Where the Patriots go, cheating rumors follow these days. Most of the focus in this regard centered on the malfunctioning headsets the Steelers used to communicate with each other and the coaches on Thursday night, but some D-line trickiness also had Pittsburgh flustered.
On a key third-and-goal from the one-yard line, New England's defensive line shifted in the middle of Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger's cadence.
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"In my years of playing, a defensive guy can't bark stuff or move in the middle of a cadence. The ref said, 'We didn't go in the neutral zone,' and I agree with him. I wasn't arguing that part," Roethlisberger said after the Steelers' 28-21 loss.
"I was arguing the fact that he shifted in the middle of a cadence, and I thought that there was a rule against it. Maybe there's not - maybe it's an unwritten rule - I don't really know. So, that's what I was more upset about. They do that. We saw it on film that the Patriots do that. They shift and slide and do stuff on the goal line, knowing that it's an itchy trigger-finger-type down."
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The Steelers eventually kicked a field goal on that possession. It turns out the Patriots are within their rights to shift like that, and as Roethlisberger mentioned, the Steelers were aware of their tendency to do it. Pittsburgh offensive lineman Ramon Foster put the blame on himself and his linemates for the mistake.
"I think it's more heightened because it's (the Patriots) and it looks like - whatever the case may be," Foster said. "They're a team that likes to take advantage of those type of situations, and we can't give that to them."
Where New England has a harder time defending themselves is in the case of the Steelers' headsets inexplicably playing a radio broadcast of the game. The Steelers' issues were described as "intermittent," and therefore New England didn't have to stop using their headsets, via Deadspin.
The Steelers' website described the problem in a statement:
"The broadcast was so loud that the Steelers coaches were unable to communicate, and the NFL rule is that if one team's headsets are not working the other team is supposed to be forced to take their headsets off. It's what the NFL calls the Equity Rule. Strangely enough, whenever an NFL representative proceeded to the New England sideline to shut down their headsets, the Steelers headsets cleared. Then as the representative walked away from the New England sideline, the Steelers' headsets again started to receive the Patriots game broadcast."
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