To the naked eye, the Pittsburgh Steelers got robbed Sunday night against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game.
A questionable call while playing the New England Patriots in Foxborough tends to do that.
The officials claimed a Steelers player recovered a possible Tom Brady fumble in the third quarter of the game, on a quarterback sneak on third-and-one, but a replay showed it was a fumble so the Patriots got the ball.
Yet, for some reason, the ruling on the field was that it was a fumble, and after a review, the play stood as called.
The play:
Twitter blew up with reactions after the questionable call, and we can understand why:
So clear fumble, they come up with the ball, and NE still keeps it? What?
— Scott Kacsmar (@ScottKacsmar) January 23, 2017
Seriously??? Clear fumble and clear recovery!! But New England ball?? Never fails
— OJ McDuffie (@ojmcduffie81) January 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/jasonrmcintyre/status/823342761063497728
https://twitter.com/WhitlockJason/status/823342687407390720
So how was that not a fumble and overturned???? Jeez.
— Eric Weddle (@weddlesbeard) January 23, 2017
It’s hard to avoid allegations of biased calls from the referees for any home team, but playing in Foxborough seems to up the ante.
The odd sequence of events came at the worst possible time for the Steelers. Down 17-9 and needing a score to get back in the game with a quarter and a half to play, the odd “turnover that wasn’t” derailed momentum and created distracting controversy. The Patriots also tacked on a field goal on that drive as well.
Rest assured the fumble that wasn’t will be one of the biggest talking points for the upcoming week. The league also might release a statement if it feels the referees made an error.
Granted, New England had strong control of the game when this went down, but that shouldn’t stop it from being discussed.
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