CINCINNATI — George Pickens had a solid day for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, leading the team 74 receiving yards on three catches, including a crucial first-quarter touchdown to even the score. But tackle Broderick Jones might have had the bigger impact.
Those 74 yards, however, were severely tempered by a pair of personal foul penalties that set the Steelers back a total of 30 yards.
Pickens was flagged in the first quarter for taunting Cincinnati linebacker Germaine Pratt after converting a third and long and then again in the third quarter, when he celebrated a long completion by pointing with two fingers and a thumb toward the stands in Cincinnati, making a gun-firing motion.
Yeah, George is gonna get a fine for that. pic.twitter.com/IoY4q5hUCr
— Alan Saunders (@ASaunders_PGH) December 2, 2024
The penalties did not directly hurt the Steelers on Sunday. The dead-ball penalties cost the team only yardage, so the offense faced a 1st and 10 following each of them. The first time around, Russell Wilson and the offense quickly re-gained the field position. The second time, they didn’t, and Chris Boswell’s field goal was blocked.
Pickens was spared an ejection because he committed two different types of personal foul, one which is subject to an ejection on two counts, and one which is not.
But that doesn’t mean that his actions were harmless. Pickens will almost certainly be fined for the fourth time this season for his finger-gun gesture. He could be fined for the taunt, as well. Eventually, enough fines add up to a suspension. Commit enough personal fouls, and one will cost the team.
The Steelers know that they have to try to find a way to get Pickens’ actions under control.
“You just have to grow up, man,” head coach Mike Tomlin said after the game in one of his most frank critiques of his occasionally troubled third-year receiver.
“It’s an emotional game. These divisional games are big. He has a target on his back because he’s George. He understands that, but he has to grow up. He has to grow up in a hurry.”
It’s one thing for that message to come from the mouth of the head coach, but it’s likely another for it to come from one of the player on the team that Pickens has known the longest. So Steelers offensive lineman Broderick Jones took it upon himself to go over to Pickens and try to get him calmed down after both of his fouls.
“He’s such an emotional guy, you just gotta let him know it’s next play,” Jones said. “You did that. It’s over with. Next play. Go make another play. But just be smart. No dumb shit.”
Jones and the rest of the members of the Steelers seem to understand the stakes at play here. The Steelers, with a wide receiver room that’s been thin all season, can’t afford to play without Pickens. With an offense that’s hovering around the middle of the league, a team with Super Bowl aspirations can’t afford to be giving away territory in 15-yard chunks
“We’ve just got to stay on him,” Jones said. “Great player. I just look at him. I try to get him right. I feel like we’re brothers. We’ve been together for so long, I feel like I know what makes him click and what doesn’t. I just always try to talk to him and stay in his ear. We just continue to work.”
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Jones and Pickens played together at Georgia before they came to the Steelers, Pickens in 2022 and Jones in 2023, so it makes sense in some regards for Jones to be his counselor. But Jones has also had his own hard time keeping his emotions in check as a young player. As one of the youngest players on the team, he’s an unlikely leader. But that perspective might make him the right voice to get through to Pickens.
“I just know he has so many guys in his hear, so I just try to talk to him,” Jones said. “I don’t try to give him a whole speech or whatnot. Just a couple word of encouragement. “Just be smart. Everybody knows you’re a playmaker. Just gotta stop the stupid things.
“That’s with me, too, as well. He talks to me, as well. I try to do the same thing for him. We just try to keep each other in line and just make sure we have each other’s backs.”
The Steelers have a lot riding on Jones panning out as the team’s starting right tackle, but if he can get through to Pickens, that might make as big of an impact as anything he can do on the field.
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