Mike Tomlin Puts Steelers on Notice After ‘Catastrophic’ Penalties vs. Titans

The Pittsburgh Steelers completed another fourth quarter comeback in the 20-16 victory against the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football in Week 9. But the game might not have been so close if the Steelers hadn’t committed a season-high 10 penalties for 80 yards.

That was the message in a nutshell from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin following the contest. The 17-year head coach referenced the penalties in the opening statement of his postgame press conference on November 2.

“Really excited about the win. [But] obviously, it could have been cleaner,” Tomlin told reporters. “First and foremost from a penalty perspective, part of being a tough team to beat first is not kicking your own butt, and we’ve kind of been doing that some. We’ve got to own that.

“We will. We’ll review it, we’ll learn from it, we’ll look at it.”

Tomlin continued, as he explained how the Steelers will specifically address the team’s sudden penalty problem.

“We’ll bring some officials into our practice setting in an effort to be cleaner because that was catastrophic really in a lot of instances to our efforts tonight,” said Tomlin.

On defense alone, the Steelers had 6 accepted penalties for 50 yards in Week 9.

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Steelers Win Despite Season-High 10 Penalties

Pittsburgh entered Week 9 with the third-fewest penalties in the NFL. The Steelers had just 36 accepted penalties in their first seven games combined.

But the Steelers had 10 penalties at home versus the Titans on November 2. Five of them were in the first quarter, including four on the defense’s first possession of the night.

Rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. made some nice plays in coverage throughout the night. But he also committed three accepted penalties. Two of them were on third or fourth downs and gave the Titans an automatic first down.

Veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson was also grabby with his hands, committing two illegal contact penalties.

On offense, rookie Broderick Jones made his first start at right tackle. He made some tremendous blocks down field, paving the way for the Steelers to post a season-high 166 rushing yards.

But Jones committed an illegal man downfield penalty on the first drive of the game. That wasn’t costly, as the Steelers scored their first opening drive touchdown of the season.

But Jones’ unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a fourth-quarter extra point pushed the Steelers kickoff back 15 yards. As a result, the Titans began their next drive near midfield.

Fortunately, the defense stood tall, not allowing the Titans to gain a first down on that drive.

Ultimately, the Steelers overcame all of their penalties to win by four points. But committing 10 penalties is obviously not a recipe for success.

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Mike Tomlin Delivers Message on Penalties After Beating Titans

Although the Steelers entered this week one of the least penalized teams in the league, penalties have been a talking point in the Steelers media for a few weeks. Pittsburgh had 8 accepted penalties, including 2 unsportsmanlike conduct fouls in the fourth quarter, in Week 7 against the Los Angeles Rams.

On October 29 in Week 8 versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Steelers had 6 accepted penalties for 52 yards.

After November 2, the Steelers have averaged 8 penalties per game in the last three weeks.

Pittsburgh will now have a few extra days to prepare for the team’s Week 10 opponent — the Green Bay Packers. It sounds like Tomlin will most certainly use that time to fix the team’s sudden penalty problem.

“I thought we did a good job,” Tomlin said in response to a question about the team’s run defense. “But I just thought the penalties were catastrophic to our defensive efforts. It really was.”

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