Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson was more than a little upset about the officiating during the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 20-10 win Sunday.
“I don’t care what nobody says, they cost us the game,” Johnson said in the locker room, via Mike DeFabo of The Athletic. “They wanted [the Jaguars] to win. Everything was in their favor, every little call. But it is what it is, I’m moving on from it.”
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin took issue with the offside call that nullified his team’s 55-yard field goal, although he was a bit more diplomatic about his criticism than Johnson.
“I hadn’t seen that called in 17 years of standing on the sidelines,” Tomlin said. “Offsides, aligned offsides on a guard, on a field goal protection. … I have never seen that.”
After the game, referee Alan Eck said that call “was obvious on the field, so we went ahead and called it.”
There was no disparity in penalties called in the game. Both the Jaguars and Steelers picked up six with Jacksonville getting penalized for 72 yards and Pittsburgh for 52 yards. The yardage total was mostly due to a pass interference (only the second of the year called on the Jaguars) on Foye Oluokun that gave the Steelers a 32-yard chunk.
Johnson led Pittsburgh in receiving with eight receptions for 85 yards.
