There were a few calls in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 20-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that were a little bit questionable, including an offsides on OG Isaac Seumalo that wiped out a Chris Boswell field goal at the end of the first half. WR Diontae Johnson was not happy with the officials, telling reporters, including Mike DeFabo of The Athletic, that the refs wanted the Jaguars to win.
“They cost us the game,” Johnson said about the referees. “They wanted them to win, they was calling, everything was in their favor. They were getting every little call. But it is what it is,” Johnson said via DeFabo.
Josh Rowntree of 93.7 The Fan posted a longer video of Johnson’s rant.
“They must have got paid good today, or something, but that field goal, that hurt us. Coming into the half, we needed that,” Johnson said. “That field goal hurt us. They was calling some stupid stuff. They should get fined for calling that, for making worse, terrible calls, stuff like that. That’s how pissed I am.”
It was not a banner day for the officiating crew, led by Alan Eck. Things got off to a rough start with a poor pass interference penalty on CB James Pierre on Jacksonville’s opening possession. Other questionable calls included a roughing the passer penalty against Steelers S Keanu Neal. That call looked even more egregious when there was no roughing called against Jaguars DE Adam Gotsis after he drove Kenny Pickett into the turf on the play Pickett got injured.
At the end of the day though, the Steelers weren’t good enough. The offense struggled throughout the day, and you aren’t going to win many games with just 10 points on the board. The referees didn’t help matters, but the Steelers simply got outplayed by the Jaguars today. That’s the reality of the matter. Johnson acknowledged the need for Pittsburgh to move on with a short week ahead of them.
“I’m moving on from it. I’m ready for Thursday,” he said via Rowntree’s tweet.
The Steelers have a quick turnaround now and will need to get their head right for Thursday, where they’ll take on the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football. Pittsburgh could be without Pickett in that game, as he didn’t return today after suffering a rib injury. Even though it’s a frustrating loss, it’s one the Steelers need to quickly move on from. They ran into a Jaguars team that was on fire, now winners of five straight, and a team that made enough to plays to win. The Steelers struggled to move the ball for much of the game, and that’s what cost them the game, more so than the officiating.
But it’s understandable that players are upset when they see a double standard on the field. For Pittsburgh to get called for ticky-tacky pass interference and roughing the passer calls and the Jaguars to get away with a lot, including the hit on Pickett, is frustrating.
NFL officiating is what it is, and today it was bad, but so were the Steelers. It’s not a great combination when the refs are hurting you and the team is hurting itself with poor offense, but the Steelers will need to get things turned around and take their mind off this one quickly.
