Steelers emerge victorious over reeling Giants team

[Dodens Grav]

Steelers emerge victorious over reeling Giants team (read more)

The Pittsburgh Steelers entered the game against the New York Giants yesterday evening seeking to gauge where they are as a team midway through the 2012 season.

Just a game over .500 at 4-3, the Steelers already lost three games on the road, and in each of them they gave up a lead in the fourth quarter.

In fact, their first road win came just a week ago against the Washington Redskins to a tune of 27-12. Facing yet another road test, the Steelers looked toward the Giants as a true litmus test: a quality opponent (the Giants were 6-2) on the road.

If they could come out of East Rutherford with a W, they should be able to feel good about themselves.

The Steelers did escape from MetLife Stadium with their fifth win of the season—and third consecutive—and they did so despite some highly controversial officiating in the second quarter that contributed to 14 Giants points.

Three times in the second quarter, poor officiating assisted in the Giants building a 14-10 lead as their offense struggled to do much of anything. First was a poor pass interference call that should have gone as Keenan Lewis’ fourth pass defense of the game. Then it was an erroneous blow to the head of a defenseless receiver who received a rib injury on the play.

Finally, and most damagingly, it was an incomplete pass that was ruled a fumble, which was returned 70 yards for a defensive touchdown. Incredibly, it was upheld after review. The league has yet to offer an explanation for any of these game-changing calls, though Mike Pereira, the former head of officiating, found all three to be in error.

But the defense—once on a short field—held the G Men to just 6 second half points as Ben Roethlisberger and the offense rallied for two fourth quarter touchdowns and a 24-20 victory.

A more susceptible mind might attribute this poor officiating to some kind of league mandate to assist the Giants in light of the destruction of Superstorm Sandy of the prior week. Giants head coach Tom Coughlin acknowledged that they were playing with the residents of the state in mind.

Of course, the very idea is patently absurd, if not only because it last just one quarter, while the second half remained relatively free of controversy. But for that one 15 minute period, many in Steeler Nation no doubt must have felt that the fix was in—or at least were begging for the return of the replacement officials.

[tony hipchest]

good stuff.

roger goodell was at the game. im sure he gave a fiery "halftime speech" inside the refs locker room during the break.

Dammitt.... you guys are making it look obvious the fix is in!!!

of course the refs wouldnt have had to pull any of the contrived shennanigans, had the giants jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter as anticipated...