Steelers ‘Cameron Heyward says ‘there’s nothing malicious’ about roughing the charger’ Justin Herbert
The wildest game of the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s Steelers-Chargers game wasn’t any of the five touchdowns scored during this time period. That was LA defender Justin Herbert’s 36-yard challenge – and what happened to him after he was tackled.
The flawed Herbert made a shot into the midfield from Cameron Heyward, the Steelers manager, who scurried down the pitch to make the tackle. Heyward gave Herbert the business after a scuffle with LA takeover Joshua Palmer, who had come to defend his QB.
Heyward was appointed for unnecessary roughness, causing the ball to touch Pittsburgh 5. Austin Ekeler scored his fourth goal of the game the next split second to give the Chargers a 34-20 lead. LA, however, will need to rally later in the quarter to win 41-37.
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Heyward insists it was all an accident.
“I couldn’t get up and I fell on him,” Heyward said, according to a post-game quote posted by Associated Press reporter Greg Beacham. “I know it looks terrible (but) there’s nothing malicious about it.”
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The problem with Heyward’s explanation is that he apparently rolled Herbert on his back and then launched a punch/MMA. NFL officials felt the play could not justify an elimination.
“It doesn’t appear to have increased to the point where fouls lead to disqualification,” NFL senior vice president of operations Walt Anderson explained in a summary report.
Herbert denied the incident during his post-game press conference.
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“He’s a tough player. Football is an emotional game. Whatever happened, happened. We would shake hands and say: ‘Good game’ after the game,” I said.
He can make that tackle because he just hit a winning 53-yard touchdown pass to Mike Williams. TD represented the last point in a 41-point inning, with 27 of those points coming from Pittsburgh (three times TD, two goals). The Steelers took the lead 37-34 after Chris Boswell’s on-field goal 3:24. Herbert connected with Williams 1:15 later.
That play had negated a major Heyward play a few minutes earlier. He brought a Herbert pass into the script line that was blocked by Cameron Sutton. Ben Roethlisberger connected with Pat Freiermuth on a 4:23 5-yard TD pass to play to equalize 34-34.
