the play is allowable. This may have been the right call.
The phanton holding call outright changed the game. The PI call should have been against the defender, if called, because the defender initiated the first contract. Although I've seen it called both ways during the season.
Only one team was flagged less times during the season than Seattle. That was Carolina. This is an extremely disciplined team.
I never (nor did the commentators) saw the phantom holding call that erased a 1st down conversion to the 1 yard line. Neither did anyone else.
And calling a "Low Block" against the ball carrier is not possible. Why Leavy didn't waive that penalty off is another question I would like ansered. The only call they could have made was unnecessary roughness. Who thinks Hassleback was too rough on the interceptor?
While I was watching this specticle, I kept expecting a Raider game to break out.
Take care fellow football fan. See you here next season.