NFL Monday recap - week #15

Steelers: It was ugly. As usual with the Bengals. The first time we played them this season it was chill, but my god, they were back at it again this game at home. Why is this allowed? I'm so proud of the guys for hanging in there, pounding, keeping control in the second half, and just digging for the win.

• Penalties galore...again. Face mask. Chop block. Pass interference. Illegal man down the field. Ugh. Why? This is week 15 for god's sake. That crap should not be happening. Keep your hands off the face mask. Keep your hands off of wide receivers when the ball flies through the air. My god, it isn't rocket science.
• Jeremy Hill rushed for the second touchdown, and then he picked up a Steelers Terrible Towel and tried to rip it in half, smacking it down on the turf when it didn't come apart. Disrespect. That right there would have set off a burn in my belly (well, it did do that sitting home on my couch) that would have had me wanting to kick ass.
• Cinncinnati's Vontaze Burfict started out with his same old nonsense. In a span of fifteen minutes he tackled a player already on the ground, trash talked, skirmished with our center, and then had a helmet to helmet hit that wasn't called. After that, he went on with his dirty ways until he got his bell rung with a helmet to helmet smash with Steelers David DeCastro. He sat out, and came back in again in the second half causing trouble, getting his own penalties, and just making the game ugly. Why is this guy still in the NFL?
• Antonio Brown, the only guy I truly believe gets frustrated and angry, scored, but the touchdown was negated by a, oh, let's guess, penalty. La'Veon Bell chop block. My television and my radio broadcast cut out right after the touchdown because we have been having cable issues the past two weeks. I had to get caught up by my buddy who was in the Empire State Building watching the game as he climbed up. Thank god for our Steelers group chat.
• Being a part of Steelers Nation Unite, I listen to the radio broadcast while watching the game. Bill Hillgrove the play by play announcer is great, but former Steelers Tunch Ilkin makes me nuts. He says some of the most ridiculous things. At the end of the first half, he made a comment in regards to why Sammy Coates didn't get out of bounds to stop the clock. He insinuated that because Coates hadn't played in awhile he didn't know to get out of bounds. WHAT? WHAT? He didn't know? I'm sorry, but these guys have been playing football since they were pee wees. Being out of the game due to injury for a couple of weeks, doesn't make you forget. Well, unless you got hit in the head. I'll take that one, but really, what a silly thing to say. Hillgrove, on the other hand, is money. When Bengals running back Jeremy Hill went down with a knee issue Hillgrove brought up Hill's stomping of the Terrible Towel and suggested that it was karma. "You don't desecrate the Terrible Towel."  
• I hate to say the officiating sucked, but well, it did. Face mask to Antonio Brown in the end zone not called. Helmet to helmet hit not called. Pass interference in the end zone not called. Skirmishes by Burfict not called. Face mask to Sammy Coates in the end zone not called. This game, once again, got dangerous. The officials didn't put a stop to it early on, and that is what makes the NFL a problem. HEAR ME Roger?
• By the fourth quarter the refs started noticing the other side. Cincinnati got called for four penalties in a row, one of them by Burfict who hit Ben long after he had chucked the ball. He did it directly in front of the ref who finally threw his flag. Ben didn't take kindly to it, and walked after Burfict, telling him he needed to cool down (or that's what I imagined). Burfict had the audacity to get into Roethlisberger's face and hit him in the head with his head. Kudos to Ben for keeping his cool, but letting Burfict know he wasn't happy and wouldn't put up with it. That's leadership.
• I would have tried to score at the end instead of taking a knee. But I suppose that would have been a rub. Good thing Tomlin took the high road, I suppose. Less chance of injuries. Whatever. 

Other:

• Good to see RGIII back on the field.
• Detroit's offensive coordinator is Jim Bob Cooter. Why? What were his parents thinking? I looked him up. He was born James Robert. His nickname is Jim Bob. He was born in the south, Fayetteville, TN. Of course he was. Good ole Jim Bob Cooter.
• What the heck happened to Minnesota? Or, maybe I should say what the heck happened to Indianapolis? Where has that team been this year?
• And speaking of the Colts...Andrew Luck really needs to put some of that facial hair on that huge bald spot on the back of his head. Someone needs to take pity on him and get him to a hairdresser to fix up what is going on above that man's neck. Just my opinion, being the fashionista that I am. 
• The Jaguars fired their head coach Gus Bradley. He was 14-48 as head coach. If they had won today, would they have kept him another week? Just wondering. I mean, why did they keep him this long? Yet, why fire him with two games left? What will be different then waiting until the end of the year? All so bizarre this firing of coaches at the almost end of the season.
• Atlanta's Keanu Neal dislocated his ring finger on his left hand in the game yesterday afternoon against the 49'ers. The Red Zone Channel suggested we might "want to look away" if you don't like it, and while his finger certainly was not aligned correctly on his hand the cameras did not pull away from the trainer grabbing the finger and jerking it back into position.