The Pittsburgh Steelers were thoroughly beaten up last Sunday in a Week 15 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, a 27-13 decision that never truly felt as close as the final score might indicate.
Pittsburgh was exploited defensively and punched in the mouth offensively, truly having no real answers for the Eagles throughout the game. It certainly didn’t help that the officiating felt one-sided, with multiple calls going against the Steelers in big spots, creating quite a bit of controversy coming out of the game.
There was the post-play fight that started after Steelers tight end Darnell Washington blocked Eagles cornerback Darius Slay through the back of the end zone on a pass to running back Najee Harris, kick-starting a fight that saw Slay and fellow CB Quinyon Mitchell seemingly throw punches at Steelers players. Only Washington and wide receiver Calvin Austin III were flagged though.
Later in the game, Eagles DL Jalen Carter hit Steelers TE Connor Heyward in the face on a punt, which should have been a 15-yard penalty and a first down for the Steelers. But officials determined the punch from Carter happened after the punt, though replay clearly showed it didn’t.
On the latest episode of his Not Just Football with Cam Heyward podcast that posted Thursday morning, Steelers DL Cam Heyward offered some pointed comments about the officiating.
“So yeah, the reasoning behind those two plays just felt idiotic. I know they have a job to do and I know they said they had New York’s help in deciding those. That did not feel like they even looked at the plays for multiple people to have cameras to see,” Heyward said of the controversial calls, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “The NFL spends good money on these games, and they’ve got all the cameras. If you can’t find that camera and have a ref running up and see clear punches thrown, and then you look at the play with Connor, I just, what are we doing here?
“‘Cause that ain’t football.”
It wasn’t football from Carter. It was rather dirty and should have forced the Eagles’ defense to remain on the field in a 27-13 game, giving the Steelers a chance to make it a one-score game.
Instead, officials deemed it after the punt, giving the Eagles the ball at their own 3-yard line. Of course, Philadelphia put the game away with a 10-minute, 29-second drive that covered 88 yards in 21 plays. But the fact that they were able to retain possession there with officials deeming it after the punt was ridiculous, and head coach Mike Tomlin stated he didn’t receive a sufficient explanation for why it was called that way.
As for the fight, the explanation the Steelers received was a joke. While Washington did go over the line just a bit == offensive coordinator Arthur Smith stated Wednesday that he should have stopped in the end zone — it was a textbook block.
“When you look at the play with Darnell, he definitely did. He Blindsided him. He put him on the bench,” Heyward said, referencing the movie The Blind Side about Michael Oher not stating that Washington caught Slay off guard. “He said no white tees in the club. And you know, Slay’s my guy, but yeah, you don’t want to be put in the highchair like that. And Slay responded, but I think at the end of the day, that should have been offsetting penalties.
“I’m gonna say, Hard Knocks will not disappoint when it comes to that point. That clip, I think everybody will be talking about what the ref said because the explanation is just going to show that whoever was really dictating that call was not paying attention at all.”
The fact that it wasn’t offsetting penalties was a joke, and it was made even worse after the fact with the pool report from official Alan Eck stating that replay review showed no punches being thrown. Then, as Heyward stated — the show was recorded earlier in the week —Hard Knocks did not disappoint.
In the clip from the moment in the Eagles game, veteran down judge Derick Bowers told Tomlin that, “They said that they was knocking his hands off of him. That he didn’t throw [punches].”
The scene cut away from the explanation after that, keeping viewers from seeing the exact comment that Tomlin made in the moment. Lip readers during the game could see he told the official to not so nicely get away from him, because the explanation was that awful.
As Heyward stated, the explanation showed that whomever was giving that explanation to Bowers in the moment was not paying attention whatsoever to what actually happened.
In the end, Austin and Washington were flagged for the scuffle, putting the Steelers in a 2nd and 18 instead of being at the Eagles’ 4-yard line facing 2nd and 3. That led to a Chris Boswell field goal and was a significant flashpoint in the game, showing viewers what was to come from an officiating standpoint.
Check out the full episode of Not Just Football with Cam Heyward below.
