It looked like the Pittsburgh Steelers were about to take a 14-0 lead into the half after a 5-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Justin Fields to wide receiver George Pickens, but as was a common occurrence Sunday in the Mile High City, yellow laundry dotted the playing surface, a flag on WR Van Jefferson.
That’s not to be confused with some of the gold that the Steelers were wearing Sunday on Empower Field in Mile High.
Instead, it was a penalty flag, this time on Steelers’ wide receiver Van Jefferson for offensive pass interference on former Pittsburgh cornerback Levi Wallace, negating Pickens’ touchdown.
In the moments after the penalty, former NFL official and CBS analyst Gene Steratore stated that he didn’t agree with the penalty call on Jefferson, as it was a normal play and that contact was initiated by Jefferson.
Following the 13-6 win over the Broncos, Jefferson stated his frustration with the call, too, telling reporters that the defender hit him, but that officials are going to call what they call.
“When I’m running my route, he ran into me brah. But they call what they call,” Jefferson said after the game, according to a tweet from The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo.
Jefferson’s take on the penalty largely matches up with the explanation from Steratore, who said that Jefferson didn’t do anything out of the ordinary on the play.
The veteran receiver was working upfield on what appeared to be a simple stop route, which was designed to have some rub action on the play. In the process of the route, though, there was a miscommunication from Wallace and fellow Broncos’ defensive back Patrick Surtain II on the play, with Wallace initially sticking with Jefferson, which is exactly what Surtain did, leaving Pickens alone.
Wallace tried to play through Van Jefferson, which led to some contact and drew the flag.
In the moment, the call felt rather soft.
Fortunately for the Steelers, they were able to take a 10-0 lead into the half thanks to a Chris Boswell field goal (what else is new). But ultimately, that nullified TD coming off the board really hindered the Steelers and was a sign of things to come in the game as penalties took away big plays for the Steelers’ offense throughout the game.
The Steelers were able to win the game in the end, even with some calls against them, picking up the 13-6 win to move to 2-0. But there were certainly some frustrating calls throughout the game that went against the Steelers, with Jefferson’s being one of the biggest ones.
