The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Thursday night game was a strange one. They didn’t play well enough to beat the Cleveland Browns, and that came with several odd plays. One penalty called on Beanie Bishop Jr. seemed particularly puzzling. On the Browns’ final drive, Bishop got called for a delay of game penalty after trying to knock the ball out of wide receiver’s Jerry Jeudy hands following a catch. Bishop may have looked bad, but he was actually doing the right thing. Analyst Mike Florio believes the referees should not have called a penalty on him.
“Bishop was doing something smart here,” Florio said Friday on Pro Football Talk. “He thinks Jerry Jeudy is still up. If Jerry Jeudy decides, ‘I’m gonna run to the end zone there…’ now you could argue he had given himself up, but from Bishop’s standpoint, ‘This guy might not be down. I’m knocking the ball out.’ I thought that was bullcrap that they threw that flag.”
Florio is completely correct that Bishop did the right thing. Looking back at that play, it looks like Jeudy wasn’t touched down. He was less than 20 yards from the end zone, so if he wanted to, he could’ve waltzed right in for the touchdown. Bishop went up to him and tried to knock the ball loose.
It also isn’t like Bishop hit Jeudy with any malicious intent. He went up and bumped him, knocking the ball loose, but he wasn’t trying to start any trouble. In hindsight, there probably shouldn’t have been a penalty called on him.
There’s no use crying over spilled milk though. That penalty wasn’t the reason the Steelers lost. Even the play before that, where Jeudy converted a huge third down, wasn’t the reason the Steelers lost. They had opportunities to win the game, but they failed to capitalize. It’s just unfortunate that Bishop’s heads-up play was punished.
It would be interesting to hear Mike Tomlin’s take on Bishop’s play. It is good to see a rookie like him keeping his head in the game. The Steelers’ defense has a number of playmakers, but Bishop was the one trying to make that play. It was a respectable moment despite the Steelers’ loss.
