I agree with the others that the 'ref factor' is probably the scariest thing about the game. Whether we'd like to admit it or not, there is a home team bias when it comes to ref's decisions (yes, I'm saying that applies to us when we are the home team as well), but I feel like the calls are even more skewed when Peyton Manning is involved. There were times when it used to feel like refs had the mentality of 'oh, manning's pass was incomplete? there must have been some kind of interference, I'll throw the flag'.
We as Pats fans know all too well that it's not necessarily the penalty yardage that is the killer, but the PLAYS it takes away. For example, the Pats could have a 30 yard gain negated by a OPI call against Gronk. The scorebook will say 10 yards of penalties but it will really be 40 yards of penalty (with a liklier punt outcome).
As a whole I don't think the officiating for the PIT-DEN game was too bad, but there were two head scratchers for me.......
1.) There is a phantom DPI call on third down that kept a drive alive. Those kills me the most. A punt situation to new life, those might as well be as critical as a turnover. For Denver in this game manning still had to punt b/c of his inability to lead an offense these days.
2.) There was one play in which a Steelers receiver caught a ball and began to run after the catch. He had already ran with teh ball ten yards when teh ref decided to throw the flag...what was the call you ask? "Illegal contact on the defense"........the ref threw and illegal contact on the defense well after seeing the ball was caught and that a first down was obtained. Mabye I'm a conspiracy theorist here, but I feel like the only point of throwing the flag was to make them look impartial. "I can't be one sided so I'll call penalties against teh Broncos only when I know they'll be declined."
There is no overlooking the fact that two MAJOR questionable calls were made in the first matchup this year between the Broncos and Pats (Gronk OPI and Chung holding). Those calls without a doubt played a critical role in the outcome of the game. I just hope stuff like this doesn't happen Sunday.