Polamalu's pick

[judman]

The Refs called 10 penalties on the Steelers for over 100 yards. They called four holding penalties on one player. Refs miss calls all the time when you get the benefit of slow motion replay, but they called holding on the Steelers more in this game than any game I have seen anywhere all season on any team.

 

and they still missed a few more. Lee was interfered with in the end zone, no doubt. Troy's interception* looked like it could have hit the ground too.

[BRH]

The Refs called 10 penalties on the Steelers for over 100 yards. They called four holding penalties on one player. Refs miss calls all the time when you get the benefit of slow motion replay, but they called holding on the Steelers more in this game than any game I have seen anywhere all season on any team.

If a player holds on every play, but is only called for it four times, is it okay because that's more than any other player got called all season?

 

Williams was unblockable yesterday and the Steelers should have had to change their scheme or personnel instead of hoping Kemoeatu would continue to get away with holding on most plays.

 

As for the Polamalu "pick," I thought it was interesting that CBS only gave us that one quick look from the overhead camera. If it had been Byrd or Whitner picking off Roethlisberger, CBS probably would have showed us four angles before cutting to an extended commercial so Tomlin could challenge.

[CodeMonkey]

and they still missed a few more. Lee was interfered with in the end zone, no doubt. Troy's interception* looked like it could have hit the ground too.

Wow WOW. I didn't think I'd see any Bills homers complaining about the officiating this game when if anything, it was biased FOR the Bills.

 

But complaining homers are everywhere as witnessed by some Steeler homer posts:

 

I think its pretty clear there is something wrong and indeed a bias. I did not see any penalty calls on the Bills today. There was some holding done by their offensive line which was not called and a ton of the same calls against the Steelers

 

The flag on Harrison was simply atrocious. The official decided that was going to be a penalty before he even hit the QB. Meanwhile, on one sack of #7, Bills defenders were jumping and rolling around on him well after the play was over, without even a polite admonishment to please quit doing that by the officials.

 

The Jills had 20 total penalty yards to the Steelers 100. You mean to tell me that there was no holding against the Steelers pass rush? Of course there was

[Kelly the Dog]

If a player holds on every play, but is only called for it four times, is it okay because that's more than any other player got called all season?

 

Williams was unblockable yesterday and the Steelers should have had to change their scheme or personnel instead of hoping Kemoeatu would continue to get away with holding on most plays.

 

As for the Polamalu "pick," I thought it was interesting that CBS only gave us that one quick look from the overhead camera. If it had been Byrd or Whitner picking off Roethlisberger, CBS probably would have showed us four angles before cutting to an extended commercial so Tomlin could challenge.

There is holding on most plays. I agree that Williams was mostly unblockable but IMO it's hard to imagine any group of referees in any game against any team in any season calling 7-8 holding penalties. I assume it's happened. There may have been one game in history where a team got 10 holding penalties against them. I'm just saying that it's hard to blame refs for not calling holding penalties when they called (I think) at least five in one game.

 

I did, however, think Evans got interfered with in the endzone but I also remember thinking the Bills got away with a couple calls.

[bizell]

even though kemoeatu got called for 4 holds, he should have probably been called for at least 4 more. the man couldn't block kyle williams.

[PromoTheRobot]

Maybe Chan was trying to save his time outs instead of burning them on a replay that probably wouldn't have gone in our favor.

 

PTR

[bbb]

Is that the same drive that Ben R. got sacked, just in front of the goal line? Just sayin'.

 

You mean you are just askin' And, the answer is No.

 

Our whole section was saying challenge it!

[CodeMonkey]

Maybe Chan was trying to save his time outs instead of burning them on a replay that probably wouldn't have gone in our favor.

 

PTR

I agree. Another good choice by Gailey. He started the year slowly in my opinion, but he is finishing strong.

[racecitybills]

I want to clarify something- I do not think the officials in the NFL "cheat" - By and large they do a great job but...I do think NFL officials make errors and I also think that officials are influenced by reputation - good or bad -when they make subjective calls. Let's ask james harrison if he thinks his rep is hurting him. When Troy p picked that ball off the official seemed to turn into a fan and just watch the guy go - the official missed the contact and we should have challenged it. Players who are the "celeb" types get the benefit of getting calls - Ocho, TO those guys can pretty much push off to get 'separation" anytime they want just like Moss, Michael Irvin and Plaxico - these guys have the rep over some no-name guy in buffalo and they get the call 9 out of 10 times. I dont care how many calls went against the steelers yesterday - if it is a penalty call it- if a guy is down he's down- I have lived in several areas of the country and live down south - not a soul who is not from buffalo could ID 5 guys on our team - we are never on feature games. Officials are human - they are sports fans- they know who the big time players are that does influence them - As a team who is struggling to get an identity you have to make a stand and let them know you are keeping them honest - I guarantee every official on the field in any game Bill Cowher coached knew his rep and knew he was going to get every call he could to go his way - does that mean they cheat? no - it just means it keeps them aware. I really like the job Chan is doing but he needs to fight like a maniac a couple of times to get their attention.

[BuffaloWings]

The fact that our coaching staff was unable to spot this glaringly obvious 100% certain challenge is pretty discouraging. Not to mention the fact that we could have challenged the absolutely certain "down by contact" and gotten a free look at reviewing whether the catch was completed. Turns out he did cleanly make that catch, but it wasn't a sure thing, and challenging the down by contact ruling would have free-rolled us a chance to keep the ball.

 

It's easy to second guess, but man, even putting them back to the 1 would have been an absolutely great outcome with zero risk of losing a time out.

Just speculating here, but Gailey probably thought it was too close to call and didn't want to risk losing a timeout. Hindsight being 20/20, it turned out to be the right call.

 

I want to clarify something- I do not think the officials in the NFL "cheat" - By and large they do a great job but...I do think NFL officials make errors and I also think that officials are influenced by reputation - good or bad -when they make subjective calls. Let's ask james harrison if he thinks his rep is hurting him. When Troy p picked that ball off the official seemed to turn into a fan and just watch the guy go - the official missed the contact and we should have challenged it. Players who are the "celeb" types get the benefit of getting calls - Ocho, TO those guys can pretty much push off to get 'separation" anytime they want just like Moss, Michael Irvin and Plaxico - these guys have the rep over some no-name guy in buffalo and they get the call 9 out of 10 times. I dont care how many calls went against the steelers yesterday - if it is a penalty call it- if a guy is down he's down- I have lived in several areas of the country and live down south - not a soul who is not from buffalo could ID 5 guys on our team - we are never on feature games. Officials are human - they are sports fans- they know who the big time players are that does influence them - As a team who is struggling to get an identity you have to make a stand and let them know you are keeping them honest - I guarantee every official on the field in any game Bill Cowher coached knew his rep and knew he was going to get every call he could to go his way - does that mean they cheat? no - it just means it keeps them aware. I really like the job Chan is doing but he needs to fight like a maniac a couple of times to get their attention.

Like I said above, Gailey probably didn't want to risk losing a timeout on a call that close.

 

Also, don't just think that the ref "turned into a fan". I think he made the right move by letting the play go. It's what the officials should do on close plays when there's a question of things like being down by contact, whether or not there's a fumble, etc. You let it play out and then use replay to determine what really happened. It's up to the coach to challenge the play, if necessary, but if they don't, then c'est la vie.