Can everyone stop whining about officiating?

Following both the Steelers and the Penguins, I hear a lot of whining from other fanbases. "The refs are just trying to give your team a win, Sidney Crosby is a crybaby, James Harrison is a thug and should be suspended, you always get every call just how you want it," etc. How about everyone takes a step back shuts up for once?

I could go two ways with this. The first thing I could do is point out every instance when James Harrison is headlocked and/or tackled by an offensive lineman and holding is not called. I could compare the number of times Ben has been hit late to the times it's actually been called (that count is at four, by the way). But then that puts me on the same level as the people I'm calling out.

So instead, I'm going to prove that a tripping call in the 4th quarter with several minutes left was, in fact, NOT what lost the game for the Vikings yesterday.

The scenario that the haters will give you is that the call nullified a touchdown, and that if the Vikings score there, somehow it is provable that the Steelers would have been unable to come back and the refs probably would have decided that play was enough and just ended the game there. Vikings win.

In all seriousness, someone made the argument to me yesterday that the result of that play changes momentum and play-calling for the rest of the game. And they're right. If the Vikings' score, they kick the ball back to the Steelers and the Steeler offense comes out to run their own plays to get the lead back. That didn't happen though. Instead, Favre fumbled the football and LaMarr Woodley returned it for a TD.

But as long as we're dealing in what-ifs, isn't it just as likely that the Steelers drove down and scored, kicked off, and say, forced a fumble on the kick return and scored again? That could just as easily have been the outcome, but we'd never know what would happen because the game didn't go that way. Bottom line is: that tripping call didn't prove anything in the final outcome. There was still plenty of time for both teams to adjust to whatever outcome.

But since everyone always has to blame SOMETHING, how about we look at a play that actually COULD have made the difference in the game? How about Brett Favre trying to drive down and score to take the lead, but instead of catching a pass, Chester Taylor tips the ball into Keyaron Fox's hands, and he returns it for a touchdown? If Taylor catches that pass, the drive stays alive and they have a chance to keep driving and score, which would most likely give them the win. He didn't though. Taylor (not the refs, here) made a mistake and it resulted in a Steelers' TD. Down 10 points with almost no time left, I'll go ahead and say THAT was the play that made the difference in the game.

This was a close game. The tripping call probably DID make a difference. In fact, it definitely did. Any number of scenarios were possible had it not been called, for either team. But what mattered more was the failure of the Vikings' offense on their final [meaningful] drive. So everyone can whine and complain about one penalty all they want. But I know the Vikings could have overcome it to win. They simply didn't, and they lost the football game for it.

Bye week coming up. If I find time between class, papers, and exams, I'll try to cover some more NFL stuff over the next two weeks than I have been lately.

Here We Go.