Steelers' Diontae Johnson Calls Out Refs After Jaguars Loss: They Wanted Them to Win

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett suffered a rib injury during Sunday's 20-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on a play that appeared it should have been ruled as roughing the passer.

No penalty was called, however, and wideout Diontae Johnson didn't hold back on the officials when asked about it after the game.

"They wanted them to win" he told reporters. "They was calling... everything was in their favor. Every little call. But it is what it is. I'm moving on from it."

Johnson wasn't done there.

"Refs was killing us the whole game," he continued. "... At the end of the day, we can't keep complaining about the refs. Like coach [Mike Tomlin] said, we can't worry about the refs. But everybody's different. I don't know, I didn't like the refs today. They must have gotten paid good today or something."

Those are the sort of remarks that probably will earn Johnson a nice little fine from the NFL league office this week.

Players and coaches can't expect referees to be perfect, but they do generally ask for consistency, which is where the Steelers may have a gripe from Sunday's game. Here is the play where Pickett was injured without a roughing call.

And here are a few similar plays, with the hit on Lawrence earning a roughing the passer penalty and the hits on Pickett going uncalled.

Roughing penalties have become a point of conversation in recent seasons, given the increased emphasis on keeping quarterbacks safe and not having defensive lineman land with their full body weight on them during sacks.

That has left NFL fans—and in some cases, both players and coaches too—scratching their heads as to what exactly does, and does not, constitute roughing the passer.

Granted, Pittsburgh seemed to take issue with the officiating at large on Sunday. Johnson wasn't the only member of the Steelers who was frustrated, as cameras caught Mike Tomlin appearing to curse out the sideline referees.

Tomlin was aggrieved after Pittsburgh's right guard was called offsides during a field-goal attempt.

"I haven't seen that called in 17 years of standing on the sidelines," he told reporters. "Aligned offsides on a guard on field-goal protection. It didn't matter what they said, I've just never seen that."