Interesting

We talked about Joe Haden. Here is some more food for thought.

https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers/ContentGallery/Steelers-refs-every-bad-call-Saints-126825487/#126825487_1

Pretty ridiculous. I would argue that the calls in the Chargers games and Saints games definitely altered those games enough to cost us those games. Sure we had chances to win outside of the officiating, but that's no excuse. The officiating shouldn't be so poor, it shouldn't be setting one team up to win a game that they'd of otherwise lost. All these missed false start penalties, those I cannot stand. There are line judges there that are supposed to be watching for just that and despite that fact they missed them in the Browns-Chargers game which gave the Chargers a TD, they missed them in the Steelers-Chargers game, and the Steelers-Saints game. Unacceptable.

I don't like to blame everything on officiating but we've gotten hosed a lot this season.

seems the NFL doesn't want the Steelers in this years Superbowl.

effyou515 wrote:

seems the NFL doesn't want the Steelers in this years Superbowl.

I think they want an all LA superbowl.

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

effyou515 wrote:

seems the NFL doesn't want the Steelers in this years Superbowl.

I think they want an all LA superbowl.

I read and heard that the Chargers have no fan base and the league is doing what's necessary to remedy that. So that's the AFC. I haven't figured out there angle on say the Rams except like you said Iowa an all LA SB.

Still doesn't explain the loss to the Raiders who at the time were 2-10....

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

I would argue that the calls in the Chargers games and Saints games definitely altered those games enough to cost us those games

I've been seeing this argument all week ... "Good teams overcome bad officiating."

While that's true, it's also true that when a good team is playing one of the top teams in the league, it has to play a near-perfect game, and not get screwed by the refs. When you're playing a great team, one mistake can cost you the game. It doesn't matter if that mistake comes from the players or refs.

Wallace108 wrote:

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

I would argue that the calls in the Chargers games and Saints games definitely altered those games enough to cost us those games

I've been seeing this argument all week ... "Good teams overcome bad officiating."

While that's true, it's also true that when a good team is playing one of the top teams in the league, it has to play a near-perfect game, and not get screwed by the refs. When you're playing a great team, one mistake can cost you the game. It doesn't matter if that mistake comes from the players or refs.

And it did cost us that game IMO. I've been bitching about the officials all year and whether I like it or not The other games we lost were on us. There were bad calls but we should have overcome them. Not in N.O. where the bad calls cost us at least 7 but actually 14 and we lost by 3.

Post Gazette writer opinion on the subject. He lies SD and NO failures at player fumbles/coaches decisions.  I personally am more in agreement with the consensus on this board that when playing a good team a single call, not to mention 2-3 like we've been seeing, can change the game. It also can change a season, 2 games in my opinion were egregiously altered. Those 2 games would have us with a division clinched already and in the 2nd seed.

Paul Zeise: Referees did not sack the Steelers' season

The Steelers were the victims of a horrible pass-interference call in the first half of their 31-28 loss to the Saints on Sunday. There was a second pass-interference call that was questionable in the fourth quarter.

Both of those calls extended Saints drives that eventually ended with Saints touchdowns. There was a missed illegal procedure call on the Chargers and a couple of questionable holding calls against the Steelers when the two teams met at Heinz Field a few weeks back.

The Chargers ended up erasing a 16-point deficit in that game and won 33-30.
There are people out there who believe that officials cost the Steelers both of those games because of these missed calls. There are also people who believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, but that doesn’t make those things real, either.

Teams that are legitimate Super Bowl contenders — as we all believed the Steelers were — overcome a few bad calls to win games. They don’t use bad calls as excuses for losses. The Steelers had plenty of opportunities to win both of those games despite the bad calls.

Take Sunday’s game as a great example. Yes, the call on Haden in the first quarter was awful and was almost directly responsible for the Steelers falling behind 7-0.

But despite that call and a couple of other things going against the Steelers, they had the ball with a 28-24 lead TWICE in the fourth quarter. The first time, Stevan Ridley fumbled away what was a promising drive. The Steelers then blocked a field-goal attempt and got the ball back still leading 28-24. That drive went only nine yards and the Steelers turned it over on downs.

The Steelers probably win that game if they get points on either of those two drives. They also had one more opportunity to score — and at least tie the game to send it into overtime — and that drive stalled when JuJu Smith-Schuster fumbled.

The referees didn’t fumble the ball, Smith-Schuster and Ridley did. Actually, taking that one step further — the referees didn’t decide to hand the ball in a huge spot to a running back with a career history of fumble-itis, someone on the Steelers coaching staff did.

The referees also didn’t fail to convert a first down on a fake punt, Roosevelt Nix did.
Bad calls at key times against the Steelers have overshadowed that this team just hasn’t made enough winning plays to be a playoff team.

And the fact that they are not in control of their own playoff hopes heading into the final week of the season is not a fluke, nor is it a product of bad refereeing. It is a product of the Steelers playing losing football on far too many Sundays.

The Steelers have losses to the Raiders and Broncos. One team is in complete rebuilding mode and may be the worst team in football. The other is likely to finish on a four-game losing streak and fire its coach on Monday.

Upsets happen and even the best teams have a bad loss on their resume from time to time, but losing to both of those teams is ridiculous.

There is also no excuse for tying the Browns in the first week of the season. The Steelers had a 14-point lead in that game and blew it. It wasn’t the referees that fumbled with that game on the line, it was James Conner. The referees also didn’t miss a crucial kick in that game, Chris Boswell did.

Turnovers, not bad calls, have actually been the most important element of this Steelers season. The Steelers have turned the ball over 25 times. They have only forced 15 turnovers. That means they are minus-10 in turnover differential, 28th in the NFL.

You could trace pretty much every Steelers loss to turnovers, especially if you consider missed field goals and extra points as turnovers. The two fumbles on Sunday killed the Steelers’ chances of winning. An interception against the Raiders flipped the field position and that eventually led to a Raiders touchdown on a shorter field. A fumble by Conner late in third quarter against the Broncos led to the go-ahead touchdown, and then Roethlisberger was intercepted in the end zone with a chance to force overtime.

It should be noted that the Steelers’ season isn’t over and they might still make the playoffs. It is possible and not really all that far fetched. The Browns could beat the Ravens on Sunday, and if they do, it opens the door for the Steelers.

But the Ravens are at home and favored, so the likely outcome is they will win the game and eliminate the Steelers. If that happens and the season ends short of the playoffs, there will be plenty of reasons why — the referees, however, are not one of them.  

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/paul-zeise/2018/12/26/paul-zeise-commentary-pittsburgh-steelers-nfl-playoffs-baltimore-ravens/stories/201812260096

solardave wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

I would argue that the calls in the Chargers games and Saints games definitely altered those games enough to cost us those games

I've been seeing this argument all week ... "Good teams overcome bad officiating."

While that's true, it's also true that when a good team is playing one of the top teams in the league, it has to play a near-perfect game, and not get screwed by the refs. When you're playing a great team, one mistake can cost you the game. It doesn't matter if that mistake comes from the players or refs.

And it did cost us that game IMO. I've been bitching about the officials all year and whether I like it or not The other games we lost were on us. There were bad calls but we should have overcome them. Not in N.O. where the bad calls cost us at least 7 but actually 14 and we lost by 3.

Yep.

You've known me for a while now ... I never coimplain about the officiating, even in losses where there were questionable calls. But the missed calls in the Chargers game and the absurd PI call in the Saints game are unacceptable. And it's undeniable that the refs affected the outcome of both of those games.

i remember a 3rd down and 20 the steelers gave up and there was no flags....think about it...3RD AND 20 !!! it wasn't missed tackles...they left a guy open 20 yards down field with 7 defensive backs !!!

From Asked and Answered: ISRAEL PICKHOLTZ FROM JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: Regarding the NFL’s contention on the accuracy of the calls made by its officials, if you or I crossed the street successfully “95 percent of the time,” we'd be dead.


ANSWER: Good one.

https://www.steelers.com/news/asked-and-answered-dec-27

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

i remember a 3rd down and 20 the steelers gave up and there was no flags....think about it...3RD AND 20 !!! it wasn't missed tackles...they left a guy open 20 yards down field with 7 defensive backs !!!

We've had a lot of blown coverage this year. 3rd and 20 is inexcusable. This is a big part of why Butler needs to go.

My point in all of this is when you have officials changing calls on the field so they can't be reviewed. Really really bad PI calls that spot the other team on the 1 yard line giving them at the very least 3 points. Missed tipped balls and false starts.

On the Burnett PI call before that call the N.O. RG was out of his stance and had taken a step back. False start every time but Shultz "SAW NOTHING"! As long as you have Al Riveron up there telling refs that "we're going to change this call or not call that one at all". This shit will continue. I'm not a paranoid person. I watch other teams get screwed just like us. Funny thing is you never hear anyone saying the Patriots* got screwed on that call.

I've been a couple of days away during Christmas and that was a good thing to overcome the Saints-Steelers game and to avoid all the media. I was really sick by what happened during that game and the outcome of course. I've seen a couple of games lately (not only Steelers) where I believe the officiating decided intentionally the outcome of the game, whether it was for the right team to make the play-offs or because of Vegas making lots of money on betting.

The ones I still remember:

Rams vs Saints week 9: Saints win after Rams are screwed over on a challenge at the end of the first half
Steelers vs Chargers week 13: No need to explain this one here
Cowboys vs Eagles week 14: Eagles recovering a Dallas fumble on the kick-off, refs rule the player down before the fumble, he clearly wasn't, Eagles challenge, but the replay-review-system somehow didn't work. Other calls going in favor of the Cowboys.
Steelers vs Patriots* week 15: Patriots* got more penalties in one game than they've gotten all year, 83% of the people betted on a Patriots* win by 3 or more.
Chargers vs Ravens week 16: Chargers got twice as many penalties as the Ravens and at critical times in the game
Jets vs Packers week 16: Another Vegas win as most money was on the Jets. Just watch the OT, 2 bogus PI calls against the Jets sealed the deal.
Saints vs Steelers week 16: No need to explain this one here

It's sad that the officiating is ruining this great sport.

I've started tweeting out to the NFL and NFLOfficiating with the hashtag #WhatGameAreYouWatching

Give it a shot.