Even though he was calling a game on NFL Network, Rich Eisen was not shy about throwing some shade at the league on Saturday afternoon.
As the Steelers took on the Colts in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh running back Najee Harris appeared to fumble the ball with about 13 minutes left in the third quarter, though the play was originally ruled dead before the ball came out.
Indianapolis challenged the call as NFL Network showed replays of the potential turnover in question and Eisen — who was doing the play-by-play for the game — described what he saw as a fumble.
But as things were unfolding on the replays and the Colts’ decided challenge, the league-run network was cutting to commercial.
And Eisen did not seem too thrilled about what was happening.
“Well, the league wants us to go break instead of showing you what’s going on. So, we’ll talk about it when we come back instead,” he said.
Well, the play was eventually reversed, as Eisen suspected, and the Colts took the ball over, scoring one play later on an 18-yard touchdown pass from Gardner Minshew and putting Indianapolis for good in what turned into a 30-13 win.
The Steelers took an early 13-0 lead in the first half but squandered things in the second.
And as the team started to spiral, Eisen had a new target to throw shade at.
On a fourth down late in the third quarter, the Steelers looked like they’d be sending out kicker Chris Boswell for a long field goal attempt, but instead, decided to punt.
That decision did not sit well with the play-by-play man.
“Kurt [Warner], I mean, just gotta bring this up. You don’t want Boswell to kick one from 50-something yards. Instead, you’re going to punt? Down 11 with 18 minutes and change to go. Boswell looked like he was ready to get out there, instead, you’re gonna give it back. … So we’ll see how that strategy plays out.”
Things did not turn out well for the Steelers, who were shut out the rest of the way and took out starting quarterback Mitch Trubisky late in the fourth quarter for backup Mason Rudolph.
Pittsburgh fell to 7-7 with the loss and dropped deeper out of the playoff picture while Indy moved to 8-6 and in the final postseason spot in the AFC.
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