Thunderstruck the NFL world Friday morning, the league announced an unprecedented suspension of the entire officiating crew following Thursday Night Football’s razor-thin 33-31 Bengals victory over the Steelers at Paycor Stadium, igniting fury across social media and analyst desks.

Pittsburgh bolted to a 20-10 halftime bulge behind Aaron Rodgers’ surgical strikes and T.J. Watt’s disruptive edge, yet Cincinnati’s Joe Flacco engineered a 23-point explosion in the second half, exploiting deep shots amid a cascade of flags that Steelers Nation decried as lopsided.

Outrage boiled over as replays dissected three game-altering non-calls and dubious penalties, from ignored pass interference to phantom holdings, fueling accusations of home-field bias that swung momentum irreversibly toward the hosts.

Bengals legend Anthony Muñoz, whose ironclad blocks defined two Super Bowl eras, weighed in during a heated ESPN segment, alluding to the head referee’s veteran gaze that “missed the forest for the flags, turning a thriller into a farce.”

Muñoz vented, “I’ve anchored lines through 183 straight games—never saw a crew so blind to the push-off on that Chase bomb; it wasn’t officiating, it was orchestration that handed my old team a tainted W.”

Spotlight first fell on the second-quarter opener: Ja’Marr Chase’s 45-yard touchdown strike, where video evidence showed him shoving Jalen Ramsey into the end zone—clear pass interference waved off by the crew, gifting Cincinnati a 7-3 spark.

Escalation hit third-quarter chaos with a roughing-the-passer whistle on Watt after a clean strip-sack attempt, extending Bengals’ third-and-long into a chain-moving first down that Tee Higgins converted into a 29-yard score, vaulting Cincy to 24-20.

Climax unfolded in the fourth: a false start on Steelers’ tush-push conversion at the goal line—echoing unpenalized Eagles plays league-wide—forced a field goal over touchdown, preserving Bengals’ comeback window that Flacco sealed with poise, prompting the league’s hammer.