I never blame losses on bad penalty calls, but I am never afraid to point out bad calls when I see them. During the Pittsburgh Steelers Saturday night preseason loss to the Kansas City Chiefs there were two penalties called that certainly shouldn\’t have been.
With 5:04 left in the first half, Steelers cornerback Cortez Allen was flagged for unnecessary roughness for hitting Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith out of bounds following a scramble for 38 yards down the left sideline. However, as you will see in the two animated gifs below, Allen was actually pushed into Smith by Chiefs tight end Anthony Fasano and he did his best to try to avoid contact.
Earlier in the game, running back Jonathan Dwyer was flagged for an illegal chop block with 13:36 left in the first half. A chop block occurs when a player is “chopped” while engaged with another player. Can anyone tell me who Chiefs linebacker Akeem Jordan is engaged with prior to Dwyer cutting him? The bogus penalty negated a 25-yard pass from Ben Roethlisberger to wide receiver Antonio Brown that would have given the Steelers the ball at the Chiefs 17 yard-line. Instead, the drive stalled two players later near midfield.
At least this was a preseason game, but head coach Mike Tomlin was rightfully ticked off after the game nonetheless.
