Pittsburgh Steelers safety, Minkah Fitzpatrick was the victim of a controversial call in the Week 3 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. On 2nd-and-10 in the red zone, Fitzpatrick sacked Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. After a short celebration, the Steelers star looked back and saw a flag on the field. The referees called a roughing the passer call, and Fitzpatrick showed immediate disappointment.
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Pittsburgh Steelers safety, Minkah Fitzpatrick (#39) participates during 2022 training camp at the team's South Side facility.
Instead of facing a long third down, the Raiders got a first down and proceeded to score a touchdown on the drive. While Pittsburgh still ended up winning the game, the poor call led to a mini comeback from the AFC West squad. On his own The Warner House podcast, San Francisco 49ers star linebacker Fred Warner specifically weighed in on this play. Suffice to say, he supported a fellow defender in Fitzpatrick.
"There’s so many different rules now with unnecessary roughness and targeting and all this other stuff, they basically are trying to slowly turn the game into flag football a little bit. They want to get all the physicality out of the game, even though that’s what literally attracts people to watching the game is guys wearing pads and helmets and hitting each other," Warner said on his podcast.
As the Steelers made their way back to the sidelines, the NBC broadcast continued to show Fitzpatrick. He kept shaking his head and even in the locker room after the game, the frustration was still there. While the NFL has tried to make things safer in the modern era, it's come at the cost of some questionable calls in the process. To be fair to the officiating crew, everything goes quickly in real time.
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Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt shredded Jimmy Garoppolo and the Raiders in Week 3, as he seems hungry for another Defensive Player of the Year Award.
While it may have appeared as if Fitzpatrick hit Garoppolo in the helmet, that was not the case when looking at the replay. Instead, the superstar safety made about as clean of a hit as you can make. In fact, there's not much else that he could have done on the play. Warner dove into the play a bit more specifically with his own input.
"He came in on a blitz and sacked Jimmy, but then they threw a flag on the play and said it was targeting because his facemask just happened to glaze Jimmy’s helmet, even though he initiated contact at his shoulder first. If you slo-mo it, it looks like his helmet hit his helmet, but it really wasn’t helmet-to-helmet. The rules are finicky a little bit. It’s unfortunate for him, but hey, that’s just what the game is now."
The call swayed the momentum late in the game, but the Steelers were able to just barely hold on. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if the NFL does anything to clean up the grey area that comes with these kind of calls. Hopefully for Steelers fans, it doesn't impact the way that Fitzpatrick approaches offensive players in the future. While playmaking will always be his strong suit, his physicality often goes under-the-radar.
How Has The Steelers Safety Performed In 2023 So Far?
What was your initial reaction to the poor call on Fitzpatrick? Do you agree with Warner that the NFL is headed towards flag football? What is the key to the defense having another dominating performance in Week 4? Share your thoughts in the comment section below, yinz!
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