[Vague Title] Officiating

[Paul Costa]

Seemed as though the officials were openly trying to help the Steelers stay in the game. The Pickens fumble  was a pretty easy play to overturn. But then the next fumble along the sideline was clearly a recovery by Spector in bounds. The official ( Carl Cheffers)said the ball was fumbled out of bounds. The replay clearly showed it was never touched by the Pittsburgh player who fumbled while being out of bounds. Horrible officiating, but what really bothered me was the lack of explanation coming out of the challenge. It really hurt the Bills as they couldn’t challenge again. Totally irresponsible of the officials to do this to one team. I feel the officials need to explain why they called the play the way they did. I know the officials have a post game press conference did anyone see or hear their explanation of that call? With all the legalized gambling the officiating needs to be 100% transparent. 

[YattaOkasan]

Be careful, steelers fans think the refs screwed them.  They are pointing to "fake" Josh slide, late hit, and DPI on 4th down as their examples.  I think they didnt get a TO off Josh like they all thought would happen, so they should just accept they lost.  

Edited January 16 by YattaOkasan

[Heavy Kevi]

Yeah it was pretty egregious the way they manipulated the video with slow-mo to speed up a little just as they pretended it hit 'muths helmet.

 

Clearly the NFL was tired of all the lopsided wildcard matchups.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

The NFL, 2023-24:  When Officiating Became 'Rashomon'.

[Shaw66]

The NFL needs to modernize how games are officiated.  They need officials looking at monitors correcting calls regularly.  It isn't right that the Bills had no more challenges based on that play.  It was a.good challenge, and in fact a challenge shouldn't have been necessary.  It should have been reviewed automatically.  As I've said before, it makes no sense that TDs and takeaways a automatically reviewed, but plays that WOULD be takeaways or TDs aren't reviewed.

[TheyCallMeAndy]

I disagree, and the ball appeared to touch the TEs helmet. If the ball touches a player who is OOB, the ball is then OOB. 
 

Bills definitely got away with some calls last night, I never felt like the Refs tried to get Pitt back in it. 

2 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

The NFL needs to modernize how games are officiated.  They need officials looking at monitors correcting calls regularly.  It isn't right that the Bills had no more challenges based on that play.  It was a.good challenge, and in fact a challenge shouldn't have been necessary.  It should have been reviewed automatically.  As I've said before, it makes no sense that TDs and takeaways an automatically reviewed, but plays that WOULD be takeaways or TDs aren't reviewed.

That was my only beef with both fumbles, they were close and should have been called turn overs, then it’s an auto review. 

[KellyToTasker]

3 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

I disagree, and the ball appeared to touch the TEs helmet. If the ball touches a player who is OOB, the ball is then OOB. 
 

Bills definitely got away with some calls last night, I never felt like the Refs tried to get Pitt back in it. 

I felt there wasn’t enough there to overturn the call, had it been called a recovery, that would’ve stayed also. 
 

That said, it was a good challenge. Just put the Bills in a bad spot with no further challenges. 
 

Refs were even in my opinion. Steelers got away with their own share of calls. 
 

Better team won. 

[Bermuda Triangle]

I think that the replay rules are silly.  If you challenge, and your challenge is successful, why should that be held against you?

 

Refs are afraid to call what they see on the field, knowing that the challenge system is in place to overturn some of their egregious calls or missed calls.  However, by making or not making a call, the referees' call or non-call is presumed correct, with the threshold for overturning via replay (assuming that (1) the play is reviewable, and (2) a team has the ability to challenge the call) being quite high.

[Dillenger4]

The fumble out of bounds call was 100% correct. He actually touched it twice while lying OOB. Get over it... it's football.

[Paul Costa]

3 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

I disagree, and the ball appeared to touch the TEs helmet. If the ball touches a player who is OOB, the ball is then OOB. 
 

Bills definitely got away with some calls last night, I never felt like the Refs tried to get Pitt back in it. 

That was my only beef with both fumbles, they were close and should have been called turn overs, then it’s an auto review. 

A simple explanation of why they called it the way they did was necessary. Romo suggested it may have touched the Pittsburgh helmet. I didn’t see it touch the video was inconclusive of that as fact. If they would have had an angle showing that then I agree the ball would be dead. But you’re missing the bigger point. Carl Cheffers said the ball was fumbled by the Pittsburgh player out of bounds. That was untrue. It never went out of bounds. Bills shouldn’t have lost the challenge. The officials were wrong on that call. A very big game changing call. After they missed the Pickens call which was an easy call on the field that they got wrong. 

[Rich Stadium Original]

I was thinking about this as I watched all the games over the weekend, and without research it SEEMED to me like overall penalties were down. Almost as though the league sent down the message " don't decide the game, let em play" unless an infraction was especially egregious. 

 I thought across the board there were a lot of penalties that weren't called..particularly  offensive holding.

[SoonerBillsFan]

17 minutes ago, YattaOkasan said:

Be careful, steelers fans think the refs screwed them.  They are pointing to "fake" Josh slide, late hit, and DPI on 4th down as their examples.  I think they didnt get a TO off Josh like they all thought would happen, so they should just accept they lost.  

They are ***clowns.  Josh stopped and nuked, no fake slide BS

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

All the bills haters are sayin the opposite based on that tossup dpi that wasn’t called on the last drive 

[gordong]

I can't wait for Sunday...   

[SoonerBillsFan]

Just now, Rich Stadium Original said:

I was thinking about this as I watched all the games over the weekend, and without research it SEEMED to me like overall penalties were down. Almost as though the league sent down the message " don't decide the game, let em play" unless an infraction was especially egregious. 

 I thought across the board there were a lot of penalties that weren't called..particularly  offensive holding.

Some PI stuff that could have been called as well.

[WhoTom]

2 minutes ago, Paul Costa said:

If they would have had an angle showing that then I agree the ball would be dead. But you’re missing the bigger point. Carl Cheffers said the ball was fumbled by the Pittsburgh player out of bounds. That was untrue. It never went out of bounds.

 

This:

 

11 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

I disagree, and the ball appeared to touch the TEs helmet. If the ball touches a player who is OOB, the ball is then OOB.

 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

4 minutes ago, Paul Costa said:

A simple explanation of why they called it the way they did was necessary. Romo suggested it may have touched the Pittsburgh helmet. I didn’t see it touch the video was inconclusive of that as fact. If they would have had an angle showing that then I agree the ball would be dead. But you’re missing the bigger point. Carl Cheffers said the ball was fumbled by the Pittsburgh player out of bounds. That was untrue. It never went out of bounds. Bills shouldn’t have lost the challenge. The officials were wrong on that call. A very big game changing call. After they missed the Pickens call which was an easy call on the field that they got wrong. 

I don’t think that’s a good explanation because he looks airborne when the ball supposedly possibly touched his helmet anyway. I think they’re gonna try to say they couldn’t see a clear inbounds recovery by Buffalo even though we all knew it was…that really should’ve been ruled a fumble on the field and held up on review 

14 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

I disagree, and the ball appeared to touch the TEs helmet. If the ball touches a player who is OOB, the ball is then OOB. 
 

Bills definitely got away with some calls last night, I never felt like the Refs tried to get Pitt back in it. 

That was my only beef with both fumbles, they were close and should have been called turn overs, then it’s an auto review. 

I don’t think there’s a conclusive look of it hitting his helmet and I couldn’t get a freeze frame of friermuth contacting oob when the ball was supposedly near his helmet…looked like he was still airborne to me. If that was ruled a fumble it would’ve 100% held up 

Edited January 16 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Matt_In_NH]

I think the fumble out of bounds was a call on field stands washout clear irrefutable evidence.  I think they called the ball touched the TE when he was out of bounds but after the fumble.  I was never convinced that happened but there might not have been clear evidence it did not touch anyone who was out of bounds and therefore call on field stands.

[blacklabel]

27 minutes ago, YattaOkasan said:

Be careful, steelers fans think the refs screwed them.  They are pointing to "fake" Josh slide, late hit, and DPI on 4th down as their examples.  I think they didnt get a TO off Josh like they all thought would happen, so they should just accept they lost.  

 

How does anyone think he was faking a slide? He slowed up and threw a juke and kept trucking. Never for a second did my mind piece together "fake slide!" so I dunno what the poop people are seeing. 

[Shaw66]

11 minutes ago, Paul Costa said:

A simple explanation of why they called it the way they did was necessary. Romo suggested it may have touched the Pittsburgh helmet. I didn’t see it touch the video was inconclusive of that as fact. If they would have had an angle showing that then I agree the ball would be dead. But you’re missing the bigger point. Carl Cheffers said the ball was fumbled by the Pittsburgh player out of bounds. That was untrue. It never went out of bounds. Bills shouldn’t have lost the challenge. The officials were wrong on that call. A very big game changing call. After they missed the Pickens call which was an easy call on the field that they got wrong. 

If the ball touches his helmet while he was out of bounds, then the fumble is out of bounds.  That's the rule.  That would make what Cheffers said true.