Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers’ star cornerback rips referees over his six-flag game: ‘I’m mad at it’

Posted on by newssite

CINCINNATI — Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. was called for six total penalties against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. It is an unbelievable stat, but only four were accepted. Even still, that is the most penalties called on a defensive back this season in a game.

For Porter, this is the second game in four weeks where he has three or more penalties in a game. He is the only cornerback in the NFL to have two such games this season.

After the game, Porter made it clear that he is not happy with the whistle he has received from the NFL over the last month.

“I’m mad at it. I’m trying to be great at the end of the day and those flags kind of get in the way. But like Coach Mike Tomlin always says, if he’s not tripping and my team’s not mad about it, then I just gotta keep playing and doing my job. I feel like at this point they’re trying to alter my play, but I’m not really worried about that.”

Head coach Mike Tomlin did appear to have a huge problem with it postgame. Porter was directed to mitigate Tee Higgins, a big, physical receiver. Tomlin wanted to match Higgins’ energy, and he felt that Porter did that.

“Tee Higgins has a lot to do with that, man. Tee is a good one. He is. You can’t let him beat you up, while at the same time, the officials are going to call it the way they’re going to call it,“ Tomlin said of the calls. ”So, sometimes I kind of absorb some of what comes with that. You cannot let a big dude like that beat you up. You have to match the fire with the fire. You hope that you do it clean enough that doesn’t draw a bunch of penalties. We weren’t successful in that regard today. We’ll keep working, but one thing we’re not going to do is let that guy goon us.”
Porter’s issues with penalties have been an issue since his time at Penn State. The Steelers have challenged Porter to get rid of those tendencies, and some of it may be related to his length and style of play.

Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin often talks about trusting his technique more than instinctively grabbing guys and falling into bad habits. It will be something that Porter hopes to improve upon over the season.

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