One of the critical moments of yesterday’s victory over the Cincinnati Bengals by the Pittsburgh Steelers was officially a play that never happened. With the offense facing a third and 10 from their own 41-yard line, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in actuality threw an incomplete pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster, but you won’t find it in the stat line of either player, or for the game.
That is because the play was wiped out by a defensive holding call that happened away from the play, with veteran Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick working against wide receiver Antonio Brown, who would go on to score the game’s winning points two plays later.