The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming off a victory on Thursday Night Football in Week 9 of the 2023 NFL season after beating the Tennessee Titans by a score of 20-16. Although the Steelers were able to come away with a narrow victory, there were many questionable calls made against the Steelers defense that led to points and kept drives alive for the Titans. Ben Roethlisberger suspects this is because of the way the Steelers spoke about the officials following their loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 8.

Jordan Schofield / Steeler Nation (Twitter: JSKO_PHOTO)
In his final season in 2021, Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers offense struggled under first-year coordinator Matt Canada.
Steelers Are Victims Of Revengeful Officiating In Week 9
The Steelers were penalized 10 times for a total of 80 yards in their victory against the Titans, compared to seven penalties against the Titans for a total of 51 yards. A lot of the flags against the Steelers were against their defense, and seemed to consistently be on third downs, which allowed the Titans to continue their drives. Roethlisberger live streamed the second half of the game from his YouTube channel, and he and his co-host, Spencer Te'o, discussed the aggressive amount of penalties on the Steelers.
"There was a stat that said that the Steelers were fourth in the NFL with averaging five penalties a game, which is really impressive. I think they had five on that one series."
The series Roethlisberger is referring to was the Titans first of the game, after the Steelers scored a touchdown on their opening drive. There were four different penalties called on the Steelers that allowed the Tennessee drive to continue. TJ Watt was called for a roughing the passer penalty, Patrick Peterson was called for illegal contact, and rookie, Joey Porter Jr. committed both a face mask penalty and an illegal use of hands. The Steelers defense eventually got a stop deep in their own territory and held the Titans to just a field goal.

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Steelers rookies Joey Porter Jr and Nick Herbig
Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin was critical over the amount of penalties committed by his defense, and said the team will use more officials in practice to clean up this area of their game. Some of the calls against the Steelers were definitely warranted, like the face mask call against Porter Jr., which was an obvious penalty. However, Roethlisberger thinks officials were making a statement against the Steelers after their post-game comments regarding the officiating in their Week 8 loss.
"I'll say this, and I can't confirm nor deny this, but just from experience of being out there. This whole week what was all the talk about in the Steelers locker room? The refereeing. The officiating last game from Diontae [Johnson], which I'm sure he's going to get a FedEx over that."
In Week 8 against the Jaguars the Steelers were victims of some bad officiating, and many players were not quiet about it. Diontae Johnson was extremely critical of the officials, even suggesting that the officiating crew was being paid by Jacksonville. Roethlisberger suggested Johnson will likely be fined for his comments, but he also thinks it was comments like that from Johnson that led to the extensive amount of penalties on the Steelers in Week 9.

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Steelers receiver Diontae Johnson has been rehabbing from injury since Week 1 of the 2023 season
One penalty that went the Steelers way on Thursday night was that Kenny Pickett finally had a roughing the passer call in his favor. There was a lot of commotion about a missed roughing the passer call on Pickett in Week 8, which led to him injuring his ribs and keeping him out for the remainder of the game. Roethlisberger brought this up as well, saying that Pickett better get used to not getting those types of calls.
"Kenny talked about roughing the passer. I would've told Kenny, 'Welcome to Pittsburgh bud, you're not going to get those calls', he did finally get a call which is good. But criticizing those refs doesn't always help you."
The Steelers ended up winning the game, but the penalties they committed on third downs for the Titans was a recipe for disaster. Even on the Titans last drive of the game where they were rushing to get a score with just under a minute left the Steelers committed a holding penalty on a fourth down that the Titans failed to convert. The game would have been over, but once again the drive was extended due to a flag thrown against Pittsburgh.
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