Fans of both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Commanders likely left the Week 10 game feeling displeased with the officiating, as there were several questionable or missed calls that could have impacted the outcome. The Steelers nearly had their fifth consecutive week with a major special teams play on a would-be field goal block, but Donte Jackson was held — or at least that’s how it looked.
There was no penalty on the play, and the Commanders extended their lead to six points at the end of the third quarter. Moving the lead from a field goal to basically a touchdown put a lot of stress on the Steelers’ offense. They ultimately overcame that lead, but that is beside the point.
Former NFL ref Gene Steratore joined 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show Tuesday and talked a little about the no call by the referees on the field.
“I thought there was one also on the field goal where the edge got kind of a little more than what we would — you don’t really wanna get too ticky tacky on that ’cause there’s always usually a little tiny bit of restriction on the edge, right?” Steratore said. “But I think when you open a player up that much and see that, that kind of rises to the level of, felt like a little bit of a hold on the edge as well.”
Here is the play in question.
It wasn’t a matter of Donte Jackson getting ripped under an arm resulting in a legal hook. The player reached over his shoulder and grabbed underneath his shoulder pad to snare him to the ground. You can’t tell for sure if Jackson would have blocked the field goal, but he certainly had a chance. It was a 41-yard field goal for Zane Gonzalez, whom the Commanders had signed as a street free agent just a day before the game due to an injury to their usual kicker.
Even if Jackson had not blocked it, a penalty would have backed up the kick, turning a 41-yard attempt to a 51-yard attempt. With a replacement kicker, they may have been enough to influence the Commanders to punt at that point, which obviously would have changed the complexion of the game.
