Pittsburgh Steelers rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. had a key pass breakup on fourth-and-nine late in the fourth quarter in the team’s win over the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football. There was a lot of controversy on whether or not the play should’ve been called illegal contact or defensive pass interference, and Porter said whether or not it’s a penalty really depends on the officiating.
“You never know with the NFL, some plays look like a hold and some don’t. I’ve seen worse get called or not get called. So it’s a give or take. It’s really who you’re dealing with a ref, so you always gotta make sure if it was a flag or not, especially on a fourth-and-nine. So I got lucky, if you say so, but I feel like it was a good play,” Porter said via the Steelers’ YouTube Channel.
The pass was intended for WR Donovan Peoples-Jones, and Porter definitely was a little bit handsy. But the throw wasn’t great, and it would’ve been a ticky-tack call to make. Porter was ready for the moment, knowing the Browns were going to pick on him, and ended up making a play that won the Steelers a game.
The last thing an official wants is for the game to end up in their hands, and by throwing a flag there and giving the Browns a chance to come back, the play would be a lot more talked about than it has been, even if it was dissected pretty heavily on the broadcast and in the immediate aftermath of the game. Porter was smart to be aware that the ref probably wasn’t going to throw a flag in that situation, and while the contact wasn’t blatant, there surely was some contact.
But between the fact that you could argue it was an uncatchable ball and that the hand-fighting went both ways, it was probably a good no-call. People in Cleveland might disagree, but it’s really tough to find contact there that would elevate it to being a definitive penalty. It wasn’t a case of the refs swallowing their whistle in a big moment, but there just wasn’t enough to truly make the penalty call.
Porter admitted that less contact can get called for a penalty though, so he was right that he was at least a little bit lucky that a flag wasn’t thrown. It really does depend on the context of the game and what’s been getting called throughout so you can kind of know what a certain official might be looking for. Especially in a home environment for Pittsburgh, it would’ve been a really tough call for the officials to make when there was just one defensive pass interference penalty, which was called on Cleveland, up to that point in the game.
With a different officiating crew, maybe the outcome is different. But Porter wasn’t called for a penalty, and the Steelers escaped Acrisure Stadium with a win. It was a nice moment for the rookie, and there should be more to come in the coming weeks and years.
