Without any doubt, the Steelers/Bengals Wild Card game was the ugliest football game I’ve ever witnessed. When the score was still 9-0, I had jokingly tweeted that the game had a higher body count. I wasn’t far off in my estimation.

https://twitter.com/steelcityundrgr/status/686032473445298176

What I witnessed Saturday night was the most disgusting display of professionalism in a professional sports environment. There is bad blood between the Steelers and Bengals, however, this game crossed over into a territory beyond a rivalry. (Even when the Steelers play the Ravens, there’s some sort of humility, some display of sportsmanship.) The Cincinnati Bengals lacked respect for the game of football. You would think the Steelers were the perpetrators, having been penalized more within this game.

The bad blood all began a few years ago when Steelers LB Terence Garvin threw a completely legal block at Cincinnati punter Kevin Huber, during a return for a touchdown. The block, which Garvin was later (and in my opinion unfairly) fined for, broke Huber’s jaw.

The history continued into last year’s final week of the regular season, when Bengal safety Reggie Nelson went low on Steelers RB Le’Veon Bell, taking out his knees and subsequently sending Bell to the injured reserve list. Continuing into this season, Vontaze Burfict, a known problem player, took a cheap shot at Bell, once again sending him to the IR list. To add insult to injury, Burfict celebrated the hit, which rubbed many Pittsburgh players the wrong way.

In the return match, the Steelers defeated the Bengals at home. During this game, Burfict went intentionally low on Ben Roethsliberger. It went undetected by the game officials, but not by the league, who fined the linebacker for the hit. It was this hit that further rubbed Pittsburgh the wrong way, as a similar non-flagged-but-fined hit against the Rams, put Big Ben on the shelf for 4 games.

Thus the stage was set for the rubber match this weekend. The officials were ready for it, even standing in the “no fly zone” near midfield: completely unheard of in terms of game management.

The Steelers had all the motive to get “payback” for Bell’s injuries and an attempt to injure their leader. Yet it was the Bengals who shot themselves in the foot in the end. They want to complain about the coaches or any number of things that happened in this game? But why isn’t the media asking some additional questions about this game?

In one of the first altercations out the gate, Bengal Reggie Nelson questionably hit Steelers RB Jordan Todman out of bounds (a borderline penalty itself) sending him into the bench. During this quick play, Nelson runs off the field on the Steelers sideline and into Pittsburgh offensive line coach Mike Munchak. Muchak is flagged for “pushing” Nelson .

https://youtu.be/zjT4oCSXrRU

If you watch the replay, Nelson has every option to not hit Munchak. Yet, Nelson runs full speed, nearly past Munchak, stops, and changes direction to deliberately run into someone (rather than run into the wide open space ahead of him or just… stop.) This is significant, because Nelson is the Bengal that put Le’Veon Bell on injured reserve the previous season. So his presence on that sideline is more than unwelcome.

The Steelers know it. The Bengals know it. And the referees know it too.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. In addition to your regular trash talk, there were numerous instances were Cincinnati players ran over to the Pittsburgh sideline to instigate. There was also an altercation with a Bengals player coming onto the field, with his parka still on (not subbing in) and throwing a punch. (Why that was allowed without an ejection is beyond me.)

The Steelers weren’t saints in this either; first Munch grabbing Nelson’s hair (the push call,) and then Ramon Foster, who was caught stepping on Burfict’s heel between plays… but only after Burfict tried to do it first!

 

I feel the referees did as good a job as they could for most of the game. They caught and punished most of the bad behavior. But they did miss a few fine details, such as penalizing William Gay‘s would-be touchdown celebration, yet allowing Burfict and several Bengals to run into the endzone, off the field and up the tunnel with no flag.

Burfict was also a constant instigator throughout the game, with his first real offense (and no call) driving Ben Roethlisberger into the ground. If you call that legal, fine, but the referees missed Burfict floating over Ben’s body, and giving Ben a knee strike into the shoulder of his throwing arm: this additional dirty action may have added to the QB leaving the game.

Another detail missed was blowing Ryan Shazier‘s hit on Gio Bernard dead, which was reviewed and changed to a fumble. This would’ve been all but a certain touchdown. However, Bengals fans and players will argue the helmet-to-helmet hit. Let me offer this: on Thanksgiving Night, over 2 years ago, Le’Veon Bell was hit so hard his helmet came off and he was knocked out on the field.

https://youtu.be/lse67uHdF5I

The ruling? Legal, because Bell, like Gio, was a runner and not a defenseless player as Antonio Brown was later in the game. So there can’t be spilled milk between a runner (Gio) and a “defenseless” player (Brown) who was deliberately rocked when Burfict alters his body to lower his shoulder into Brown’s upper body/head. That was clearly deliberate, and Brown was clearly not a runner when the hit was made.

And let’s discuss that situation: Cincinnati wants to complain about Joey Porter being on the field, while all of their coaches were also out there as well. In fact, when there’s any stop in play (such as an injury or timeout) do we not see the coaches on the field?

The thing that stands out about this is Burfict and Adam “Pacman” Jones’ rebuttal that Porter was cussing at them. If you watch the video, Jones is 10 yards away while an official stands near Porter. If Porter said something, wouldn’t the referee react?

Then Porters gets bumped from behind into the Bengals players. Porter smirks: you don’t see his lips move, so he’s not cussing. His hands are in his pockets, so he doesn’t shove anyone, yet Burfict grabs Porter in a threatening manner. Steeler Alejandro Villanueva pulls Porter away, and this is when Pacman Jones decides to run into the pack, shoving a zebra out of the way to attempt to hit Porter!

And you wonder why Jones gets flagged? There is no place in the game for touching an official!

To claim Porter should be flagged in addition, well, so should Burfict (or even Gilberry for hitting a coach, as prefaced by Munch’s flag earlier in the game.) That would add 2 more, offsetting, penalties, which still would not offset Pacman’s additional 15 yard penalty for dinging the referee, nor the flag on Burfict’s dirty hit.

So in the end, the Bengals can only blame themselves. They can blame themselves for a fumble and they can blame themselves for late hits and causing chaos at the end of the game. Even if they lose the ball, they have the score and the clock in their favor, yet they let their emotions get the best of them.

Individuals soared above the team, and it’s those individuals who are making excuses days later, yet, need to realize it was their actions that caused them to not win their first playoff game since 1991.