NFL Tickets
It is safe to say that the NFL would like to forget the horrible day that the league had on Saturday. After watching the Kansas City Chiefs absolutely crush the Houston Texans, with Brian Hoyer putting on one of the worst quarterbacking displays ever seen, fans were treated to a rivalry game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals. The product put on the field in the latter game was an utter embarrassment for the NFL, as it got too chippy, was made worse by the poor officiating and was practically unwatchable.
The play that epitomized the game came late in the third quarter. The Bengals had the ball and were making their first drive deep into Steelers’ territory. On a third down, AJ McCarron checked the ball down to Giovani Bernard who turned up field to try and get a first down. After he turned, Ryan Shazier hit him hard with helmet-to-helmet contact. Bernard was shaken up on the play, and he immediately went down.
Shazier should have been penalized for leading with the crown of his helmet, but no flag was thrown. To make matters worse, Bernard had fumbled the ball as a result of getting his bell rung, and Shazier ran the length of the field to return it for a touchdown, despite the whistle having already blown. The Bengals took exception to Shazier’s action, and Jeremy Hill attempted to take on four Steelers at midfield. It was an ugly sequence of events, and one that was badly mishandled by the officiating crew.
Speaking of the officials, they were so wildly inconsistent with their personal foul calls that it was hard to follow. Early in the game, the officials were so worried about behavior escalating that they were calling personal fouls on plays that were questionable at best for warranting a flag.
The worst part of these calls was that the commentators for the game, namely Phil Simms, blindly agreed with every call made in the game. Yes, the officials were trying to keep the game under control, but they babied the players early on. Then, when tempers boiled over, they barely did anything. It was truly embarrassing for the league and their embattled officials.
The event that put me over the edge with this game was when Ben Roethlisberger got sacked and hurt his shoulder. While the officials actually made a proper no-call for the first time in the game, the network painted Vontaze Burfict as a villain who was out to get Roethlisberger. Yes, the two do have a history, but there was nothing dirty about Burfict’s hit. He was simply going for a sack on Roethlisberger, and Big Ben landed hard on his shoulder.
To make matters worse, when Roethlisberger was carted off, the Cincinnati fans started pelting him with various items that they had at their seats. It was a disgusting display from the fanbase, and they should be ashamed of their behavior as well. There is a huge difference between rooting against a player and rooting for them to get hurt.
At a time when the NFL is preaching the importance of clean games on the field in wake of the Josh Norman–Odell Beckham Jr. incident, the Steelers-Bengals game is not going to be well thought of. The exciting game took a backseat to the on-field antics of some players, inconsistent officiating, poor fan behavior and a mediocre broadcast.
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