Unpacking officiating decisions from Steelers win over Ravens | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

Unpacking officiating decisions from Steelers win over Ravens | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

monumental game. Three games that were mustwatch in the one:00 window yesterday and one of them was the AFC North combatants, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens getting together the first two times. Pittsburgh gets the win 27-22 and hey, I was impressed by the ability of the Steelers. Yeah, cuz in hindsight, pasta and meatballs, that was the kind of game, right, that they they’d pull it together. But we were both convinced after what happened to them last weekend against the Bills that no matter how badly they wanted to do it, they couldn’t. And there were times yesterday, they still gave up 200 plus rushing yards, 420 yards of offense. There were times yesterday where it’s like these Steelers are still broken and they’re not going to pull this off. And Aaron Rogers had his moments, but it really did feel like it was going to be this push and pull back and forth. It was going to be an admirable effort, but the Ravens were going to win the game. That was the feel I had the whole game. Yeah. No, I I hear you there. I I think Pittsburgh made some big plays. We’re going to talk about the referees in some big moments helped out Pittsburgh as well. The Ravens not capitalizing in the red zone. I mean, we’re in a era right now or a little time frame here of like I I’ve never seen the Ravens and Lamar Jackson not be able to get in the end zone to the capacity that we’re used to seeing. Jackson finally looked like himself yesterday. He did. He ran He ran around yesterday and looked like himself. I don’t know if he still looks like himself throwing the football totally yet. He’s yet to regain that total rhythm there. But yes, their offense moved the ball consistently throughout the day. Like you said, it’s 200 yards rushing and they did stuff like that. But in the big moments and the got to have it moments, right, the Steelers came through and and when it when when they needed to. And Rogers had his best day maybe as a Steeler against the AFC North rival, the Baltimore Ravens. DK Medv had his best day. That connection. And I think that to me was one of the shocking things, Mike. You hear me almost every week make fun of what Pittsburgh does on the offensive side of the ball, right? You you you every week you go, well, they don’t do anything. He throws go routes on the outside. If it’s one-on-one, he’s just going to go outside. That’s all he does. Raron Rogers does not throw the ball down the middle of the field. He does not do that. Everybody knows that. And yet Baltimore gave him opportunities to go, “Hey, everything you like to do, we’ll let you try to do it. Go ahead.” And I respect Marlon Humphrey and everything he is. He’s been one of the best corners in football. But is he at the is he a guy anymore that you just go, “Oh, he’s going to shut down DK Metaf one-on-one all game long.” I I don’t think so. And and there was plays in the game, too, where I look at and go, Baltimore’s like got people at the line of scrimmage like they’re worried about the Pittsburgh run game. Like screw Pittsburgh’s run game. I I think if you took the defense off the field, Pittsburgh was probably still only get three yards running the ball. They weren’t running the ball, but yet they gave them the chances to do all the things Rogers only wants to do, which is goes back shoulder slant route to DK Medcave, you know, oh, a little pick play and we throw the guy in the flat. I mean, it was all the Roger staples where you’re like, wait, this is what this is what he wants to do. When they struggle, everybody takes this away and the Pittsburgh offense can’t do anything. So, I think that was shocking to me, too. You know, along with not being able to score in the red zone by the Ravens offense and then, of course, some of the penalties and and some of the the calls by the referees. I think they worked through some issues last week, too, because Metaf had not been used the way he should be. That was one of the criticisms I’d been Yeah. forever pointing out. Well, and hey, I mean, in Seattle, they never used him. And then the Steelers had a guy in George Pickkins, they never used. So they bring in DK Metaf. They trade Pickkins. And now Metaf is the guy they don’t use. This was his most targets by three. He had 12. His most catches with seven. His most yards with 148. The only thing is he didn’t have a touchdown, but it was his most targets, catches, and yards of the season. I feel like it was a concerted effort to get the ball to DK Medaf. And there’s been some, you know, Rogers said what he said last week and regardless of whether or not it was properly followed up upon and the rabbit hole was explored, I heard some chatter that maybe there were issues between Rogers and Medaf, I don’t know. But that’s one of the things that maybe should have been explored, but if there were, solved as of yesterday. They finally made the connections on a regular basis they needed to make first play of the game. And right and that when anytime you see that first play of the game they that that that’s something that just accidentally happens like hey first and 10 what are we going to do somebody at that point in the week decided first play of the game we’re taking they I think they told Rogers listen we’re going to run a little play action pass right if you get man-to-man go to DK and and you know if if you watch it he drops back he looks to the left to make sure the safety stays over there and again Corks a Beautiful deep ball to DK Medav. But yeah, it was that the handful of big plays to DK Metav, one to Calvin Austin, right? And then, you know, and and Aaron had the touchdown run and then Aaron had the touchdown run. But yeah, it was it was a Pittsburgh we make plays type of day. And then you add on what we’re going to discuss with some of the calls by the referees, Lamar Jackson throwing a dumb interception in the first half and giving the Steelers the short field to go score a touchdown. I think all of that, you put that together, yeah, that’s why Pittsburgh wins. Baltimore, the offense is just yet to really regain that form that we know they’re capable of that we saw maybe in week one against Buffalo or what we saw last year. It’s good, but it just doesn’t feel quite as dangerous uh on that side of the ball. And and even though Baltimore’s defense has been better of late, you know, they just they let up some big plays to DK and Rogers yesterday. And that was just a huge pivotal game because now the Steelers move to seven and six, the Ravens move to six and seven. They’re going to play again. But man, that one that one just is going to resonate into January. And it is unfortunate that we had a game that feels like it was resolved by the officiating. Yeah. And look, before I I go down this path, one of the problems of our current reality, you can’t have a fair, honest, objective opinion. It’s always influenced by something. It’s never what you truly believe. It’s because you like one thing or hate something else. And I say all of this knowing, and I’m going to launch into the criticism of the three calls yesterday, knowing that the reaction is going to be, you hate the Steelers and you love the Ravens, which is the exact opposite of what I hear all the time. Oh, he’s a Steelers fan. He hates the Ravens. So, I don’t care about any of that stuff. I care about the game. I love the game and I want what’s good for the game. And more and more it’s becoming clear from the people I talk to in the league, from the fans I hear from, from our traffic numbers. Our biggest story yesterday until the day really got going was the NFL admitting that the intentional grounding call in the Commanders Broncos game last Monday, last Sunday night was a mistake. Right. People are engaged in these officiating issues and officiating and I don’t want to engage in hyperbole because it’s been bad for a long time, but it is starting to feel like it’s worse than it’s ever been. No, no. It’s it’s the worst year ever. It’s the worst year ever. And the the concerns are fundamental. You said it last week in the Texans Colts highlights. There’s a lack of common sense. I think there’s a lack of common sense. There’s a lack of institutional appreciation of what the history of the application of the rules is. I’ve gotten this feedback from multiple different people. They don’t know who in the replay center is making the decisions. They don’t know who’s there hovering over their shoulders. There’s some sausage making that is very mysterious and it’s not good for the game. It’s not good for the integrity of the game. It’s not good. And it goes back to what the commissioner said back when he hated gambling. Normal incidents of the game are going to be viewed as the fix is in. So when you get controversial calls, when you get calls that are objectively bad calls, you’re going to have people who think the fix was in. I think the fix is in. No. Do I think it’s unreasonable for someone to say maybe the fix is in? I don’t think that’s unreasonable because there’s just so much of this going on. Now I say all that as the preface to three calls. Three calls. So, let’s do them in I want to do them in a chronological order. Let’s start with the first one because the first one was set up. First off, he threw the interception, right? Lamar threw the interception. So, now they’re going to set up to kick the field goal. They had the ball first and 10 on the Ravens 36. They got it down to the 13. It was fourth and one and the Steelers come out to kick a field goal, which would have made it which would have made it 133. 133. Right. So, the field goal’s kicked, the field goal is good, but not so fast. Right now they now they’re going to call we see a penalty and on Travis Jones, defensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, right? He they call unnecessary roughness because he hit a defenseless player, the center. Okay, you’re allowed to hit the center. You can’t hit him in the neck and head area, right, Mike? Am I right about that? Yeah, we’ll go over this. Watch this. That’s the key angle. Okay, cuz what they did was it looks like they came up with a strategy for getting past the long snapper that entailed hitting him on each shoulder. Shoulders, right? And and this is where this is where it’s all gotten twisted up. And this is where referee Alex Moore is just flat out wrong. He they did a pull report. Yeah. And in the pool report, what Alex Moore said was the long snapper is defenseless. And basically, you can’t hit the defenseless player hard. They ran him over. You can’t make forcible You can’t make any forcible contact to that player. That is false. That statement by Alex Moore is false. You can make forcible contact to a defenseless player. It’s not two-hand touch, folks. And see, we’ve gotten warped into thinking that, oh, defenseless player means you can’t even do that. You can’t hit him hard. Well, remember I said earlier about the Travis Kelce play? Yeah, he was defenseless. He got hit hard. He didn’t get hit illegally. In the Vikings Commanders game, and this may be the only time we talk about five and N still alive. 2% kiss 2% of my ass. But Jaden Daniels throws an interception by rule. A quarterback after a change of possession is defenseless. He got blown up. Didn’t get hit illegally. Right. So, and let’s make sure we understand this. They made the long snapper defenseless because the long snapper is snapping the ball and then trying to protect himself. Yeah. So he’s defenseless because after snapping the ball, you can’t come in helmet to helmet. You can’t Well, his head is down. Yeah. His head’s down. You know, you do the boom down. No. Making a player defenseless does not mean they cannot be hit forcibly. There are three categories of prohibited acts. This is all in the rule book. We’ve got a post at PFT that quotes the full rule book. Number one, you cannot forcibly contact a player who’s in a defenseless posture, i.e. a long snapper with or in the head or neck area. Okay, go back and watch that. There was no forcible contact at the head and neck area. It was on the shoulders. You can’t lower your helmet and make forcible contact with any part of the long snapper’s body. And you can’t illegally launch into the long snapper. Those are the three things that are prohibited. You are allowed to run over the long snapper. And that was the explanation. The snapper. Here’s Alex Moore. The snapper by rule is a defenseless player. So the contact would be unnecessary. Basically, he ran him over. Alex Moore, you are allowed to run over a defenseless player. Jaden Daniels got run over. Travis Kelce got run over. It only means you can’t hit him in the head or neck area. You can’t hit him forcibly with a helmet. And you can’t illegally launch into them. That’s it. Everything else is fair game. It is still football. It is not two-hand touch. It is football. And it is astounding that one of the 17 people entrusted with the white hat, the crew chief, doesn’t understand what a defenseless player is and isn’t and what is and isn’t allowed to be done. Unless it was just, you know what, we screwed this up and instead of admitting we screwed it up, we’re going to come up with some cockami reason so they’ll just leave us alone. Right? Either way it’s bad. Yeah. Either way it’s bad. Either way it’s bad because the Ravens stopped the Steelers after a turnover short to make a 133. Yeah. They take the field goal off the board. The very next play is Zakayas, right? I believe it was him that was Kenneth Gainwell, excuse me, right? He scores off the left end for a six-yd touchdown. And okay, now instead of 13 to three, it’s 17 to3. So yes, I I mean that was a huge moment in the football game certainly. And there was nothing forcible there. We’ve shown it before. I mean, their thighs were hitting his shoulder. It wasn’t I mean, you know what I mean? Unnecessary, I guess. No, it was it’s Let’s We got to be clear on it. You can’t hit him in the head or neck area forcibly. You can’t hit him with your helmet forcibly, and you can’t launch into him. Everything else is fair game. You are allowed to steamroll him. You are allowed to hit him hard and put him on his ass. It is still football. Guys get put on their asses. You just can’t hit him in the head or neck area. You can’t hit him forcibly with your helmet. You can’t launch into him. And if if a dumbass like me knows that, how the hell does Alex Moore not know that? And how are these people not held extremely accountable to know these things? Because plays like this determine games, and games like this determine seasons, and seasons like this determine jobs. It’s the kind of stuff Davos Swinny was saying about the lack of accountability for referees. They get to go home, kick up their feet, and have a beer. They detach from it. The other people are the ones who have to live with the outcome of it. Now, now, now let’s go to the Now it gets interesting, right? Okay. Aaron Rogers second half tips the ball up in the air. What What’s the coaching point when the ball’s tipped up in the air? Knock it down. Knock it down. Well, this is kind of a moment where, you know, I don’t have a chance to knock it down here. I better do something with it. I knocked it up. He shouldn’t have knocked it up. He should have knocked it down. He knocks it up and he then has it in his hands for a split second. He’s going to the ground. The ball is ripped out and intercepted. The ruling on the field, Christopher, is interception. So if we are going to apply the re the replay review standard the way it was intended, the only way that ruling of interception gets overturned is if there is clear and obvious evidence the ruling on the field was incorrect. So tick tick tick. We wait for the ruling. The ruling on the field was Aaron Rogers had possession of the ball with his knee down. The play was over. Down by contact. No interception. the Steelers have the ball back. So, I just want to make sure. So, when we see the next time in the middle of the field, somebody catch the ball, their knee goes down and their hand is trapped on the helmet with somebody else and then if they fall over or lose the ball, then it should be a catch, right? Because that did not that you did not complete the catch process. First off, that’s the first thing. Let’s show it all again, guys. First off, if we have one that we can show in real time, can we do we have a one that we can show in real time? Because this high when you show it in 77 90,000 times slower, it starts to be, “Oh, did he catch it?” If you watch the play happen in real time, you’d go, “Oh, boom. Ball tapped in the air. Oh, it’s trapped on his head. Oh, they got the ball.” But that that’s how it would happen. Now, we watch it in slow motion. And again, if we could just show what we had there, we’ll we’ll do that first. What we just showed a minute ago. Let’s watch this. I mean, we’re going to call I have the ball trapped on my head with somebody else also with his hands. That’s that’s that’s a catch. A completed catch. Did he get three steps and can make a football move? Exactly. Right. Remember this cuz we’re going to have that discussion on the next play. What are you talking about? So this there right here and I and you’re going to say that’s possession. I’m just shocked especially when like you said the call on the field was interception because the common sense of it all was wait in real time that wasn’t possession that ball was live. He trapped it on his head for a split second while somebody else Malik Harrison had his hands on there and on the way down to the ground which he’s still completing the process of the catch the guy took it out of his hands. That makes no sense to me at all. That was one of the worst calls of the year right there. Let’s be fair to what the league had to say. Mark Butterworth, the VP of instant replay in the same pool report that Alex Moore, defended the the unnecessary roughness on the long snapper hit. Butterworth said the offensive player, i.e. Rogers, had control of the ball and as he was going to the ground, there was a hand in there, but he never lost control of the ball. And then his knees hit the ground in control. So therefore by rule he is down by contact with control of the ball. Now never completed the catch. I hear that whatever happened to you have to have control of the ball and two feet down and you have to either make an act common to the game or have long enough time to do it. And one of the acts common to the game is three steps. But there are others. Remember that for the next play. And if you’re going to the ground remember that part as he was. We can play it again. As you’re going to the ground, you have to maintain possession through the act of going to the ground. What happened? He didn’t maintain possession. Through the act of going to the ground. And the biggest problem is this. And and this is an issue. Somebody who is intimately aware of the replay process, how it was constructed, how it’s supposed to operate, told me they have gotten away from the clear and obvious standard. And remember, they centralized replay 10 or 12 years ago because they wanted one standard to always apply to replay decisions because there were 17 different referees and there were potentially 17 different standards as to what we were going to do about overturning a ruling on the field. So they want one body, one entity, one office making these decisions based on the clear and obvious standard. And they are getting away from the clear and obvious standard because you can’t tell me that it’s clear and obvious that the ruling of an interception, not a catch, not down by contact, an interception, you can’t tell me that was clearly and obviously wrong. That was a gigantic miss. That was an embarrassment to the league that they missed that one. I I I would agree. I mean, that’s certainly another huge moment of the football game because now Baltimore doesn’t get the ball right there. Right. Short field. You don’t know what happens. Instead, there kind of momentum boost, right? On the next play, you could have a touchdown. Yeah. And instead there, I think they ended up punting, right, on that series, but regardless, it was all the way down the field. They got away with it, right? So, there’s that play. So, that’s there’s two plays we’ve showed so far that have gone against Baltimore are over two. Yeah. And they’re about to go over things evened out. Yeah. They’re getting this week. Now then this is the most important one because this would have been the touchdown that would have put the Ravens ahead right late in the game. Isaiah likely a 13yd catch. He has it in the end zone. He’s got one foot. He’s got two feet. He’s holding the ball out away from the defender. And before the third foot hits, the defender successfully knocks out the ball. Okay, great defensive play. There he is holding the ball away. Ball in his hands. One, two, and before the third foot hits, the ball comes out. Now, now after years of not knowing what a catch is and struggling with Dez caught it, and anytime one of these questions comes up and I’m sitting next to Jason Garrett, he turns green. And he said, “I know this rule better than anyone.” Now, I am convinced there was a time where the NFL sold the idea that if you had the ball in the end zone and two feet down, the play was over and you don’t have to do any of the other stuff. I’ll submit that they’ve what if that was ever an accepted interpretation. They still require and let’s make sure we understand what this is. the act of catching the pass. You get control of the ball, two feet or Brian Callahan, any other body part down, elbow, shin, knee, forearm, whatever. And you have to then if you’re going to the ground, you have to maintain possession through the act of going to the ground. If you get your two feet down, you’ve got to perform an act common to the game, i.e. a football move. And there are several different ways you can perform a football move. Okay. The easiest one to spot is the third step. Yeah, that’s easy. They added that when they finally a millimeter away from hitting the third step. And and see the beauty of the third step is it removes all doubt from the question of whether or not the guy caught the ball. You take that third step. Forget about everything else. He got a third step. It doesn’t matter whether he made a football move. It doesn’t matter whether he lunged with the ball. It doesn’t matter whether he tucked it and turned up field. Those are the other football moves. And it’s not just a third step. You can still complete the act of catching the ball by making the act common to the game by extending the ball forward, tucking the ball away and turning up field, avoiding or warding off an opponent. Okay, those are the ways. And that’s what it was at the end. Those and what’s he doing? Let’s apply common sense. Again, this is Let’s apply common sense. Okay. What is Isaiah likely doing? Well, there’s no need to tuck the ball and turn up field because you’re in the end zone. He is holding the ball, extending the ball away from the defender to keep him from knocking it out. And just because he failed to keep him from knocking it out doesn’t mean have it long enough for three steps. The question is, have you done that? Have you extended the ball and warded off an opponent? And let’s apply common sense. Is that a catch or is that not a catch? Now, let’s apply the standard. Is it clearly and obviously incorrect? I agree. It’s called a touchdown on the field. Right. If you want to say ruling in real time, it’s not a catch. Is it clearly and obviously a catch? I’ll submit if the ruling on the field was no catch, it’s hard to say it clearly and obviously was, but that same standard applies here. If it is a catch on the field looked like more of a catch than Aaron Rogers with the ball on top of his helmet. That’s the other problem. That’s hilarious. I was trying to get the league to reconcile and it became an Abbott and Costella routine. All right, I’m going to keep the communications off the record, but it was dog chasing the tail. You can’t reconcile Isaiah likely not catching it and Aaron Rodgers catching it. You can’t reconcile the two. And the Ravens got the short end of both of those calls. also within what you’re talking about cuz it’s common sense and again this is where I’m into the refs need to be fulltime because they’re not around and watching enough football to have a feel for the game and real time and everything. This let me just go through it real quick. This right here catching it the refs got it right though. That’s the thing I’m defending the refs. They got it right the replay that screwed it up. Wait, sure. Okay, I get that. I I still think that’s a football move there. What do you mean? You’re saying No, I’m saying the ruling on the field was right. 100%. I got You’re right. You’re right. You’re right. You’re right. I I misspoke that. It’s a league issue, not a referee issue. Exactly. Right. So in 345, right, they need to have the common sense there first off to go, wait, this is football. He caught it like this. This to hold it away was the football. It’s off. That was And he extended because he knew, wait, this guy’s going to reach and try to knock the ball out of my hand. He took two.9999 steps. It was I mean, the third step is in millimeter from hitting the ground. I mean it and maybe the cleat hits the ground when the ball comes out. I mean that’s how close it is. I I don’t understand that when the play’s called the touchdown on the field and to your point there, you know, that’s one where yeah, the referees, they’re in real time watching it going, “Wait, he caught it. There was two big steps and he extended the ball. That’s a touchdown.” And then of course 345 comes in and overturns a huge moment. And it was only what maybe eight, nine plays after the Aaron Rodgers play. That’s what was insane. was like, “Wait, Baltimore, even though they got screwed over by the Aaron Rogers catch on the helmet, they’re going to drive down and win the damn game anyways here a few plays later.” And that of course happens and they weren’t in they weren’t able to get in the end zone and that was it. That was all that she wrote there in that game. VP VP, excuse me, of Instant Replay, Mark Butterworth, was again available as part of the pool report. And I knew a pool report would be inevitable here. what he said about the likely no catch, the ruling that apparently Butterworth made from the league office. The ruling on the field was a touchdown. We quickly looked at the play. The receiver controlled the ball in the air, had his right foot down, then his left foot down. The control is the first aspect of the catch. The second aspect is two feet or a body part inbounds, which he did have. Then the third step is an act common to a game. And before he could get the third foot down, the ball was ripped out. Therefore, it was incomplete. for this play. The act common to the game would be him completing the third step. And I was told that the concern is they are focusing too much on the third step and not the other ways to perform an act common to the game. And I rattled them off. Extending the ball or warding off an opponent are two ways to complete the process of the catch. It’s too easy to say, “I got a third step.” And if they do get a third step, it’s easy. But if they didn’t get a third step, there’s still a way to complete the process. And this is why it’s important, folks. There’s an element of judgment here that the officials on the field engage in. Yeah. That they and they applied the judgment that Isaiah likely did enough to complete the process without the third step. extended the ball, wardened off an opponent. By overturning the ruling on the field, they have disregarded the judgment. They have found that the judgment was clearly and obviously wrong. And that is a flaw. That is a fly in the ointment. And the NFL had better get its act together. And you know, at a time when they should be more concerned about getting their stuff buttoned up because of all the gambling scandals, they seem to be more brazen and more cavalier and forget the rules. We’re just going to do what we want to do, right? Oh, this is a Oh, let Oh, that’s a Oh, well, well, we No, but we wanted I Look, I don’t know what the motivation is because we don’t know who’s making these decisions, and we don’t know who’s in the room. It’s this dark, shadowy force that just swoops in and changes outcomes of plays, which can change outcome of games, which can change outcome of seasons, and it needs to stop, right? The bottom line is common sense. You can’t call Rogers catch a catch when he’s has it pinned on his head and makes no football move and another guy’s got his hand on the ball and then go four minutes later go wait a guy caught it. He took almost three giant steps. He’s not going to turn up field cuz he’s in the end zone and he’s extended the ball and has like freaking Spider-Man incredible Hulk lock on the ball until somebody hits it. That’s where it’s at. He’s extending it to keep the ball away. He knew it was going to happen. Right. So, all right. I want to hear what I Let’s hear John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh addressed both the likely non-catch and the Rogers catch. Here’s Harbaugh. Yeah, the explanation was a third foot didn’t get down before the ball came out. That’s what they said. Do you believe it should have been? Uh, you know what? I believe a lot of things. I think I think the play with uh I think the Aaron Rogers play I mean just talking about rules here. It’s not an officiating issue. It comes from New York. But, you know, when you when you when you’re making a catch, you have to you have to you have to survive the ground. You know, he he didn’t survive the ground. He’s no he’s not down by contact. He he was catching he was catching the ball on the way down with another person. So, you got you got to make a catch there and survive the ground. I don’t know why it was ruled the way it was on that one. So, all those things I’m sure will they’ll explain to us, but they had plenty of time to look at and they’re the ones who are the experts on the rules. So, that’s how it works. It’s a very calm and reasonable reaction from John Harbaugh. Far more calm or reasonable than I would have been in that moment where my season may have just gone up in a cloud of smoke, not from the officials, but from someone at the league office. And I like the way he kind of subtly shifted it from the officials to the league office because the officials did their jobs well. The officials got it right. Yeah. Both Rogers didn’t catch it. Likely did, right? and the league office came in and this was what everyone’s concern was when the league office seized the power to be the the ultimate voice on all of these replays like wait a minute they’re going to there’s going to be this pipeline to 345 Park Avenue and they’re just going to tell us and okay what if they get it wrong well they got it wrong twice yesterday they got it wrong twice and it may have kept the Ravens from making it to the playoffs and it may have handed the Steelers a playoff appearance We don’t know how the rest of the games are going to go. They got they got a lot of football and and you know again they benefit from the fact that there’s a bright shiny object right around the corner. Chargers host the Eagles tonight and how long will anyone talk about this and in a cluster of all the games we played yesterday and all the great outcomes like oh why are you talking about this? But you know one of the all it’s going to be one of these that is going to blow the house down and the problem is we got an apartment in the house. Like we have a vested interest in the NFL not having a massive scandal that undermines the integrity of the game to the point where it’s pro wrestling and nobody wants to watch it anymore. That’s what our concern is. We say this because we love the game. Why do you hate the game? We love the game. We hate what’s happening to it because it’s like, does anybody really give a Does anybody understand what the stakes are here? Does anybody understand how how badly this can go if they don’t button this up? That’s what bothers me. Yeah, I I hear you. And it goes all the way to the top. I’m sorry. You know, you got to be careful because you you don’t want to get any nasty phone calls, but the guy whose name’s on every football is the one who is responsible for this. If I’m him, I’m demanding that this stuff get cleaned up because it’s a reflection on me as the commissioner of the sport. Well, it it’s definitely the roughest year I can remember in in almost every game I watch and it’s a little all over the place and like we’re talking about, we’re lacking common sense right now and then we’re not following the rules by the letter of the law at times, too. When you go, wait, this is an obvious like just follow the rules, the letter of the law. Like what do you mean? You know, I mean, we’re talking about it has to be clear and obvious to overturn it. It’s not clear and obvious. Pandora is all over the place. Is out of the box. When you start tinkering, it’s supposed to be a safety net to correct clear mistakes. They are using it to change the outcome of plays that are not clear mistakes. And that was the concern that was expressed to me when I talked to somebody who knows how this process is supposed to work. They are disregarding the clear and obvious standard which is a problem. And when it comes to the catch process, they are too focused on the third foot and not the other stuff. And that’s a problem too. They got a lot of problems. And instead of ignoring all of them, maybe they should maybe they should like focus on fixing one of them. So, I I’m very troubled by what’s going on and I get feedback all the time about the officiating. They need full-time officials. Who’s making these decisions? Who’s doing this? There’s so many concerns that the teams have and they know that they get a sympathetic ear in me. So, they’ll call me up and complain to me and they think they, you know, I mean, maybe I’ll I’ll repeat some of what they have to say here, but people are concerned. People were concerned because the integrity of the game is on the line and that’s not hyperbole. Yeah. No. a big matchup like that and we’re talking about two coaches who could be on the hot seat if they don’t win these kind of games or don’t get into the playoffs. I mean, it affects a lot. It was a fun football game that kind of got Yeah. a little bit cloudy and marred by the the the the questionable calls there. Certainly, that definitely was it. But both teams are still in the playoff race, that’s for sure. That AFC North is not very good. So, whoever wins the division, they’re going to play each other what in week 18 again, right? Don’t they have each other then? Uh, they got a few games leading up to that. Steelers, Rogers made some better plays. Do I sit here and go, “Oh, wait. Pittsburgh, they’ll be okay on offense.” No, I don’t feel the same way on defense either. Right. Ravens, uh, the Ravens offense still hasn’t been what we expect it to be, but the Ravens have the tougher schedule. I believe in the Ravens, the team, more than I do the Pittsburgh Steelers. Again, I’m not going to wipe away the last seven weeks of way below average play by the Steelers and just go, “Oh, they won yesterday and some good calls kind of helped them. They’re fixed now. I’m not ready to do that.” Steelers, don’t give the world attitude because we all observed that you were not playing well. They got it together for one day. That’s great. Well done. But that doesn’t erase. You’re right. Yeah, exactly. And there’s one and there and they both look like teams right now that if they do get in the playoffs, it’s going to be one and done and that’s all that she wrote anyways. On the way out the door for this segment at least. Mike Tomlin on Aaron Rogers and Aaron Rogers message to the big bad media. You know, we knew what was on the line today and um that’s why you go do business with a guy like Aaron for thick days like today. Um he’s been there, done that guy. Um but beyond the experience component of it, he relishes it. Uh you can just tell. Um and and that’s the benefit of having a guy like AR. What does it mean to get a win like this after the week? Means maybe you guys will shut the hell up for a week. Set you off. I mean, come on. Come on. Come on. I I mean, the reason we were saying anything is because of what was happening. And Aaron’s the one who dropped a couple of turds into the punch bowl last week gratuitously that cried out for more. So I I hate it when they win a game and and this is any team and they’re mad because people were pointing out what was obvious. Yeah, right. They were they were not playing well. The storm clouds were gathering. Ben Rothosberger breathed an incredible amount of life into this Mike Tom. So just get out of here with that stuff. I mean, look, I Yeah, we’ll shut the hell up for a week. Well, first of all, we’re not going to shut the hell up. And, you know, let’s see. Keep going. Keep going. You won one. Keep going. And we’ll see if you can win one without having three calls. Not one, not two, but three calls, critical calls that went your way instead of the other team’s way. Let’s see if you’ll win when those three calls go the other team’s way instead of your way. All right, we got to take a break. Hi, it’s Mike Florio. Thanks for watching PFT on YouTube. Hit subscribe for the latest news and analysis from Pro Football

Mike Florio and Chris Simms talk through the inflammatory calls that helped determine a huge AFC North showdown between the Steelers and Ravens. #NBCSports #NFLonNBC #ProFootballTalk #NFL
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Unpacking officiating decisions from Steelers win over Ravens | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC
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