Kaboly: Was Steelers’ blame of refs warranted? Yes, but it also says plenty about them

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PITTSBURGH — How can you blame Diontae Johnson for what he said about the officiating?

If you watched the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 20-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, you have to agree. The officiating crew, led by rookie referee Alan Eck, was challenged all day long. It was what it was. And Johnson said what it was.

• “The refs were killing us the whole game.”
• “They were calling some stupid stuff.”
• “They should get fined for making terrible calls and stuff like that.”
• “(The Jaguars) were getting every little call.”
• “Everything was in (the Jaguars’) favor.”
• “(The officials) wanted (the Jaguars) to win.”
• “(The officials) must have gotten paid well today.”

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Diontae Johnson is NOT happy about the refs

— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) October 29, 2023

You could understand why he felt that way. Johnson’s words about the newly formed officiating crew — which happened to spend a few days at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe this summer during Steelers’ training camp — were most likely the product of frustration, more than anything else.

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They will also lead to a FedEx package being delivered later this week to his locker at 3400 S Water Street, informing him of a fine that will likely eclipse $30,000.

The officiating was lopsided. It was unfair. And it affected critical parts of the game: a pass-interference call against James Pierre on third-and-7, on a drive that led to a field goal; the lack of a roughing-the-passer call on a hit that forced Kenny Pickett out of the game (which stood in stark contrast to a first-quarter roughing-the-passer call on Keanu Neal); and, of all things, guard Isaac Seumalo being called for offsides on a late first-half field goal made by Chris Boswell.

“I hadn’t seen that called in 17 years or standing on the sidelines,” Mike Tomlin said. “Offsides, aligned offsides on a guard, on a field goal protection. So, it didn’t matter what they said, I have never seen that.”

Boswell’s ensuing 61-yard attempt was no good, keeping the Jaguars’ lead at 9-3 heading into halftime.

“The right guard was lined up in the neutral zone,” NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson said. “His head was over the back edge of the ball, so by rule, that’s an offensive offense foul.”

In Pittsburgh, offside on the offensive guard? Officials are told to call that if a lineman has his head in the neutral zone on the short yardage push plays, not on field goal attempts.

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) October 29, 2023

“The referees saw something different,” Seumalo said. “I am sure in a couple of days, we will get a nice little apology from them, and that will warm my heart. I never heard about it or heard it being called. I thought I lined up the same place I had the past seven or eight years.

“But that was far, far from the reason why we didn’t win. It was minor in terms of the refs. It was much more offensively.”

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It is so very understandable why the Steelers were willing to voice their displeasure about what transpired with the officiating. They felt they were cheated, and surely others besides Seumalo and Johnson had that conversation amongst themselves during and after the game. I’m no lip reader, but Tomlin appeared to have harsh words for one official after the Seumalo penalty.

Perhaps they had a point.

If they get one or two calls to go the other way, then it might be a different outcome. The Steelers might be sitting at 5-2 with two winnable home games ahead of them and a ton of momentum. Instead, they are 4-3 with an all-of-a-sudden up-in-the-air game against the Tennessee Titans — on Thursday night — and then the Green Bay Packers 11 days after that.

It was a missed opportunity, which some on the team believe was unjustly taken from them.

That’s a relatively simplistic point of view, at least to me.

What you can deduce from all the reactions is that even the Steelers know they aren’t a very good team. They need to play a perfect game, especially against a quality opponent like the Jaguars, to have any chance.

On Hall of Honor weekend, with the Steelers honoring the likes of James Harrison and Aaron Smith, I wondered how would they have reacted to such officiating. At the risk of sounding like one of those old fogies talking about the glory years, I am pretty sure that they would have steamrolled through the adversity like it wasn’t there.

This team doesn’t have the talent right now to overcome a few missed calls, and they know it.

The offense is just an absolutely atrocious mess. They managed 261 total yards and just one touchdown against a Jacksonville defense that allowed 24, 20, 20, and 37 points in four of the previous five games. And there is no real light at the end of the tunnel. They are nearly halfway through the season, and this is who they are.

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They can’t run consistently, pass consistently, pass protect consistently, run block consistently or come up with consistent game plans. When you add those all together, you get an offense that is, yeah, inconsistent but also below average. We have seen too much already to think this is going to change.

The current state of the Steelers offense:

– Offensive Pts/gm: 31st (13.9)
– Yards/gm: 31st (272)
– Rushing: 28th (80)
– Yd/carry: 29th (3.4)
– Passing yd/ gm: 25th (192)
– Time of possession: 32nd (26:54)
– Pressures/ drop back: 29th (41.9%)

— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) October 30, 2023

They will have a drive or two or a good fourth quarter, but they just don’t have what it takes to be a consistent winner right now. It starts at quarterback with Pickett and trickles down from there.

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There is no room for error, let alone bad calls.

In this game, the Steelers also made their share of errors — a dropped pass down the field by Johnson on the first play of the game and a hold by Chukwuma Okorafor two plays later on third down (a play that also resulted in a drop by Johnson).

Go ahead and blame offensive coordinator Matt Canada, but he schemed that first play open during the week. He can’t go out there and make the catch for Johnson, who took responsibility for that.

“I gotta make that catch, whether it’s raining or not,” Johnson said.

To his credit, Johnson was targeted 12 more times and caught eight passes for 85 yards despite missing a brief amount of time with an injury.

But it’s not just the offense. The defense needs to be better. Now, we all can look the other way a little bit with Cameron Heyward still out, Minkah Fitzpatrick injuring his hamstring early in the game and Levi Wallace out with a foot injury.

Still, the “miscommunication”  in the secondary that resulted in Travis Etienne’s 56-yard touchdown reception from Trevor Lawrence should have never happened.

Yeah, it’s one play, and the rest of the drives resulted in four Brandon McManus field goals, but the defense can’t allow that to happen, mostly because it’s a death sentence with what is on the other side of the ball.

“As players, all we can control is what we can control,” Patrick Peterson said as he took the high road and brandished only a smile when asked about the referees. “The refs are given a job and the responsibility of calling a game the way it is supposed to be called. We can’t argue with them. We just have to overcome things like that and not let that become an issue.”

This team knows that, and Tomlin reminded them that at halftime.

But when you know you aren’t good enough to overcome adversity consistently, then you get players complaining about the officiating. There’s nowhere else to go, right?

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“It cost us the game. I don’t care what anybody says, but it cost us the game,” Johnson said.

Oh well.

(Photo of Diontae Johnson: Matt Durisko / Associated Press)