The Pittsburgh Steelers usually bring in officials to get more of a feel for how penalties will be called in-game during practices on Friday. But after being penalized 10 times against the Denver Broncos in Week 2, the Steelers will bring in officials for every practice this week, Mike Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly press conference.
“We’re making small alterations or big alterations where necessary in an effort to continue the growth and development of this unit. Those of you that normally follow us know that we normally bring in officials on Friday for practice. We’re bringing in officials on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this week. I believe that’s appropriate given our last outing, in that regard of not playing penalty-free,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.
Tomlin said it’s important to take “tangible action” to improve and eliminate some of their issues early in the season.
Pittsburgh’s penalties on Sunday were costly. An offensive pass interference against Van Jefferson wiped out a touchdown while a holding call against Broderick Jones took away a 51-yard gain on a completion from QB Justin Fields to WR George Pickens.
The penalties hurt the offense’s attempt to get into a consistent rhythm, and with it being early in the season, it’s an issue that Tomlin and the Steelers want to nip in the bud. Pittsburgh also had a costly defensive penalty in Week 1, as a hands-to-the-face call against CB Donte Jackson took away what would’ve been a strip-sack and fumble recovery from OLB T.J. Watt. Both sides of the ball have to clean things up for the Steelers to be a successful team this season, and Tomlin is taking action to ensure that penalties don’t become a recurring problem.
Through two weeks, Pittsburgh is the second most-penalized team in the NFL with 19, according to data put together by Joseph Hefner of KC Sports Network, and that’s a worrying trend for a team that wants to compete for the Super Bowl this season.
The hope is that having officials all week will instill better habits in the Steelers and prevent them from committing as many penalties. Pittsburgh has a big matchup in their home opener against the 2-0 Los Angeles Chargers, and the Chargers will play a similar ball-control, run-heavy style as the Steelers, so it’s a game where penalties could have even more of an impact if they’re putting the Steelers off-schedule and forcing them to punt and lose the possession battle.
We’ll find out on Sunday how much of an effect the move to bring officials in all week will make, but after the first two weeks, it’s a good decision by Tomlin to take some action to try and prevent Pittsburgh’s penalty issues from spiraling even further.
