The Steelers' up-and-down season continued on Sunday when they dropped their Week 8 game to the Jaguars 20-10, but Diontae Johnson didn't think Pittsburgh was to blame for the defeat.
Instead, the veteran receiver focused on the performance of the officials during the contest. In a word, he thought it was lacking.
"They was calling some stupid stuff," Johnson said of the officials during his postgame media availability, per ESPN. "They should get fined for calling bad, making worse, terrible calls and stuff like that. That's how pissed I am. They cost us the game. I don't care what nobody say. They cost us the game."
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Johnson seemed particularly perturbed by an offensive offsides penalty called on the Steelers just before the end of the first half. It came when Chris Boswell made a 55-yard field goal heading into halftime that would have cut Pittsburgh's deficit to three points.
But the penalty backed up the Steelers five yards. Boswell's ensuing attempt from 60 yards away missed ensuring the Jaguars a 9-3 lead at the intermission.
Johnson vehemently disagreed with the call and made that known when discussing the officials' performance.
"I didn't like the refs today," he said. "They must've got paid good today or something, but they blew — that field goal, that hurt us coming into the half. We needed that."
The offensive offsides call was addressed by referee Alan Eck after the game in a pool report. He indicated that the offending party, Isaac Seumalo, was simply lined up in the wrong position, which necessitated the call.
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"The right guard was lined up in the neutral zone," Eck said. "His head was over the back edge of the ball, so by rule, that's an offensive offside foul. It's a live ball foul, so we let the play go through and then we mark off the 5-yard penalty and replay fourth down."
Even so, that wasn't the only call with which Johnson disagreed. That led him to draw a conclusion that could get him in trouble with the NFL offices.
"[The officials] wanted [the Jaguars] to win, bro," he said. "They was calling, everything was in their favor. They was getting every little call, but it is what it is."
Even so, Johnson expressed that he knew he couldn't stew on the slights even though he lamented that the "refs were just killing us the whole game."
"I didn't like the refs today. At the end of the day, we can't keep complaining about the refs. Like Coach [Mike Tomlin] say, we can't worry about the refs, whatever."
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So, what is Johnson's plan as the Steelers prepare to play the Titans on a short week in Week 9?
"I'm moving on from it," Johnson said. "I'm ready for Thursday."
Johnson may be ready to play, but he also probably needs to be ready to pay as well. It seems likely that the NFL will levy some fines against him for criticizing Eck's crew so thoroughly.
