A lot went wrong for the New England Patriots in their Week 3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Turnovers were the focus — New England turned the ball over five times — but other mistakes killed their slim chances at stealing a win.
Penalties were another area of weakness for the Patriots. They had seven penalties for 54 yards accepted. Three of the seven penalties came on third down, two of which extended drives after plays that would have set up fourth downs.
Patriots coach Mike Vrabel is fine with penalties. They’re unavoidable in the course of a game. The penalties that keep the defense on the field are an additional obstacle to winning a game, though.
“It’s the ones that are third downs. Not all penalties are created equal,” Vrabel said on the Greg Hill Show. “Certainly, the ones that are critical that extend drives or give them the ball, the technical errors, I think that you can be going hard and playing hard and have a mistake and jump offside.” The technique that doesn’t get fixed is frustrating, the things [the refs] are looking for, I think those are”
One of the penalties on Sunday came early in the fourth quarter, just after the Patriots had tied the game via a Hunter Henry touchdown. On the first two plays of the Steelers’ ensuing drive, they gained two yards, setting up a third and eight. Rodgers threw deep down the sideline to DK Metcalf in one-on-one coverage with Carlton Davis, who was called for pass interference. There was contact between the two, but the ball landed about six yards ahead of Metcalf, and another four yards out of bounds.
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“Carlton, I thought he played good technique, good defense, and looking and playing the football, and she chose to throw a penalty, and maybe we can agree or disagree, but we move on,” Vrabel said. “I’ve heard they use that big white stripe, that if it lands outside of that, maybe it was uncatchable, but they didn’t see it that way.”
The referees don’t have to comment on the game, but they would probably say that the contact from Davis is what caused the ball to be viewed as uncatchable. Even with no contact, it would have taken an acrobatic catch for Metcalf to come down with the ball and land in bounds. Although his comments were fairly tame, the Patriots’ coach could see a fine coming his way.
