Mike Tomlin conducting Pittsburgh Steelers practice with referees
By Cory Buck
The Pittsburgh Steelers committed 13 penalties for 125 yards in their stunning home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Given that the team only lost by three points, it’s safe to wonder whether some of those penalties might have been the difference in the 27-24 final. Mike Tomlin isn’t taking any chances on that count, making discipline an emphasis on the team going forward by bringing an NFL referee to practice during the week.
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While many teams employ referees at training camp and even some in the preseason, having a ref make an appearance at a regular season practice is much less common. Tomlin doesn’t care though because the little penalties are driving him nuts.
“The ones (penalties) that really get me going are the pre-snap penalties because that’s concentration, that’s detail, that’s cohesion, that’s game readiness — and we had too many of those,” coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Tomlin later noted in the same piece that ‘celebration’ penalties like one assessed to Antonio Brown must disappear as well.
“The bottom line is scoring has got to become routine for him,” Tomlin said. “He’s got to hand the ball over to the official and come over to the sideline and get ready to do it again.”
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