With 4:13 left in the first quarter Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers looked to have moved down to the Philadelphia Eagles’ 4-yard line and put themselves in a good position to take the lead at Lincoln Financial Field during the team’s Week 15 matchup. Both TE Darnell Washington and WR Calvin Austin III got hit with unnecessary roughness penalties, however, following a skirmish with the Eagles that started with Washington blocking CB Darius Slay through the back of the end zone. Speaking to reporters after the Eagles’ 27-13 win, Slay said he wasn’t happy that Washington blocked him to the fence.
“Blocking me all the way to the fence when the play over, too. I understand they got a job to do, but brother was tripping,” Slay said via audio provided by the Eagles.
As for the scuffle that ensued, Slay said, “I thought we get some kind of ejections coming in. They let us get a little hockey moment in.”
In hockey fights, punches are thrown. And while Alan Eck and his crew claimed that punches weren’t thrown, it was clear as day watching video taken from the stands that both Slay and Quinyon Mitchell threw punches. It should’ve been enough to get them ejected, as Slay thought was gonna happen. Instead the penalties just came against Washington and Austin.
Sure, Slay has a point about getting upset over Washington blocking through the whistle, but Washington’s back is to the play and he’s just doing his job. There’s a real chance that he didn’t hear the whistle given where the play ended and just how far Washington blocked Slay. The fact that the only penalties from the entire scuffle came against Pittsburgh is pretty egregious.
In those situations, we usually see offsetting penalties, with both sides getting into it a little bit. Even with the punches thrown from Philadelphia, offsetting penalties would’ve been fine and the Steelers would’ve just run another first-down play from the Philadelphia 11. Instead, they got backed up to the 19 for a 2nd and 18 and the drive was essentially over. While they settled for a field goal, getting three instead of six against a team as talented as the Eagles just isn’t ideal.
It was a bad moment by the officiating crew led by referee Alan Eck, whose crew also called the phantom offensive offsides against Isaac Seumalo in the Steelers’ matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars last season. Slay more or less admitted that punches were thrown with his “hockey moment” comment and believing that there would be ejections, but in the eyes of the crew, only the Steelers were at fault for Washington simply doing his job and Calvin Austin III coming in to defend him.
It didn’t define the game, and the Steelers made far too many mistakes to win, but a call like that certainly doesn’t help. The tenor of the first half could’ve been a lot different had Pittsburgh gotten a touchdown instead of a field goal on that drive.
