The refs handed the Ravens that game on a silver platter!
I'm pissed!
I was at that game last night! I'll tell you how bad that officiating was, I was in the bleachers between 527 and 528, behind those white tents, and that play that was reviewed to see if it was a catch, I saw him bobbling it the whole time from up there and was baffled when they marked it a 1st down. If that wouldn't have been inside the 2:00 warning Pittsburgh would have had to use a challenge to get that reviewed. And that challenge Tomlin lost they showed that on the big screen and you could see the ball shift when he hit the ground, again just baffled when it stood. That's when the place erupted into the "BS" chant. I just watched the game winning TD on NFL.com, since they wouldn't replay it on the big screen at the game, and saw how Smith shoved Gay backwards 3 times while that ball was in the air. How was that not pass interference against the Ravens??? And of course the defenseless receiver hit called on Clark was bad. He caught the ball and landed and Clark timed that hit so perfect it was beautiful, but got flagged for it! So of course that kept them alive to get a FG right before the half. But Lewis gets away with that hit on Ward, and of course Harbaugh challenges it so we got to watch over-and-over again on the big screen as Lewis gets away with another dirty hit!
Now granted, the Steelers shot themselves in the foot on quite a few occasions, like the horrible play calling in the 1st quarter, and then the poor clock management on that delay of game to make Tomlin decide to punt. But the killer is how Lebeau always goes into prevent D in those late situations. Keep the pressure on him and make them earn those yards. Get out of that nothing cheap, nothing deep mode!!!
The schedule is fairly mediocre from hereon out, though. Cincy twice, Browns twice, Rams, 9ers and KC. I think 11-5 as the #5 seed at the worst is plausible. And with Baltimore, they've been so inconsistent that them landing a WC slot, or even missing the play-offs altogether, wouldn't surprise me one bit.
But of course I'm just being a bitter Steelers fanboy, and every time the officiating is so blatantly against them someone spouts off about redemption for Super Bowl XL. I've watched that game several times, and yes the officiating was horrible, but it wasn't blatantly favoring any side in that game. Just both teams played that bad in that game.
The 2011 Patriots are the emperor with no clothes.
