Sunday was a good day for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the win column, but not in the penalty column. The Steelers had a season-high eight penalties for 76 yards, and both WR George Pickens and WR Diontae Johnson were flagged for taunting after plays that negated big gains. Speaking to the media today, including Mark Kaboly of The Athletic, RB Najee Harris said he thinks that NFL officials can be too soft when it comes to player interactions after the whistle.
“We’re just competing. We’re competitors. The game is tight, you wanna make plays, and you might have a little bit of chit-chat, and we just have to find a balance between when it’s too much and when to stop. And that’s just something we can fix easily, discipline,” Harris said via Kaboly on Twitter. “Receivers and DBs, that’s just normal. They do that every play. Sometimes, I think they can be a little bit too soft, as in the refs, but it’s football. People are gonna talk.”
Trash-talking and getting under the skin of your opponent is natural in football, and it’s something the Rams evidently did effectively against Pickens. But when you cross a line and make a show of trying to humiliate your opponent after the play, the refs are going to call it. There are instances where the referees make bad calls, but when it comes to taunting, it’s pretty cut and dry what will and won’t get called.
The penalties by Johnson and Pickens were undisciplined, and Mike Tomlin pulled the two aside during the game and also addressed their individual penalties after the game. They’re not things that help a football team win, which is frustrating because the two made plenty of winning plays. They only would’ve added to their stat totals and helped make life a lot easier for Pittsburgh’s defense had they been able to not verbally spar and gesture at Rams’ defenders after the play.
But Harris is right that it’s an easy fix. Trash-talking is great, and it should happen among competitors, but it shouldn’t boil over after the play and become something that’s a distraction or that hurts the team. That’s the line the Steelers have to balance, and I don’t doubt that they will after Sunday.
The Steelers have a chance to prove they’re legitimate contenders in the AFC if they can knock off the 5-2 Jacksonville Jaguars at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday. To do so, the Steelers need not to take any unnecessary penalties and let cooler heads prevail, even if they’re provoked by Jacksonville defenders.
