I finally caught up on this thread, and I want to thank you for doing that work. I think a big part of the problem is 90% of the NFL viewing public has no idea what holding is or isn't. I can maybe see how someone wouldn't understand the holding on Flowers, but the guys that are holding HIghtower, Guy and McCourty are doing so in a way that makes every holding call on the Pats yesterday look laughable.
I said it yesterday, and I'll say it again today. The Refs are paid to level the playing field between the teams. Yesterday, they did the opposite. The Patriots were held to a completely different standard than the Steelers were, from the first drive to the last (defensive holding on a run play anyone?). It didn't matter if it was the DPI called on Jones, or the DPI that wasn't called on Edelman, the holding called on Brown or all of the holding that wasn't called on Pittsburgh. It went on and on and on, and came up in the biggest spots throughout the game.
If they are going to make the calls based on the letter of the law, fine, I have no problem with that. Throw the flags, but you can't do it for one team and not the other. If you eliminate just those three holding calls on the Pats (the one on the Michel run, and the two in the red zone), that's at least 9 points, maybe 21 that were taken off the board. Just those 3 calls. Yeah, they make a difference.