Joe Haden did not speak with the media after his Pittsburgh Steelers lost 27-17 to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. But he did share one message on Twitter.
Haden had three simple words to say:
https://twitter.com/joehaden23/status/1444823202547605504
“I wasn’t offsides.”
Haden is referring to a penalty he was called for on a field goal block before halftime. The Packers had a 4th-and-10 at the Pittsburgh 13 with around 20 seconds left in the half. Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick both got great jumps on the snap and came in to block the kick attempt:
https://twitter.com/Dejan_Kovacevic/status/1444782618428547073
The replay appeared to show that both Steelers defenders timed their jump perfectly and were not offsides. Pittsburgh should have been credited with a field goal block that was returned for a touchdown to make it 17-14. Instead, the Packers got another chance to kick and made a 26-yard field goal to make the score 17-10.
Pittsburgh got hosed on the call and Haden knows it. CBS Sports rules analyst Gene Steratore felt the officials missed the call.
https://twitter.com/GeneSteratore/status/1444786417008353281
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin did not want to comment on the matter.
“You hear things about what was said on television and all of that,” Tomlin said after the game. “I didn’t have the line of scrimmage, so I’d just be speculating and giving you some hearsay.”
Even if Tomlin didn’t comment one way or another, we know they got hosed by a bad offsides call. That was a game-changer in a game that finished 27-17.
Somewhat unbelievably, the official in this game was Scott Novak, who oversaw this big blunder from Week 3.
