Cam Heyward isn’t using it as an excuse as to why the Pittsburgh Steelers lost. But even several days after their 21-18 defeat, Heyward doesn’t know what long snapper Christian Kuntz did to draw a flag, hurting Pittsburgh’s chances of winning last Thursday’s game.
On the latest edition of his Not Just Football podcast (that mostly discusses football), Heyward said the Patriots’ snapper was doing the same thing that Kuntz got flagged for.
“I dunno what they saw either,” Heyward told co-host Hayden Walsh, equally puzzled by the ruling. “Because at the same time, I feel like we were out there for punt safe and their long snapper was doing the exact same thing. Every long snapper and center does the same thing. And it felt like it was a critical moment where the ref couldn’t make a decision to overturn that and felt the pressure of the situation.”
The conversation between the two revolved around Kuntz bringing up his head before attempting to snap the football, the Patriots jumping past the line. It drew a flag on what looked to be a pending offsides call against New England. To the point where the Pats’ player, linebacker Jahlani Tavai, seemed to understand he was the guilty party. Heyward also shared that Pats ace special teamer Matthew Slater put his head in his hands, acknowledging Tavai had made a crucial error.
To Heyward’s point, Patriots long snapper Joe Cardona was using a similar head-bob on his punts. Here are some examples. Pay extra attention to the last clip with the Steelers in their “punt safe” grouping, the starting defense on the field, including Heyward. It’s subtle but you can see Cardona lift his head just slightly, almost getting Heyward to jump as he moves his right foot off the ground. None of those actions were flagged.
If you trust the Patriots’ side, the refs didn’t penalize Kuntz for his head bob. According to ESPN Patriots beat writer Mike Reiss, Kuntz was flagged for his hands sliding on the football, a separate element than his head movement. Watching the play back, it’s hard to see the evidence of that, but that was evidently the ruling.
End of the day, the call was certainly questionable. But it’s not, as Heyward made sure to mention, the reason why the Steelers lost.
“You can’t let that game come down to a ref making a call,” he said. “Because it usually doesn’t go in your favor.”
It certainly didn’t go in Pittsburgh’s direction. Not much did Thursday night. But besides this call, the Steelers’ other issues were largely of their own doing and it’s why they’re in a fragile state heading into the home stretch of the season.
