The Steelers had to settle for three field goals in the first half of Monday’s game against the Giants and two of those kicks came after apparent touchdown catches by wide receiver George Pickens were taken off the board.
A penalty wiped out the first and replay took care of the second after it showed that Pickens got his right foot down in bounds before being shoved out. Pickens got that foot down twice, but NFL rules don’t treat that the same as getting both feet down or getting one knee, elbow or other body part down in the field of play.
It’s an unusual occurrence and quarterback Russell Wilson said at his press conference after the game that he thinks that might be something worth looking at in the future.
“It’s an interesting rule,” Wilson said. “It’s like, obviously, we thought maybe he had dragged his toe, maybe he got it down. We get the same foot down twice, and it’s clear one and then another one, No. 2, it’s almost like you get a knee down, and it counts as a touchdown. And getting two rights, maybe it should count. But I don’t know. George had a great game. I know obviously he wants those two touchdowns. We all want those — it really would’ve broken out the game early on for us. He made two great catches.”
Pickens wound up with four catches for 74 yards and Wilson finally got a touchdown pass to count in the second half, which helped the Steelers to a win that made it much easier to muse about whether league rules adequately address the Pickens situation.
