In a crucial Week 15 matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers, the former received some early bias from the referee crew.
The Steelers had just gone three-and-out for the third-straight possession to start this game when one single play looked to completely change the momentum for Pittsburgh. After Pittsburgh punted for the third time in as many possessions, Eagles returner and rookie Cooper DeJean took it 10 yards before he fumbled.
Pittsburgh recovered at the Eagles' 11-yard line. This was exactly what the doctor ordered. Early in a game where the Steelers were down and had nothing going, offensively, they were 11 yards away from pay dirt.
On the very first play of what was the Steelers' fourth drive of the game, a fight broke out involving several Eagles and Steelers players, including Quinyon Mitchell, Darius Slay, Calvin Austin and Darnell Washington.
After the dust settled, fans were fully expecting penalties to be handed out to both sides. It seemed like an easy decision for the officials. The scrum involved both teams, with several players involved in the shoving. Take a look at the video for yourself.
Heck, take a look at the above featured image. Slay threw a punch, but yeah, let's just ignore that one.
The officials showed clear bias toward the Eagles after failing to equally divvy out penalties
Instead of offsetting penalties on both teams, it was actually the Steelers who were flagged ... twice. Both Washington and Austin were called for unnecessary roughness (Austin's penalty was accepted).
Because of this, the Steelers were set back 15 yards and momentum seemed to slip away just as quickly as it was handed to Pittsburgh after the fumbled punt. On the following two plays, Russell Wilson would throw incompletions which ultimately led to a 4th-and-18 for the Steelers.
Pittsburgh would settle for a Chris Boswell field goal, tying up the game 3-3.
But, one can only wonder what would have happened if the officials were to have gotten this penalty situation right. There is no right way to defend the refs for not penalizing Philly after that altercation, but, we'll have to wait until Monday morning to see if the league does anything about it.