PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Each team ended up with six penalties on the day, but it seemed like the ones on the Steelers were far more impactful and it had a Pro Bowler really upset in the locker room after a 20-10 Jacksonville win over the Steelers.
“They wanted them to win.”
Part of what receiver Diontae Johnson said after the game as obviously the mandated cooling off period after games for NFL players wasn’t long enough for Johnson.
“They were calling some stupid stuff,” Johnson said. “They should get fined for making terrible calls. That’s how pissed I am. They cost us the game. I don’t care what nobody says, they cost us the game.”
Johnson continued.
“The refs were killing us the whole game,” Johnson said. “The same refs we had at training camp. We can’t keep complaining about the refs, like Coach T says we can’t worry about the refs. They must have been paid good today or something. That field goal, that hurt us. We needed that.”
Let’s go to that one on the field goal. Down 9-3, Steelers drove to the Jacksonville 38 yard-line with 14 seconds left, facing a third-and-10, the Steelers elected to go for a 55-yard-field goal from Chris Boswell. The kick was good and the Steelers would have gone into the locker room down only three points. Then the flag on the field. Guard Isaac Seumalo was called for lining up offside where apparently his head was in front of long-snapper Christian Kuntz. Boswell would miss a 61-yard attempt the next play.
“I didn’t get a lot of dialogue,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
“I hadn’t seen that called in 17 years of standing on the sidelines. Offside, aligned offsides on a guard, on a field goal protection. So, it didn’t matter what they said. I have never seen that.”
Former NFL officials said similar things on social media.
“I’m sure if you line up over the ball, it’s offsides,” Seumalo said. “I never heard about it or heard it called. I thought I lined up in the same spot I’ve been lining up for the last seven-eight years.”
"The right guard was lined up in the neutral zone. His head was over the back edge of the ball, so by rule that's an offensive offside foul." "It was a judgment call. It was obvious on the field, so we went ahead & called it."
“Everything was in their favor,” Johnson continued. “They were getting every little call.”
Steelers were called for, what appeared to be a minor, if any, pass interference on James Pierre on third down keeping a drive alive that resulted in a Jags field goal in the first quarter. There was a roughing the passer on Keanu Neal for what appeared to be a text-book hit on QB Trevor Lawrence.
As Johnson was finishing up talking Sunday afternoon, there settled in the realization that no matter what he said, the result wouldn’t change as the Steelers dropped to 4-3 on the season.
“It is what it is, I’m moving on from it and getting ready for Thursday,” Johnson said.
“It is what it is, it’s far, far from the reason the game was not won,” Seumalo said. “It’s very, very minor to me in terms of the refs’ stuff. There’s much more prudent & important stuff offensively that we need to look at.”
There is one more line from Seumalo that the Steelers, and other NFL/college teams, have felt days after being affected by a bad call.
“I’m sure in a couple of days we will get a nice little apology,” Seumalo said. “That will warm my heart.”