I ask that you bear with me, as I am writing this in the immediate aftermath of the Steelers’ wild-card loss to the Buffalo Bills and am still processing the full extent of what just occurred. This may come off as more of a rant than my entries normally do (which is saying something), but I will do my best to express myself in a manner that can be understood by a rational, sane human being.

To begin, I will address the disaster of an officiating job that Carl Cheffers and his crew committed. I am on the record stating that, if the referees decide whether your team wins or loses, then you do not deserve to win. I stand by that statement. Regardless, that does not mean that incompetence should be tolerated. Let us start with the splits: the Steelers were flagged six times for 50 yards, while the Bills were flagged twice for 24 yards. There was not a huge discrepancy in penalty yards accrued, but it is the nature of the penalties called–or, to be more precise, the offenses missed–that tell the story. Now, the referees incorrectly adjudicated (at least in my opinion) a fumble by Steelers’ TE Pat Freiermuth early in the game, allowing them to retain possession despite there being sketchy evidence (at best) that the ball contacted Freiermuth while he was out of bounds. I assert this to demonstrate that I am not under the illusion that the Steelers were screwed over at every turn. However, there were numerous infractions–seemingly more of which were committed by Buffalo–that went unnoticed by Cheffers and his underlings. The most egregious of these instances was the 4th down attempt with 4:53 remaining in the game, where George Pickens was clearly interfered with on a short pass from Mason Rudolph. Other situations to which the referees were blind included a blatant hold by a Bills’ offensive lineman on Josh Allen’s 52-yard rushing touchdown with 7:12 left in the first half, and Joey Porter Jr. taking a hard block in the back when trying to tackle Stefon Diggs late in the third quarter, rendering the star rookie cornerback unable to return with concussion-like symptoms. I am certain there were more flags that the officiating crew missed–against both teams, I would assume–but the undeniable penalties that occur on such major plays in the game cannot be ignored in the grand scheme of the game.

With that being said, the referees are not the reason that the Steelers lost. Both the offense and defense were horrendous in the first half, and put themselves in such a hole that they were incapable of escaping it. Mason Rudolph was quite poor–even by backup standards–and the defense could not tackle at any level, whether it was the defensive line, linebacking corps, or secondary. It took a blocked field goal late in the first half to give the team any semblance of a spark, and while the Steelers were able to crawl their way back within striking distance, they were ultimately dead and buried before they ever got going.

I cannot say I expected the Steelers to perform significantly better than they did, but that does not make it any less disappointing to watch them flame out on national television. I would have been more confident had the game been played on Sunday afternoon in the snow as originally scheduled (thank you for nothing, Governor Hochul), as taking away Josh Allen’s cannon of an arm would have leveled the playing field significantly.

The season was not a total failure, as the Steelers found a way to sneak into the playoffs. However, the ineptitude in the postseason that dates back to 2016 is inexcusable for a franchise that has had such success historically, and it must be addressed very soon. I will discuss the ways in which this can be done next week when I have had ample time to digest this dumpster fire of a game, but, for now, it is time to take a deep breath and turn my full attention to a Penguins team that just ended the Seattle Kraken’s 9-game win streak this afternoon.

Have a good week, all.