Hey refs … yeah, you, the ones from the Cincinnati Bengals-Pittsburgh Steelers game this afternoon. Be glad the game was in Pittsburgh and not the Queen City. Otherwise, nothing short of having the Navy SEALS on speed dial could get you out of town.

Cincinnati Bengals fans are fit to be tied after their team’s 24-16 loss on Sunday. Not just because of the final score or because of the things they knew would happen, like Ben Roethlisberger throwing for 259 yards and 3 touchdowns or Cincy only rushing for 46 yards behind a suspect O-line. The anger was more about questionable calls (or non-calls) by the refs that destroyed the Cincinnati Bengals’ momentum.

The Bad Calls

• Tight end CJ Uzomah caught a touchdown pass in the 3rd quarter – and had his knee down – but it was called incomplete.
• Receiver Tyler Boyd “fumbled” the ball with less than two minutes to go after being hit by Pittsburgh LB James Harrison. Boyd was clearly down before the ball came out and the call wasn’t reversed. Watch for #KneeGate to trend on Twitter in the 513 area code.
• The refs missed more than a few holding calls against the Steelers.

The rest was execution and bad decisions. Several Bengals receivers had drops. Defensive back Dre Kirkpatrick had an interception but a second one slipped through his hands. Same thing happened to DB George Iloka. Darqueze Dennard was burned twice on deep balls. Star receiver A.J. Green (whom we thought would have a big game) was targeted 8 times but only caught 2 passes. The Bengals’ coaches didn’t challenge the Uzomah TD.

As a result, Pittsburgh now has a 1-game lead over the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North. The striped ones will have to wait until December 18 for a chance at payback. In the meantime, they can shift their focus to next week, when they’ll play Denver in the friendly confines of Cincinnati – a place that a certain group of refs might want to avoid.