Joe Haden reasserts he ‘for sure’ was onside in Steelers’ blocked FG vs. Packers

Joe Haden has seen the video of the special teams offsides call that he was flagged for Sunday. And he still is certain he was onside for the field goal snap that Minkah Fitzpatrick blocked and returned for a touchdown.

“Yes,” Haden said Monday, “for sure.”

It was a critical call that caused a 10-point swing in what ended up a 10-point loss for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And Haden has a theory why.

“Once you get off like that, I think sometimes with two people coming that clean, referees just throw (a flag),” Haden said during a video conference call with media. “Once everybody gets off so good like that, sometimes the referee throws the flag. So that’s unfortunate.”

Watch closely pic.twitter.com/fcy92POVmY

— Mark Bergin (@mdbergin) October 4, 2021

During the final minute of the first half in Green Bay on Sunday, Haden and Fitzpatrick broke free from the kicking team’s right side of the formation and Fitzpatrick blocked Mason Crosby’s 31-yard attempt and returned it 75 yards for a would-be score.

Replays were, at worst, inconclusive, though it appeared as if Haden and Fitzpatrick timed their rushes perfectly.

“The ball moved, and me and Minkah, we were timing that up, so as soon as there was a flinch of that ball, we got off it,” Haden said. “I felt like it was a pretty good get-off.”

The Steelers were called offsides here, which erased a blocked FG return for a TD to make it 17-14 Steelers and allowed Mason Crosby to re-kick and make it 17-10 Packers pic.twitter.com/hfwZvsA7Sb

— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) October 3, 2021

Offside calls are not reviewable by league replay rules — despite the fact it was a scoring play and the NFL mandates that all scoring plays get reviewed.

Haden said he would mention that to Steelers’ special teams coach Danny Smith, who in film study would have noted a vulnerability in the Packers’ protection.

The play brought back memory of a sequence of consecutive offsides flags thrown against the Steelers’ field-goal block team on the final play of a game against the Los Angeles Chargers in 2018. The Steelers blocked the first two attempts by Chargers kicker Michael Badgley, but each was disallowed, and Badgley made the third try for a “walk-off” 33-30 Los Angeles victory.

About an hour after Sunday’s game, a message posted to Haden’s verified Twitter account read, simply, “I wasn’t offsides.”

“It is what it is,” Haden said Monday. “It’s unfortunate, I wish that it wasn’t called. But you just want to keep executing, and hopefully next time (it works). You can see how it looks (offsides) if you get a such a good jump on the ball, sometimes.

“It happened to us against (the Chargers); this is the third time it’s happened since I have been here. So you’ve just got to hope that the referees get it next time.”

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