Poor Officiating in Ravens Win Over Steelers

The officiating in the Sunday night contest between the Ravens and Steelers was one of the many horribly called games I’ve seen this season. From inconsistent penalties to entirely missed calls, the referees had no rhyme or reason that night.

More after the jump…

First of all, the refs did not beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Ravens did. There were definitely some big missed calls during that game but to say they would have changed the outcome is outrageous.

One of the most controversial calls of the game come on the first play from scrimmage. After Ray Rice cut back on a zone running play, he took it the distance for a touchdown. However, a piece of yellow linen hit the field and the play was called back. Torrey Smith was called for holding which negated the 80 yd touchdown run. From the side, it looked like  Steelers CB William Gay pulled down Smith as he was attempting to block him. The ref that threw the flag was standing behind though, and it looked like Smith pulled his jersey from there. A tough call but I’m not completely opposed to it.

The pass interference calls were terrible throughout the night. The call on Anquan Boldin that put the Ravens in the redzone was terrible. Ike Taylor barely touched his jersey and the ball was uncatchable to begin with. The biggest sign of pass interference is when the receiver complains about it, but Boldin almost seemed shocked that he got the call.

The biggest commotion was over the Ray Lewis helmet to helmet hit on Hines Ward. Lewis clearly struck Ward with his helmet which forced Ward to sit out for the rest of the game. This is odd to see from Lewis who is normally very good at avoiding illegal contact. While Lewis didn’t get a flag for his hit, safety Ryan Clark did for his which was much less severe than the one that Ray Lewis dished out. While there will be some hefty fines this week for some illegal hits, you can’t get back those missed calls.  If you’re going to call them in a game, be consistent.

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