Not just because the Steelers were handed a victory by two boneheaded decisions by the Bengals and not just because of the sloppy play that could be somewhat blamed on the rainy conditions.
No, this game was disgraceful by the behavior of the two teams on the field and the actions of both teams reflected badly on the game itself.
I cannot say I was surprised that something happened, but I was surprised that so much of it occurred.
Pittsburgh has employed players that made a career of questionable tactics for years such as Joey Porter (and then bring him back as a coach), James Harrison, and even offensive players such as the now-retired Hines Ward known for his knee-cutting blocks, but Cincinnati has slowly begun to rival the Steelers and Ravens for players with thuggish behavior as Marvin Lewis, who coached in both Pittsburgh and Baltimore copied the M.O. by giving every malcontent/cheap shot artist that he could "rehabilitate" a position on his club.
This game featured the Bengals' Vontaze Burfict nearly knocking Antonio Brown's head off with a cheap shot, Adam "Pac Man" Jones pushing coaches, Jeremy Hill challenging four Steelers to a fight and someone coming off the bench to push a Steeler for a penalty that allowed a Steeler drive to continue.
Pittsburgh certainly wasn't going to allow that to stand as Ryan Shazier knocked out Giovanni Bernard on a play that deserved a flag (I'm a huge Shazier fan, but that wasn't clean), William Gay dancing around in the endzone (earning a flag), Mike Munchak(a coach!) drawing a flag for pulling the hair of a Bengal along with the aforementioned Porter in the middle of the field arguing with Bengals and drawing the flag that meant the game.
I'm still trying to figure out what Porter (a linebackers coach) was doing on the field with the fallen Antonio Brown (an offensive player), but he was an instigator as a player so it makes sense to do it as a coach.
It's been reported (with no verification) that Porter was voted a game ball for his stunt with Pac-Man Jones- classy.
This just scratches the surface of the issues of this game.
Look, I'm not a violet and I love a hard-nosed game, but this went beyond that- it was just plain dirty and cheap.
In other words, a sad excuse for a game.
Editors Note: Forgot to mention Mike Tomlin going for two with the score 15-0.
The extra point would have meant it would have taken 2 touchdowns and 2 two-point conversions to tie-no coach decided to go for two in that situation unless you are trying to run the score up or your kicker is injured, which Chris Boswell was not.
A Steeler loss would have been worth Tomlin trying to explain that decision alone.
I don't blame Steelers fans for being happy with the win, it is the playoffs and you take it any way that you can get it, but I wouldn't be proud about it.
Bengals fans shouldn't complain too much (although the Shazier hit should have been a penalty) as they played in just as bad of a manner and even they added to the "event" with the throwing stuff at an injured Ben Rothlisberger.
Marvin Lewis clearly has lost control of his team and you can make a real case for his removal of the old NCAA term "Lack of institutional control".
Meanwhile, you watch the same old Steeler routine every week with Mike Tomlin with his sheepish grin of tacit approval at press conferences basically condoning this crap.
It's simply a sad state of affairs in both cities.
A friend of mine has been a Bengals fan for years and last night, he had enough and renounced his fandom.
It was that bad and it was a disgrace to the game...
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