There were some questionable calls during the Sunday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Chargers, but Mike Tomlin didn't want to talk about the poor officiating, because he doesn't want to have to send off another check to New York.
“You know, I'ma keep my mouth shut. I'ma do that,” Tomlin said when discussing how penalties affected his team's momentum via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. “‘Cause I've sent enough money to New York.”
During the 1st quarter, there was an obvious false start that was missed and it resulted in a long touchdown pass from Philip Rivers to Travis Benjamin. In the second half there looked to be a block in the back on the Chargers on a punt return that also resulted in a touchdown.
If both of those would have been called, it would have been 14 points taken off the board and the outcome of the game could have been changed. In the locker room after the game, players were not blaming the refs for less.
“Nah, we're not gonna put it into the refs' hands. We need to play better football,” said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who finished 29-of-45 passing for 281 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. “Like I said, we didn't play well enough on offense.”
Defensive end Cam Heyward went as far to say that the officials have a tough job and the game wasn't lost because of them.
“Officials make calls. They've got a hard job as it is,” Heyward said. “We just have to play better. The game was 23-7, and as a defense, we can't be surrendering points. I don't care who it is. Unacceptable.”
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