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NFL

NFL: Key flag in Steelers-Browns called in error

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett shouldn’t have been called for roughing the passer in the second quarter of the Browns’ 21-21 tie Sunday with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the NFL’s senior vice president for officiating said Monday.

Garrett wrapped up Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for a third-down incompletion and was called for a personal foul. On the next play, Steelers running back James Conner ran in for a touchdown and a 6-0 Steelers lead.

Al Riveron, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, told NFL.com that the official erred in calling the penalty on Garrett. The defensive end was flagged for a violation of the rule that prohibits a player from landing on the quarterback with most or all of his body weight.

“The rule specifically says ‘most, if not all, of your body weight,'” Riveron said Monday. “So we want that player to make an effort. And the last three or four weeks, we have pulled extensive video to show the clubs exactly what we’re talking about. … Because the question we get all the time is, ‘Well, what do you want our players to do?’

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“Well, they have to not put the weight on the quarterback. And this one yesterday showed, even though there is some body weight on Ben, this is not what we would consider contact that rises to the level of a foul.”

Riveron said that four other penalties for players landing on quarterbacks — on Atlanta’s Grady Jarrett, Cincinnati’s Carlos Dunlap, Minnesota’s Sheldon Richardson and New Orleans’ David Onyemata — were correct.

Jarrett fell on Eagles quarterback Nick Foles in the end zone after Foles released a pass in Thursday night’s opener. He didn’t agree with the call, he said Monday.

“I didn’t think it was a bad hit,” Jarrett said Monday. “I feel like I kept my weight off him pretty good intentionally, popped up fast. I wasn’t able to turn to the side.”

Jarrett said he and Falcons coach Dan Quinn had a conversation about the play.

“We just talked about trying to make adjustments,” Jarrett said. “You can’t do nothing about the rule.”

At the same time, Jarrett said it’s hard to alter his playing style.

“Without a doubt,” he said. “I feel like not power-driving him into the ground is fair. I feel like not intentionally hitting him in the head is fair.

“Form tackle. I don’t think that’s fair to call roughing. And we’ve seen that happen a lot. But what are you going to do, cry about the call? … If they want to do that, they might as well go to two-hand touch. When we touch a quarterback, just be a sack then. You know what I’m saying? So just be fair on both ends of it.”

Quinn acknowledged that those are plays the officials are now calling with a renewed emphasis on player safety.

“So the hit on the quarterback — and Grady and I just had that conversation — we’ve got to get a way so they can hit and then at the last second, if we can move,” Quinn said. “It’s going to be challenging when you’re going full speed one way and hitting — ‘How do I change and get off course?’

“By no means was he trying to dumb the quarterback on that play, what the rule is intended for. I get it. Pile-driving the guy down, that was certainly not the case or his intent on that play.”

ESPN’s Vaughn McClure contributed to this report.

NFL

Tie 'nothing to be excited about': These Browns want more

CLEVELAND — So this was … what, exactly, for the Cleveland Browns? A 21-21 comeback tie against their perennial tormenters from Pittsburgh. A better result, objectively, than any they’ve had since Christmas Eve 2016. How many teams came out of Week 1 assured of a better record than they had last year? Just one, folks. Your Cleveland Browns.

And yet, they were not happy.

“This is nothing to be excited about,” said Browns receiver Josh Gordon, whose only catch of the day was a game-tying 17-yard touchdown with 1 minute, 58 seconds left in regulation. “We’re not celebrating this. We’re here to win games. It’s the equivalent of a loss, to me.”

But for a while, at least, it had the feel of something more. For one tantalizing hour, after Steelers running back James Conner fumbled with a 21-7 lead and the Browns came racing back with a pair of touchdowns to send the thing into overtime, this felt as if it could be something special. The thing for which these fans have been waiting for nearly 21 months. A win.

Every single turn that went the Browns’ way made the stadium pulse. When Pittsburgh kicker Chris Boswell missed a 42-yard field goal attempt with 1:47 left in overtime, the crowd roared to life. When their heroes went three-and-out right after, it groaned a familiar groan. When Genard Avery sacked Ben Roethlisberger to force a fumble and Joe Schobert recovered it and ran it back to the Steelers’ 14-yard-line — the sixth Steelers turnover of the game! — you’d have thought they won the Super Bowl.

Browns fans had mixed feelings after breaking their losing streak but watching the win slip away. Joe Robbins/Getty Images

This was unquestionably it, right? They had 36 seconds on the clock in field goal range, and a win doesn’t get any closer than that. Players jumped and danced on the sideline. Fans held their heads in disbelief. The elusive victory was in sight.

But it was not to be. First, a penalty pushed the start of the drive to the 24-yard line. Then a run that lost a yard, a spike to stop the clock and the field goal team on the field as northern Ohio held its breath and … T.J. Watt blocked the kick.

The air went out of the place, as you’d expect, but half-disappointment is an odd vibe in a stadium used to total disappointment. Fans cheered the players as they jogged off the field into the locker room, and it surely had been an effort worthy of praise. But still … weird.

“A tie,” quarterback Tyrod Taylor said, “is just a sour taste.”

It’s tough to know how to feel after a tie. The Steelers, who are used to beating this team twice a year with relative ease, absolutely felt as if they’d lost. They have the highest of hopes for this season, and they fully expected to be 1-0 after this game and not 0-0-1.

The Browns, who went 1-15 over the past two seasons and 0-16 last season, unquestionably have a different standard. They’re working on changing that.

“I think the guys can see that we’re an improved football team,” Browns coach Hue Jackson said. “But there are some areas that we have to clean up and clean up fast.”

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Hue Jackson discusses the Browns’ missed field goal in overtime and can’t wait to see the tape.

So how do you look at this, Cleveland? Do you take the glass-half-full approach? Your team forced a total of 13 turnovers all of last season and already has six for this season. That’s downright encouraging, right?

“Just got to put it all together,” safety Jabrill Peppers said, shaking his head and smiling.

Or do you take the glass-half-empty perspective, lament your missed opportunities, wonder why the offense looked so lousy and bemoan the depressing fact that your team and only your team could end a 17-game losing streak without winning?

“It’s not last year,” Peppers insisted. “It’s just a whole new feeling, that’s all I can say about it. We’ve got 31 new guys on this squad. A lot more veterans and guys who’ve come from places where they’ve proven themselves.

“0-16 shouldn’t make you hungry to win. You should always be hungry to win. We accept the 0-16. We take it on the chin. But that was last year, and it’s a whole new feeling around here now. We showed good things today. Just got to put it all together.”

Will they? Will it actually be different this time? The Browns came out of last year’s Week 1 loss to Pittsburgh feeling decent about themselves — that they’d played the Steelers tough and had a chance to beat them, and they haven’t won a game since. So you can forgive the Lake Erie pessimist if he or she doesn’t want to see Sunday’s rain-soaked tie as a sign of sunnier days to come.

But the Browns are working on it, they promise. And whatever you want to say about Sunday — however you choose to feel about a tie — it is, for this team, quite literally an improvement.

NFL

Saints release Bushrod as roster shuffle continues

METAIRIE, La. — The New Orleans Saints promoted running back Jonathan Williams to their active roster and released veteran offensive lineman Jermon Bushrod on Saturday as they continued a weeklong roster shuffle at both positions.

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It’s unclear if there is any chance that Bushrod could come back at some point. He was jockeying for a roster position in an offensive line group that became even more crowded earlier this week, when the Saints re-signed veterans Josh LeRibeus and Michael Ola.

Bushrod then missed practice on Thursday and Friday for an unspecified non-injury reason.

Bushrod, 34, was the starting left tackle on the Saints’ 2009 Super Bowl-winning team after they drafted him in the fourth round out of Towson in 2007. He then went on to play for the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins. He has started a total of 122 regular-season games and seven playoff games at both tackle and guard during his 11-year career.

The Saints brought Bushrod back in March to compete for a role as a “swing” backup at both positions.

Williams, meanwhile, is now back on the Saints’ roster after he was one of their most surprising cuts last Saturday. The third-year pro, who spent the week practicing with the team as a member of the practice squad, could still wind up playing a role in Sunday’s season opener at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Williams likely will split time with newly signed veteran Mike Gillislee as the backup tailbacks behind starter Alvin Kamara.

The Saints need running back depth while Pro Bowler Mark Ingram is serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances. But their pecking order at the position has been impossible to decipher this week.

For most of the preseason, it looked as if Williams and rookie Boston Scott would be the Saints’ top two backups behind Kamara. But then they cut Williams on Saturday, signed Gillislee on Sunday after he was released by the New England Patriots and cut Scott on Wednesday.

Scott also was re-signed to New Orleans’ practice squad on Thursday, but he won’t be active for Sunday’s game.

NFL

Falcons' Quinn: Execution problem in red zone

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn said Friday that “yes,” he was happy with the variety in offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian’s red zone playcalling despite the team going 1-for-5 in the red zone during Thursday night’s 18-12 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Falcons managed just nine points on those five red zone opportunities, with a 9-yard touchdown run by Tevin Coleman and a 21-yard field goal by Matt Bryant. Bryant missed the extra point on Coleman’s red zone score.

“I was pleased with the variety in terms of calling plays, especially down in the red zone,” Quinn said Friday after watching the tape. “There’s certain ones that you could do from the 5 [yard line] to the 10. When you get back, get a little bit further, you can throw over the top of somebody still. When you’re down closer, obviously you can’t throw over a defender anymore. Back line is good. Outside toward the pylon is good.

“So, we were pleased with ‘where.’ What we were not pleased with was the execution of it. That’s not to say it’s just players. That’s all of us: getting the right design, the right training. … Our execution will be better. I reminded the guys [Thursday] night is not going to define the year in the red zone. It just showed we’ve got plenty of work ahead of us to do.”

Coach Dan Quinn said the Falcons have “plenty of work ahead of us to do” after going 1-for-5 in the red zone during Thursday’s loss to the Eagles. Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Matt Ryan admitted to having a poor outing and was 1-for-8 for 3 yards in the red zone, with an interception on a ball intended for Julio Jones. He missed running back Devonta Freeman on what should have been a touchdown pass during a third-and-goal play from the Eagles’ 1-yard line on the team’s first series. The Falcons got the matchup they wanted after Ryan motioned Freeman out of the backfield, but the throw was off the mark.

The Falcons made cleaning up the red zone woes their primary emphasis this offseason and during the preseason, but both Jones and Freeman sat out all four preseason games to preserve their bodies for the regular season, which might have affected timing. Quinn previously expressed no regret about holding Jones and Freeman out of the preseason.

The first drive also featured the “heavy package” with three tight ends and a fullback at one point. Quinn said going with such personnel was the reason why Jones was not on the field for three plays from the 1-yard line. In fact, no receivers were on the field.

Ryan missed a throw to Jones in the game’s final seconds that could have led to victory. It was a fade from an inside alignment, with Jones inside Mohamed Sanu. The goal was to free one of them up versus man-to-man coverage. Jones ran behind Sanu and got the single coverage, but Ryan’s throw forced Jones too wide and out of bounds.

“Probably just us executing that play at the end, we’ve got to nail that,” Quinn said. “We had the right [play] on. If there was a double that goes to Julio, it goes to a certain player. If there’s a double that goes to Mohamed or stays where it was, it goes somewhere else. The read was correct in terms of where we wanted to go. We just didn’t execute it. That’s [why] we’ve got work to do.”

Quinn said an open Sanu was missed on the second-down play during the final drive, when Ryan tried to hit a covered Jones in the end zone, with Jones working out of the slot. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Ryan is 1-of-20 over the past two seasons, including the playoffs, when targeting Jones in the end zone. Ryan also has overthrown 12 of those 20 attempts.

The Falcons did not target Calvin Ridley, the first-round draft pick from Alabama, in the red zone versus the Eagles. They ran the ball five times in the red zone for 16 yards and the Coleman score.

Quinn reiterated how the red zone failures in the opener don’t have to define what occurs for the duration of the season. The Falcons return to action in Week 2 against the Carolina Panthers, a team they averaged 19.5 points against in two meetings last season.

Freeman, who banged a knee in Thursday’s loss, said after the game that he was fine, and nothing changed following evaluations Friday. He is good to go for Week 2.

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