Today’s NFL games feature a bevy of flags, largely from officiating crews that are rather poor each and every week.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been victimized by that a few times this season, seeing some awful calls go against them.
So, too, have defensive backs. Pass interference penalties are seemingly up, making it harder and harder for defensive backs to defend in today’s NFL.
That’s drawn the ire of former NFL cornerback and current media personality Richard Sherman. On the latest episode of his podcast “The Richard Sherman Podcast” he interviewed New York Jets cornerback D.J. Reed, and in the discussion the pair pushed back on the flags that are being thrown for pass interference.
Though Reed did not play in the Week 7 Sunday Night Football matchup against the Steelers, Sherman said that the Steelers could just throw balls up in that game and would get calls.
“Bro, they’re getting these long PI calls,” Sherman said, according to audio via the podcast’s page. “I mean, we watched the game at Pittsburgh game yesterday and it was like, like, bro, y’all [Steelers] just gonna throw the ball up and y’all gonna get these calls and it’s gonna be like, ‘Oh, okay. Well I guess it could have been called.’ That’s a 40-yard penalty, what you mean?”
In the Steelers’ blowout win over the Jets, there was just one pass interference penalty called on the Jets, and that was on All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner. It resulted in a 29-yard penalty and saw Gardner get hurt on the play as Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson targeted Pickens deep downfield late in the first half.
Here’s that penalty.
It’s underthrown by Wilson, but Gardner never even attempts to get his head around and runs right through Pickens.
Though I am firmly in the camp that quarterbacks and teams shouldn’t be bailed out due to underthrown balls, the league hasn’t adjusted to that just yet, so this was an easy flag to throw.
That’s what’s most frustrating for Sherman.
“It’s an explosive and it’s a lazy explosive. Like, yeah, you put it up. It didn’t take a lot of skill for you to put it up,” he said. “Now the receiver just got to flop and it’s up to the ref’s judgment. Maybe he would’ve caught that. Like no, he wouldn’t have caught that.”
Sherman wasn’t referencing Gardner’s PI on Pickens. He didn’t even name the Steelers specifically outside of stating he watched their game last Sunday. But it’s clear he is frustrated with the way quarterbacks just heave the ball up and hope their receiver can either make a play or draw a penalty.
It is like the Joe Flacco offense from his time in Baltimore, where he’d go deep and hope to get a PI call to pick up chunk yardage. That’s not to say that was Wilson’s intention for the Steelers when he went deep a bunch in his debut, but those long, explosive penalties are going to be more commonplace for the Steelers’ offense with Wilson pushing the ball downfield.
That’s just the way of the game today, and the nature of the flags being thrown by officials.
For Reed, it’s taken an “art” out of the game at the cornerback position.
“Like to me, bro, football is a art. Playing DB is an art. You have to have tools,” Reed said. “We don’t really know, like we watch film, but you don’t really know a hundred percent what routes they’re running. So you’re really reacting, you’re using everything, like every movement, everything you do matters. So like for me, even playing receiver is an art, running routes. It is a beautiful art.
“I feel like the game where it’s going right now is like, if a receiver isn’t getting open, he could just kind of like the NBA just flop and just get calls and it’s just like, I just feel like that’s taken away from the game.”
Reed certainly has a case to be made. Too often in today’s game, it’s easy for receivers to get calls. Officials are seemingly unsure of what they’re seeing, and the general belief appears to be throw the flag and discuss it, rather than letting the players play a bit and be physical.
It’s a physical sport after all, but that seems to be getting lost, especially from a coverage aspect in the passing game. All the league is doing is making it harder and harder to play defensive back moving forward.
