The two moments from Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills that have been discussed the most were the two times that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett was hit by a defender in ways that many believed should have drawn flags, or which were at least against some unspoken rules.
More specifically, it was how the team responded to them. Near the end of the game, it was Pickett himself standing his ground, shoving linebacker Shaq Lawson after the defender took him down at the knee on a 4th-and-forever throwaway. Earlier in the game, after safety Damar Hamlin laid a hard hit into Pickett going into a slide, it was guard James Daniels who came in and lowered the boom in his quarterback’s defense.