Marcus Allen Owns Penalty Gaffe: ‘I Have to Be Better Than That’

CHARLOTTE — Marcus Allen took the blame in a humble manner for his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that gave the Panthers a first down in their 24-16 victory on Sunday.

Allen ran into the huddle of the Panthers and jawed with multiple members of the team back and forth during the TV timeout. It left the Steelers, who had two straight sacks to force a 4th-and-27, on the ropes as their defense came back onto the field after getting the stop due to the penalty.

Steelers' Marcus Allen goes into the Panthers huddle on a timeout, resulting in a Panthers first down when it was 4th & 21 pic.twitter.com/PBt0EWXun3

— Main Team (@MainTeamSports) December 18, 2022

“I should’ve just started walking to my team,” Allen said. “Man, I have to keep a better head than that. My emotions got the better of me. Listen, I can’t let that happen. I let down the defense.”

Allen got an earful from Mike Tomlin after the infraction. While Tomlin likes his teams to have energy and swagger, that takes it over the top. Tomlin told Allen to ‘keep it trucking’ after the penalty. Even though Allen is the ball of energy of the team, that passion got too over the top on that play.

“Yeah, I have that passion all the time, but sometimes you have to contain it,” Allen said. “It got the best of me. That’s the bottom line.”

Tomlin shared their concern about the play, stating that the Steelers could not continue their hapless penalty gaffes such as the one by Allen.

“We could have played smarter in some instances,” Tomlin said. “Penalties are not how we choose to live, particularly some of the 15-yard variety. Hopefully, there are opportunities to learn from that. It’s good to learn from a W.”

Allen noted that the trash talk was mutual and went back and forth. When the referees explained why they called it a penalty, they explained that it was unsportsmanlike. For Allen, it was the fact that while he has passion, it got the better of his emotions and hurt his team.

“I guess it was just too much passion going back and forth,” Allen said. “In between the game, I have to start moving towards my teammates to get away from there.”

Allen hopes to move on from it. He appeared to be disappointed and humble in his approach. It’s been clear that Allen is truly a passionate player. But sometimes, emotions can get the better of the guys out on the field. That seems to be what happened for Allen, and it could have cost his team.