Steelers linebacker James Farrior watches as Refree Terry McAulay awards the Jaguars a first down after a roughing the passer penalty against Aaron Smith in the fourth quarter.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's the craziest conspiracy theory since Joe Paterno accused the Big Ten Conference of an anti-Penn State bias in 2002.
Some of the Steelers think the officials might be out to get them.
Safety Chris Hope suggested as much after the overtime loss Sunday to the Jacksonville Jaguars and didn't back down from that contention later in the week. "We're known as a pretty physical football team," he said. "Other teams play us and do a lot of talking about how they won't be outphysicaled by us or intimidated by us. I think [the officials] know that and make it a point to look for us doing something."
This was after the Steelers' defense took three personal foul penalties against the Jaguars, including two by safety Troy Polamalu. Hope and Polamalu also had personal fouls in the last-second victory at San Diego a week earlier. In those two games, the Steelers were penalized 18 times for 184 yards, absurdly high numbers that will get them beat in most games.
"I get the sense [the officials] are really watching us," defensive end Aaron Smith said.
Here's what makes this conspiracy theory so strange.
It's not like the Paterno/Big Ten deal. Paterno truly seemed to believe the Big Ten officials wanted Penn State to lose, an opinion still shared by many of his team's fans, especially this week after the tough loss Saturday at Michigan. The Steelers don't think NFL headquarters has it against them. Not at all. They just think the officials get tired of -- get this -- their big mouths.
"We're a group of passionate men who stand up and fight for what we believe in," Smith said, "[The officials] are only human. I'm sure they get offended at times."
"We are pretty chatty out there," defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen said. "We're always getting on them about what they call, about what they don't call. I'm sure they probably get irritated with us. I know they call the game the way they see it, but we don't help with all of our crap."
This might be a good week for that to change.
The Steelers need to play smarter.
And they need to SHUT UP!
Not to be rude.
Certainly, the Steelers can't afford to take bad penalties Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals aren't just 5-1 and threatening to run away and hide in the AFC North Division race. They have a sizzling quarterback -- Carson Palmer -- who has had a passer rating of at least 107 in every game and has completed 72.6 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and just two interceptions. Their offense ranks second in the league in yards and fifth in points.
In other words, the Bengals don't need any help from the Steelers to win.
The calls against the Steelers' defense the past two weeks were legitimate. So much for that flimsy conspiracy angle. The Steelers were able to overcome Hope's facemask penalty and Polamalu's unnecessary roughness penalty in San Diego, but they couldn't overcome their mistakes against the Jaguars.
After being beaten by wide receiver Reggie Williams for a 41-yard gain early in the third quarter, Polamalu was penalized for throwing Williams down out of bounds. That led to a Jacksonville touchdown moments later, a play on which Polamalu was called for roughing the passer when he appeared to leave his feet and take a shot at quarterback Byron Leftwich's head. Smith took a roughing-the-passer penalty late in the fourth quarter when he caught a piece of Leftwich's head on a third-and-16 play, giving Jacksonville a chance to win in regulation.
Only some dubious play-calling by the Jaguars and an end-zone interception by defensive back Bryant McFadden temporarily saved the Steelers.
"I barely touched him, but they're going to call that every time because it was his head," Smith grudgingly acknowledged, before adding an assessment that Jack Lambert made famous around here before Smith was born. "They should put 'em in skirts," Smith said of quarterbacks.
"Either that or put 'em in a 5-foot box and let 'em throw from in there so they can't be touched."
Until that happens, the Steelers need to do a better job walking the fine line between being aggressive and taking dumb penalties. It isn't always easy, to be sure. To his credit, Polamalu had another shot at Leftwich later in the game and didn't shy away from taking it. The difference was this hit was clean, and he wasn't penalized. Polamalu was aggressive, but smart.
That's the only way to play the game.
And it makes the whining so unnecessary.
(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1525.)
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