T.J. Watt has legitimate gripe with pitiful officiating in Steelers' Week 1 win

It only took one game into the 2024 season for T.J. Watt to point out the inequities of how the referees called today's game. The Pittsburgh Steelers star had a beautiful strip sack in the first half; however, the referees called him offside. Upon looking at it closer, it appeared perfectly timed, yet the referees didn't agree.

In his post-game interview with Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, Watt had a legitimate gripe. Looking at the game closer, there were many questionable referee calls against the Steelers and nearly one colossal mistake you normally do not see referees make in the NFL.

The Steelers were penalized nine times for a total of 60 yards, while the Falcons received five penalties for 34 yards. However, the game's outcome could have been significantly different if the referees had not missed a potential 12 penalties on the Falcons.

While some of these may have been genuine oversights, it's clear that a number of them should have been called, underscoring the importance of the referee's decisions.

The missed penalties for the Steelers

Watthad had a legitimate reason to complain after the botched offside call stealing him of a strip sack -- especially since the referees admitted to messing up. However, he could have included the 12 snaps where offensive linemen appeared to be holding him as he rushed the quarterback.

That has been a massive problem throughout his career. Most offensive linemen year in and year out officials have either missed or not called blatant holds on Watt.

Today's game was no exception. Then, aside from the missed calls on Watt, there was at least one possible missed holding call against Nick Herbig. Perhaps all were not holds, but even if they called a third of them, that would have resulted in at least three to four additional penalties against the Falcons.

Other referee mistakes in Steelers vs. Falcons game

The missed holding calls were not the worst errors made by the zebras. They missed a facemask call, which resulted in someone pulling off Najee Harris' helmet. The offsetting unsportsmanlike call against Broderick Jones also seemed highly suspect. He didn't throw any punches. He did, though, get in the face of the Falcon's player, who did questionably hit one of his fellow offensive linemen while defenseless.

There was the nearly phantom offensive pass interference call against George Pickens. He did push off of the defensive player, but it never appeared it prevented the defender from breaking up a pass. But the refs could argue it gave enough separation between Pickens and the defender, allowing Pickens to catch the ball. The bottom line is that it was a ticky-tac call, which should have been a noncall.

While the worst mistake didn't harm the Steelers, it did force them to run a play they might not have generally run in that situation. They ran the play on what some of them thought was fourth down, which was an attempt to pick up the first down on a rushing play. However, due to an incorrectly spotted first-down marker, George Pickens had made the first down on the previous play. It was not until after the next play that fans and even the Steelers radio broadcast crew learned of the officiating mistake.

Given the gripes from T.J. Watt and looking at the officials' job, it's a wonder there were not more gripes in the post-game conferences. It seems each season, the gripes about poor officiating take center stage in several games throughout the season.

Certainly, Watt's offside call could have been critical if the Steelers had lost the game. The Steelers were fortunate none of these calls seriously affected today's outcome; that said, any of the blown or missed calls could have.

Perhaps human error will always play a part in refereeing in the NFL. However, if that's going to happen, the NFL needs to make serious referring changes, which they continuously keep dragging their feet on making. The slopiness with the officiating crew in the Steelers-Falcons game on a professional level was totally unacceptable.