Ben Roethlisberger Comments on Controversial False Start Penalty vs. Patriots

The New England Patriots can't seem to escape controversy, and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger may have generated more following his team's season-opening loss to the Pats on Thursday night.

According to Tom Pelissero of USA Today, Big Ben was upset over a play early in the fourth quarter that saw the Patriots defensive line draw Steelers offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum into a false start by shifting.

"I thought that there was a rule against that," Roethlisberger said. "Maybe there's not. Maybe it's just an unwritten rule. ... We saw it on film, that the Patriots do that. They shift and slide and do stuff on the goal line, knowing that it's an itchy trigger-finger type down there."

The infraction occurred on a 3rd-and-goal at the 1-yard line, and Pittsburgh eventually settled for a field goal to narrow the Patriots' lead to 21-14. New England essentially put the game away on the ensuing possession with a touchdown.

Although there is a rule against defensive players using verbal or hand signals to deceive an offense, shifting is technically legal. Even so, Roethlisberger didn't believe it was within the spirit of the rules.

"In my years of playing, a defensive guy can't bark stuff or move in the middle of a cadence," Roethlisberger said. "I agree that the ref said, 'Well, he didn't go in the neutral zone.' ... I was arguing the fact that he shifted in the middle of a cadence."

Not only are the Pats coming off the Deflategate scandal, but there was another issue during Thursday's contest. The Steelers' coach-to-coach headsets picked up the Patriots' radio broadcast during the first half, which impacted their ability to communicate, per ESPN.com's Jeremy Fowler.

Based on Spygate, Deflategate and all the scandals New England has been involved in over the years, there is a tendency among many to assume the organization is constantly attempting to cheat or at least bend the rules.

In the case of the line shift, however, the Patriots didn't do anything illegal.

The result of that play certainly hurt Pittsburgh's chances of making a comeback, but the fact that the Steelers allowed Tom Brady to throw for 288 yards and four touchdowns, including three to tight end Rob Gronkowski, was the true difference in the game.

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