PITTSBURGH — Every time Joey Porter Jr. turned around during the Pittsburgh Steelers game against the Washington Commanders on Sunday, he was being followed. By laundry.
The officiating crew of Brad Rodgers has taken a hard stance against defensive pass interference this season, and Porter was the latest victim of the DPI-friendliest officiating crew in the NFL. Porter caught the ire of the men in stripes three times on Sunday, with his three fouls assessed for 40 yards on penalty damage. One set the Commanders up with a 1st and goal at the 1-yard line, and a touchdown a play later, after the Steelers appeared to have Washington stopped for a field goal.
The penalties came amidst an overall tough day for Porter, as Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels was able to find star receiver Terry McLaurin for multiple big plays. The Ohio State grad hauled in five of six targets for 113 yards, matching Colts wideout Michael Pittman for the highest receiving output for any receiver against the Steelers this season.
Porter had been highly penalized as a rookie in 2023, with eight total fouls called against him for 75 yards, but had improved greatly in 2024. He had just one penalty this season entering Sunday’s game.
Asked about Porter’s sudden proliferation of penalties, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said he’s not going to overreact to one bad game.
“I don’t know that it is a message,” he said. “We’re always working to be clean. Last week was last week. He’s done an awesome job for the totality of the season. And so usually it takes two to make a pattern for me before I get active, and so I’m not going to overreact to last week.”
Of Porter’s three penalties on Sunday, two were for defensive pass interference and the third was for a face mask. He had one previous defensive pass interference penalty earlier this season. He has also been flagged three times for penalties that weren’t enforced. Two were offset and one was declined.
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