NFL: Myles Garrett's Roughing-the-Passer Penalty vs. Steelers Was Mistake

The Cleveland Browns were the victims of a costly officiating mistake in Sunday's 21-21 tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Al Riveron, the NFL's senior vice president of officiating, confirmed to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero that Browns defensive end Myles Garrett shouldn't have received a roughing-the-passer penalty in the second quarter.

On a 3rd-and-8 at Cleveland's 8-yard line, Garrett hit Ben Roethlisberger after the Steelers quarterback threw what proved to be an incomplete pass. The referees flagged Garrett for landing on Roethlisberger with his full body weight, which was an area of emphasis in the offseason.

Riveron, however, explained to Pelissero that Garrett's hit didn't run foul of the tackling rule.

"The rule specifically says 'most, if not all, of your body weight.' So we want that player to make an effort. ... Because the question we get all the time is, well, what do you want our players to do? Well, they have to not put the weight on the quarterback. And this one [on Garrett] yesterday showed, even though there is some body weight on [Steelers quarterback] Ben [Roethlisberger], this is not what we would consider contact that rises to the level of a foul."

Had Garrett avoided the penalty for roughing the passer, the Steelers likely would've settled for a field goal on third down. Instead, they had a 1st-and-goal at the 4-yard line and scored immediately on a run by James Conner to take a 7-0 lead.

The penalty call wasn't the decisive factor in the contest, but it was the kind of bad break the Browns have often been on the receiving end of during their 18-game winless streak.