The Philadelphia Eagles were better than the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday, but not everything was so cut and dry. During the first quarter, Calvin Austin III and Darnell Washington were both flagged for unnecessary roughness during a scuffle in the back of the end zone. Meanwhile, Eagles players threw punches and were not penalized. It was a bizarre and frustrating scenario. It sounds like Austin doesn’t regret his actions, though.
“If I see plenty of Eagles come up and surround him, yeah, I’m gonna come in and help my dog,” Austin said after the Steelers’ 27-13 loss in Philadelphia via Mike DeFabo of The Athletic on Twitter. “But I guess being the biggest guy out there, I’m going to get a flag thrown on me.”
Austin’s obviously being sarcastic because you’ll be hard-pressed to find a player smaller than him on the field. Standing at around 5-9 and weighing just over 150 pounds, Austin doesn’t exactly cast the most intimidating shadow in the NFL. Consider that he was going to defend Washington, who is a monster of a man, and the situation is comical.
What isn’t funny is that Austin and Washington didn’t even do anything excessive. The scuffle began after Washington blocked Eagles cornerback Darius Slay out of the back of the end zone. Sure, you could say it was unnecessary, but it happens all the time in the NFL. It’s not like Washington tossed Slay to the ground.
In response, Slay and fellow Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell began to throw punches. Usually, that draws the referees’ attention to both teams, but not this time. Instead, the Steelers were the only party negatively impacted, with the penalty on Austin being accepted. It was a ridiculous situation.
That one play didn’t cost the Steelers the game. They made plenty of their own mistakes. It’s fair to be frustrated with the officials for doing a poor job, but putting all the blame on them wouldn’t really be fair. Losing isn’t fun, but there’s no point dwelling on things that can’t be changed.
All the Steelers can do now is pick themselves up and look ahead to next week. They’ve got a big AFC North matchup in Baltimore on the docket. They’ll need to learn from their mistakes quickly and look to lock up their division crown since 2020. Hopefully, Austin won’t need to come to the defense of any of his teammates in that game.
