The Pittsburgh Steelers will host the Baltimore Ravens in an AFC Wild Card game Saturday night at Heinz Field and on Wednesday it was announced that Clete Blakeman will referee the game.
In case you need to be reminded, Blakeman was the referee for the Steelers game a few weeks ago against the Atlanta Falcons and he was the one that threw the flag on linebacker Jason Worilds for roughing quarterback Matt Ryan with 5:58 left in the second quarter.
That penalty negated a second down sack by and the Falcons went on to finish the drive with a touchdown just three plays later. The league did not fine Worilds the following week for the hit and that means the Steelers linebacker was unjustly penalized.
This will be the second time that Blakeman has refereed a game between the Steelers and the Ravens. Last season he did the Thanksgiving night game between the two teams that the Ravens ultimately won 22-20. That game included the long kickoff return by Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones during which he had to avoid Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin down the left sideline. Tomlin wasn’t flagged for interfering with Jones during the return, but he would later be fined $100,000 by the league for the incident.
In the seven Steelers games that Blakeman has refereed during his career, Pittsburgh is 3-4.
