Mike Tomlin Wants Steelers To Focus On Execution, Not Officials

Diontae Johnson did not mince any words.

The Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver was livid last Sunday following a 20-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Johnson believed the officials were to blame for the defeat that dropped the Steelers’ record to 4-3.

“They were calling some stupid stuff,” Johnson told reporters. “They should get fined for making terrible calls. That’s how (mad) I am because they cost us the game. I don’t care what nobody says, they cost us the game.

“(The referees) must’ve got paid good today or something. (The referees) wanted (Jacksonville) to win. Everything was in their favor. They were getting every little call. But it is what it is.”

Johnson’s discontent was primarily about two roughing the passer penalties – one that was called on the Steelers and another that thought should have been called on the Jaguars.

Steelers safety Keanu Neal was called for roughing Trevor Lawrence in the first quarter. Just before halftime, Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett left the game with a rib injury after being drilled by defensive end Adam Gotsis.

“Y’all are supposed to be protecting us,” Johnson said. “That’s our quarterback. He got slammed. He’s not allowed to slam anybody. It’s hard because you need your quarterback out there at the end of the day. We gotta roll with the next guy. That messes up the whole gameplan so now we gotta scramble to figure things out again.”

The Steelers were also upset that they had a field goal wiped out by an offsides call late in the second quarter that would have closed their deficit to 9-6.

However, coach Mike Tomlin does not want any of the Steelers’ disenchantment with the officials to carry over to Thursday night when they host the Tennessee Titans (3-4) at Acrisure Stadium. During his weekly news conference on Monday, Tomlin declined to pin the blame for the loss on the way the game was called.

“It is our desire to win definitively, where potentially controversial calls are less significant,” Tomlin said. “That’s what good teams do. That’s what elite teams do. It’s our desire to be a good and elite team so that we’re not as flimsy and become a component of some debatable calls and things of that nature.

“I acknowledge there was some of that in the game, but it’s some of that in most games, to be quite honest with you, things that are capable of being reviewed or assessed in that way. I like to focus my energies on the things that are within our control, the quality of our execution, and I think when you do that definitively, it makes those discussions less relevant.”

Penalties have not been a problem for the Steelers this season, though. They are 29^th among the 32 NFL teams with an average of 5.1 a game.

What Tomlin would like to see this week is better execution on the part of his players.

He was bothered by mistakes last Sunday that included Pickett not connecting with Johnson on a long pass over the middle on the first play of the game and underthrowing George Pickens on a deep sideline route. A miscommunication on defense allowed Lawrence to connect with running back Travis Etienne on a 56-yard pass that resulted in the Jaguars’ lone touchdown.

“We’re going to continue to work and work to improve and make those plays with much more consistency and position our guys to be in more of those circumstances so that we can get the type of starts that we need for the games to unfold in a more fluid manner, more to our vision, if you will, as opposed to trying to close the distance in the second half,” Tomlin said.