The Pittsburgh Steelers punted with 4:58 left in the game, trailing 21-18. On the punt, a flag was thrown, and while both the Steelers and the Patriots thought the penalty was on LB Jahlani Tavai for jumping offsides, the officials called Steelers LS Christian Kuntz for a false start due to moving his head.
Kuntz said after the game the flag was for abrupt head movement, but it didn’t appear as if his head jerked or moved abruptly until after New England jumped offsides. NBC rules analyst and former official Terry McAulay disagreed with the call.
“That looks like normal movement you see from a long snapper,” McAulay said on the Amazon broadcast.
Kuntz defended himself postgame, per Chris Adamski of TribLive on Twitter.
“I thought it was a first down for us. So, that’s when I looked up, he jumped offsides, I looked up and thought it was a first down for us,” Kuntz said.
He added that he saw the play on the video board.
“I saw the big board, and I don’t think I moved my head until he jumped offsides.”
Judging by Tavai’s reaction, he clearly thought that he jumped offsides and gave the Steelers a key first down with a chance to drive and potentially tie the game or take the lead. The officials thought differently though, believing Kuntz’s head movement was abrupt and fit the definition of a penalty.
Mike Tomlin also addressed the penalty in his postgame press conference, via Steelers.com.
“I was given an explanation,” he said. “I don’t know that I agree with it, but I was given an explanation.”
That penalty is going to be looked back upon as a potential turning point in Pittsburgh’s season. If the Steelers executed there, they had enough momentum to get something going offensively and at least drive for a game-tying field goal. Instead, the Steelers were shut out the rest of the game, losing 21-18 to a bad Patriots team.
It’s an inexcusable loss that shouldn’t have been in the hands of the officials to begin with. The Steelers are a lot better than this Patriots team, and after losing to the 2-10 Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, they came out flat and unprepared and got embarrassed by New England. However, it did appear to be a bad call at the time, and it still appears to be a bad call. It’s frustrating that it went against Pittsburgh and is certainly a potential factor for why they lost. But it never should’ve gotten to that point.
Now, the Steelers sit at 7-6 and it’s going to be tough for them to make the playoffs. They have a long break before their Week 15 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, and we’ll see if the Steelers can somehow manage to right the ship. But it doesn’t look promising.
