Mike Tomlin hadn’t seen the call in his 17 years as Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach. But to the officiating crew calling the Steelers’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tomlin’s history doesn’t matter. All that matters is what the correct call is. And they’re adamant they made the right one.
Speaking to the PPG’s Brian Batko after the game, officials Walt Anderson and Aaron Eck confirmed that OG Isaac Seumalo was in the neutral zone on Chris Boswell’s 56-yard field goal, wiping out the make and forcing the re-kick. Boswell missed the 61-yard try.
“The right guard was lined up in the neutral zone,” Eck told Batko via a team transcript. “His head was over the back edge of the ball so by rule that’s an offensive offsides foul…it was obvious on the field so we went ahead and called it.”
Eck added it’s a live ball foul, meaning the play is allowed to be carried out with the penalty coming after its completed. The refs ruled it as offensive offsides, something that’s rarely called, and assessed a five-yard penalty. Boswell’s 61-yard try sailed wide right, his first miss of the season, and Pittsburgh went into the half trailing 9-3 instead of being down by three.
Here’s a look at the Steelers’ protect line with Seumalo to the right of long snapper Christian Kuntz.
Here’s a replay of it.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Mike Tomlin didn’t say he outright disagreed with the call but that he had never witnessed it called in his years as Steelers’ head coach.
“I hadn’t seen that called in 17 years of standing on sidelines. Offsides, aligned offsides on a guard, on a field goal protection,” he told reporters via the team website in his postgame press conference.
Former VP of Officiating Mike Pereira agreed with Tomlin’s view, noting that officials aren’t told to call those types of offsides plays. That rule is only to be applied on short-yardage sneaks like the “tush push” that the Philadelphia Eagles run to great success.
It was one of several questionable and confusing calls made by the officiating crew on the afternoon, especially over the final two minutes of the half. It led WR Diontae Johnson to blast the refs.
“They cost us the game,” Johnson said postgame. “They wanted them to win, they was calling, everything was in their favor.”
Those pointed words are sure to draw a hefty fine from the NFL, which has a zero-tolerance policy in publicly criticizing officiating. While the referees can be criticized for this game, the Steelers have their own problems to handle that go far beyond the zebras. Pittsburgh’s offense again had a miserable day, netting just one touchdown and 10 points as it continues to be one of the worst units in football. Defensively, the Steelers were strong for most of the game but had a coverage bust on RB Travis Etienne’s 56-yard touchdown, a backbreaking second-half play.
You can see a full copy of the pool report courtesy of the PPG’s Ray Fittipaldo below.
