Coach Mike Tomlin rues Pittsburgh Steelers' league-highest penalties – NFL News
Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is aiming to reduce the penalty rate and yards in the coming games after he finds his team leading the National Football League (NFL) with 9.2 penalties and 86.5 penalty yards per game.
The Steelers are heading to break all previous records per penalty yards if they do not control themselves at the moment. Although the coach has not sounded to be a perfectionist, given the team has historically maintained a better game discipline than many
other teams, the penalty issue popping all of sudden this year has become a concern for him.
He said:
"In some instances we have some guys working hard and not necessarily smart. Those things usually smooth themselves out as you push through the first quarter of the season."
So, as the coach points out, it is not for the Steelers to play aggressive and go all over, but it is essential for them to play smart. This is an area where the Steelers have hurt themselves and courtesy of the mistakes they are down with only two wins
in the American Football Conference (AFC) North division.
The team says they are not inclined to develop a reputation of playing rough in the league but on the surface they do so. For example, linebacker James Harrison has consistently been fined by the league office over the past few years, and still many commentators
see him not done yet. They believe all the punishment including a game ban might not be enough to get him disciplined.
Well within the commentators' views, still some players do not see the penalty a major issue for them and have discarded them as being just small errors. Centre Maurkice Pouncey says:
"They're just small mental errors. It's a part of football. Sometimes it happens. That's something that we've got to tighten up if we want to be the team we want to be."
Irrespective of these exceptional cases, as of Pouncey's, the Steelers must contain the number of penalties they are allowing to their oppositions during each game. Otherwise, they stand further hurting themselves this season and many more in future.
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