Steelers' Mike Tomlin Seriously Upset With "Catastrophic" Penalties After Week 9 Win

The Pittsburgh Steelers escaped Thursday Night Football with a win over the Tennessee Titans, and they won the game in a way that only they can: ugly and physical. The Steelers still have a lot of things that they need to work on, and Head Coach, Mike Tomlin addressed that after the game. While the offense looked better and the defense didn't break, despite injuries all over, they still have to clean up the penalties on both sides of the ball. 

The Steelers had 10 accepted penalties against them totaling 80 yards in Week 9, with two of those setting up the Titans for a chance to lead their own game-winning drive. Tomlin opened up his postgame press conference by immediately talking about the penalties.

"Obviously, [the game] could've been cleaner, first and foremost from a penalty perspective. Part of being a tough team to beat first is not kicking your own butt, and we kind of been doing that some, and we got to own that. We'll review it, we'll learn from it, we'll look at it, we'll bring some officials into our practice setting in an effort to be cleaner, because that was catastrophic in a lot of instances to our efforts tonight."

Steelers' Penalty Problems

Broderick Jones was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after an extra point attempt late in the game, which forced the Steelers to kick it off from the 20-yard line. After a good return, the Titans were set up at their own 48-yard line. They had a short field, but the Steelers defense was able to hold and secure a 4-and-out to get the ball back and eat clock. 

On the last drive of the game, the Steelers forced another fourth down failure, but Joey Porter Jr. was called for holding, which extended Tennessee's drive. They drove it all the way to the red zone after that, but Kwon Alexander was able to step up and intercept the ball to end the game. The defense was able to come up big as they normally do, but the team still needs to clean up and make the defense's job easier. 

The penalty issue was not just a fourth quarter problem, or even a second half worry. Tomlin used the term "kicked our own butts" when he was interviewed on the sideline at halftime. Their first defensive drive, in particular, was definitely catastrophic for the Steelers. While the roughing the passer call early on was questionable, the Steelers still committed foul after foul, gifting the Titans 40 yards on that drive, which they scored a field goal on.

Porter himself had a bad day with penalties. On that first drive, he had a face mask penalty, and a play where he was called for both offsides and hands to the face; only one of those was able to be accepted. He also had the aforementioned holding penalty that gave the Titans life on their final drive of the game. He was in a dogfight with DeAndre Hopkins all day, and he refused to relent at all, which caused some of those penalties. 

According to Amazon Prime's in-game statistics, the Steelers were the fourth-best team in the NFL when it came to penalties, averaging about five penalties per game. They doubled that number in the game. Porter's emergence as a starter likely has something to do with that, as that was one of the negative traits of his that made him fall to Pick 32 in the first place. With the extra time off, hopefully the Steelers can figure out how to play cleaner football and make life easier on their defense. 

What do you think about Tomlin's comments on the penalties? Let us know in the comments.

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