Following the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-24 loss Sunday to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, head coach Mike Tomlin vowed to fix the penalty problem that has plagued the team through their first four games of the season.
Part of the fixing process will reportedly include having referees at practice this week, according to a Monday evening report by Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network.
Told Mike Tomlin is indeed going to have refs this week at #Steelers practice. With 44 penalties through 4 games… has to help.
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) September 30, 2014
After being flagged 13 times for 125 yards Sunday against the Buccaneers, the Steelers have now been flagged 56 times with 44 of those being accepted for a total of 387 yards. Entering the Monday night game, the San Francisco 49ers are the only team with more penalties than the Steelers.
“We need to fix it. And if we don’t we will continue to lose close football games. It’s just that simple,” said Tomlin during his post game press conference. “Some of the penalties are technical or orientation-like, facemask penalties and things of that nature. Our tackling technique needs to improve. But some of the pre-snap and post-snap and post-play penalties are just lacking discipline. We have to fix it. I have to fix it. And I will.”
The Steelers will next play the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday on the road. In case you’re curious, the Jaguars have only been flagged 31 times so far this season with 18 of them being accepted for a total of 146 yards.
