Steelers' Cameron Heyward Critical Of Officiating During Jets Game

The Pittsburgh Steelers won decisively over the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football in Week 7. The offense, finally led by Russell Wilson, was a little slow to get started, but they really came on strong in the second half, and the final score was 37-15. Much had been made about the Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams reunion, but the Steelers' defense was able to mostly shut them down. 

The score makes it seem like a stress-free win, but that wasn't exactly the case. Once again, the Steelers were hampered by penalties. Fans, commentators, and broadcast officials questioned many of those calls. 

There was one in particular that New York had to come back and apologize for, a call on safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. The Jets had managed to take the lead 13-6 and went to kick their extra point. The Steelers did what they seemed to be making a regular thing and blocked the kick. The officials ruled that Fitzpatrick had used a Jets player to propel himself upward to gain leverage and get a hand on the ball. This negated the block and gave the Jets the ball on the one-yard line, which they drove in for a two-point conversion. Now the score was 15-6. 

There have been countless games in which one point was the deciding factor. Fortunately, that wasn't the case here, as that was the last point they scored. Cameron Heyward recently addressed the penalty on his podcast, Not Just Football with Cam Heyward. He said the jump Fitzpatrick made is common in the league and is called the "jumper gap." He added that many players push off and never get called, but Fitzpatrick didn't even push. 

"If you push off on anyone, even your teammate, you'll be called for a penalty," explained Heyward. "But you see plenty of people doing it. It was crazy to put points on the board or take points when you know you give a team an extra opportunity. We went from giving up zero or giving up six to giving up either, and that could decide a game."

In his weekly press conference, Head Coach Mike Tomlin said that New York called him to apologize, saying they got it wrong. Tomlin said, "That's life," and acknowledged they knew in the stadium that the block was legal. 

According to Heyward, the officials knew, too. He said they knew during the game that something wasn't right with the call, yet they failed to stop it. 

"I don't think the ref felt very comfortable doing that," said Heyward. "There was a lot of talk during the game, and after that, it was like, why are we having a debate? You should feel confident in your answer, and if you don't, you know that leads to not everybody knowing the rule book and not everybody understanding the situation, and you just hope for better clarity, or New York comes in and handles it, and you move forward. Because saying, 'Oh, that was wrong' after the game. New York, you could have changed that. You could have simply looked at it and said we're not calling that; move on. If we're going to ridicule refs, we have to ridicule New York as well because they have every opportunity to change the call."

Tomlin also acknowledged that the Steelers have to put themselves in positions where these self-inflated injuries don't have the potential to hurt them so much. This time they dodged a bullet as the defense completely shut the Jets down in the second half. 

Steelers' Rookie Helped Lock The Door

The entire Steelers' defense really came to play against the Jets. There were big plays, with lots of pressure and tackles from guys like Heyward. However, the rookie Beanie Bishop Jr. might have had the biggest game of all. 

He was heavily criticized early in the season, but made his first two interceptions of his professional career against a future gold jacket quarterback. Bishop reportedly asked Rodgers to autograph the intercepted balls, and the former Super Bowl winner agreed. 

What do you think about New York not stepping in? Click to comment below. 

#SteelerNation