Pittsburgh dropped a game at home in vapid fashion to the Jaguars, and they played back the hits for the fans, too, but this time, the referees made a special appearance. With multiple questionable calls, including an offsides penalty that wiped off three points for the Steelers before the half, Pittsburgh expressed frustrations with how the officials called the game.
Now, it appears that more players are getting in on the fray, in this instance, kicker Chris Boswell. Boswell took to his Instagram story and posted two screenshots with multiple laughing emojis at the call. He is not the only player who has criticized the referees for that call, and it seems even Mike Tomlin was perplexed by it.
Diontae Johnson and Isaac Seumalo, after the game, both expressed displeasure with the call, too. For Tomlin, who has coached a massive amount of fun in his 17 years as the head coach of the Steelers, he has never seen that call before on the field. Meanwhile, Seumalo will not make excuses for their loss, but he is not sure why it was called.
“Obviously, the referees saw something different,” Seumalo said. “I’m sure in the next couple of days, we’ll get a nice little apology from them and that’ll warm my heart.”
Referee Alan Eck explained the ruling of the call from his point of view despite this being a wildly uncommon penalty, especially on kicks such as this one.
“The right guard was lined up in the neutral zone,” Eck said via pool report after the game. “His head was over the back edge of the ball so by rule that’s an offensive foul.”
A still frame of the video did indeed show that Seumalo’s head was over the ball and technically in the neutral zone. The angle provided also showed a Jacksonville player that was likely lined up in the neutral zone.
So, Pittsburgh will be upset with the referees for some bad calls. That will naturally draw vitriol. But the group has bigger problems to worry about with the quick turnaround against the Titans on Thursday Night Football.
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