After winning three straight games, Steelers fans wanted to see Pittsburgh keep the momentum going after the Week 9 bye... but not like this. Pittsburgh was in Washington in Week 10 to face a Commanders team outperforming every expectation in 2024.
Ultimately, this contest resulted in a 28-27 victory for the Steelers. However, this wasn't the convincing win all wanted to see, and what transpired in the final moments left fans feeling, well... dirty.
After punching in a much-needed go-ahead score on 3rd-and-9 to give the Steelers a one-point lead late in the fourth quarter, Washington had a chance to respond with 2:22 remaining in the game. The Commanders picked up a quick first down. Eventually, Pittsburgh held the opposing offense to a critical 4th-and-9 situation.
That's when rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels found veteran tight end Zach Ertz over the middle of the field for what appeared to be nine yards. This would have moved the chains well across midfield to the 41-yard line and given the Commanders an excellent chance to set up the game-winning field goal.
However, when the referee ran to spot the ball, he somehow managed to come up a full yard short of the line to gain. While I didn't want Washington to pick up the first down, the egregious spot made the stop hard to enjoy.
This was incredibly close upon replay, but the play in live time and common sense suggests Ertz did enough to get the first down; yet the ball was spotted a full yard short.
After being 'stopped' on fourth down, the Commanders had one more chance to hold the Steelers to a three-and-out before Pittsburgh could run the rest of the clock off, but a defensive player tried to jump the snap, which sealed the victory for Pittsburgh.
Steelers' spot call was a makeup call for missed calls against Pittsburgh
The spot call that sealed the Commanders' fate in Week 10 was questionable at best, but I'm not going to sit here and act like there was nothing that went against Pittsburgh in this contest. In the fourth quarter alone, there were two missed plays by the official that could have prevented the Steelers needing a favorable spot call on Washington's final drive.
The first was a missed opportunity to blow a play dead. After Najee Harris got banged up, Steelers running back Jaylen Warren was gashing Washington's defense late in the fourth quarter while chewing time off the clock. Eventually, Warren knifed his way for a seven-yard run that would have had Pittsburgh one yard away from the endzone with a fresh set of downs.
However, Warren was stood up at the goal line by multiple Commanders defenders. Though his progress was stopped, there was no whistle. This gave Washington more than enough time to rake the ball away -- saving seven points and the go-ahead score by the Steelers.
A few plays later, with Washington on offense backed up against their own endzone, the refs missed a blatant holding call on the Commanders as offensive tackle Trent Scott wrapped up T.J. Watt by the shoulder pads and swung him around.
Watt was en route to bring Daniels down for a safety if not for the hold. Even if he didn't get credit for the play, a holding call in the endzone by Washington could have resulted in a safety -- giving two points to Pittsburgh to go with a short field and a shot to make the game-winning score.
Fortunately, the Steelers were able to overcome these calls as they quickly answered with a go-ahead score on a clutch 32-yard touchdown reception from newcomer Mike Williams.
Still, for good or for bad, we hate to see the officials have such a big impact on the results of the game. Steelers fans got the result we all wanted, but I hate that Pittsburgh's Week 10 win is going to be surrounded by controversy after an iffy spot call that gift-wrapped Mike Tomlin's team the win.