Late in the first half Sunday in Denver, it appeared that the Pittsburgh Steelers had taken a 14-0 lead over the Denver Broncos thanks to a 6-yard touchdown pass from Justin Fields to George Pickens.
Pickens found himself wide open in the flat, beating former Steelers cornerback Levi Wallace for the score.
Turns out, Pickens got that open due to offensive pass interference from Steelers wide receiver Van Jefferson, negating the touchdown.
But that OPI call against Jefferson was the wrong call, according to CBS analyst and former NFL official Gene Steratore. During the game broadcast following the penalty, Steratore disagreed with the call, stating it wasn’t obvious what Jefferson was doing and that Wallace initiated the contact, leading to the flag.
“Come into that space and he starts just running vertical. It’s very difficult to say that, look, we may understand what his intent may be, but by the action itself, the defense is initiating that engagement and then you have the bundle that occurs,” Steratore said of the call against Jefferson, according to the CBS broadcast. “It’s effective. I didn’t like it ’cause I didn’t think it rose to a level where it was very obvious that he was setting that pick. He does it right.”
Steratore might have disagreed with the call, stating that Jefferson didn’t do anything wrong on the play. But in the end the call stood, negating a Steelers touchdown, eventually leading to a 22-yard field goal from Chris Boswell to give the Steelers a 10-0 lead at the half.
As Steratore said, you can see what Jefferson is trying to do with the stop route, and he doesn’t initiate the contact on the play, which should not have led to the call. Wallace and Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II were confused on the play and weren’t on the same page.
The Steelers appeared to cash in.
But officials disagreed, resulting in the penalty that took a touchdown off the board and forced the Steelers to kick a field goal two plays later. It’s been a tough start to the season for the Steelers from an officiating standpoint. We’ll see if they can overcome some tough calls once again.
