PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – At least twice following the play Sunday during TV timeouts, Steelers Minkah Fitzpatrick implored with officials. Implore may not be the verb to describe special teams coach Danny Smith’s interaction with officials for about five solid minutes Sunday.
It turns out the play each were upset about, the officials were indeed wrong.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said during his news conference on Tuesday he heard from the league office in New York that it should not have been a leverage penalty on Fitzpatrick for jumping over a gap in the Jets line to block an extra point in the second quarter.
It could have had a big effect on the game as the Jets would accept the penalty and convert on the two-point attempt to move the lead from one to two scores, 13-6 to 15-6.
Not the first time Tomlin has been told by the NFL office the officials made a mistake.
There is replay in a lot of areas, Tomlin said as a member of the NFL’s competition committee there has been talk of expanding it to include what happened on that block on Sunday.
But he also understands the potential problems that come with too much replay.
“I just think of a collective we are proceeding with caution in terms of the infusion of technology into the game,” Tomlin said. “I think that’s the posture as a collective that we always had. We are not resistant to technology and advancements in technology, but we are methodical and intentional about the infusion of it in terms of the game.”
There has been talk about adding replay in those situations. This year the league has expanded replays from the booth to correct obvious mistakes without team’s having to use a challenge. They did so in the game Sunday to correct a spot on a third-down play.
“We just simply want to crawl, walk, run in regards to some of those things,” Tomlin explained. “Sometimes, run, run, run is not good either in terms of allocation of manpower and understanding the unintended consequences of moving in a certain direction.”
Tomlin is proud of how the Steelers have developed their special teams units to make game-altering plays. With that being said, he’s not at the point right now where he supports turning every official’s mistake into a replay situation.