The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 35-25 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night was messy in several ways. First and foremost was the awful second half in which the Steelers’ defense gave up 28. However, some poor officiating stole the show as well. It wasn’t the reason the Steelers lost, but there were several instances in which the officials should have done better.
“It was not a great weekend for the officiating,” former Steelers coach Bill Cowher said Monday on The Dan Patrick Show. “You got a quarterback [Aaron Rodgers] who’s very good with cadence, gets them to jump offside, takes a shot down the field, and it’s not even called. I thought that was a very pivotal point in the game.”
That was a clear offsides after Rodgers got the nose tackle to jump, although the Steelers would have still been in 3rd and 3 had it been called. That was far from the only missed call either. Earlier in the game, Broderick Jones started moving about a second before the rest of the Steelers’ offensive line, yet the officials never called a false start. And even on Tucker Kraft’s 59-yard catch and run, he got away with what appeared to be a push off.
The officials also failed to keep control of the game as multiple skirmishes broke out between plays. It certainly wasn’t the best day for that crew, but it wasn’t the reason for the loss. Most of that blame belongs to the defense, which had an awful showing.
While that unit is getting most of the criticism, Cowher does think the Steelers had some good moments on that side of the ball.
“There [were] a few plays there,” Cowher said. “‘Cause I saw the first half, where they got after [Jordan Love] pretty good. Green Bay, held them to seven points. I think I’d be very careful at this point of trying to overanalyze something.”
Defensively, the Steelers did get off to a strong start. They allowed one touchdown drive in the first half but mostly kept the Packers quiet and went into halftime with a 16-7 lead. For the first half of the game, the unit actually looked good.
However, the second half was so bad it completely erased any of those positive moments. Cowher argues that officiating played a role in that, and he may be right to an extent. The missed offside followed by a missed push off for a 59-yard gain definitely swung the momentum. But the Steelers can’t use that as an excuse, not while having the league’s highest-paid defense.
