Home Player Spotlight DeCastro’s Roughness Penalty Could Prove Beneficial to Steelers

DeCastro’s Roughness Penalty Could Prove Beneficial to Steelers

by Steeldad

If there is one thing that has haunted the Pittsburgh Steelers recently it’s been penalties. While every team has them, the Steelers often find ways to get the dumbest penalties possible . On Sunday night, Steelers’ guard David DeCastro chalked up yet another ‘dumb’ penalty which was a personal foul costing the team 15 yards.

Or was it such a dumb penalty after all?

With under a minute left in the first half of Sunday night’s game in Carolina, the Steelers led just 6-3 and hadn’t done a whole lot offensively but they were moving. Ben Roethlisberger found Justin Brown for four yards at the Panthers’ 24 yard-line. As he was trying to get up, Brown was “hindered” by Luke Kuechly who took his time getting up.

After a quick shove from Brown and a retort from Kuechly, in flying came DeCastro who gave Kuechly a solid shove. Now to be honest, this wasn’t a blow that was going to leave Kuechly in the ICU of the hospital but he sure sold it like it was.

DeCastro was hit with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty that moved the Steelers back. The following play resulted in a short pass to Bell and then a 45-yard field goal by Shaun Suisham to give the Steelers a 9-3 lead at the half. The Steelers would go on to outscore the Panthers 28-16 in the second half for the win.

The fact that DeCastro has a little edginess to him is a welcome sight in my opinion. Offensive linemen who have that ‘ounce of nasty’ to them are usually loved by their teammates and I’m starting to see this with DeCastro.

For all I know, his penalty meant absolutely nothing but then again I feel like it had an impact. We’ll see where this team and this offense is in the coming weeks but either way, I liked the ‘protective nature’ of DeCastro in that instance. It isn’t something he should do often but like a manager who gets ejected in order to fire his team up, DeCastro did the same thing on Sunday.

Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on Trib-Live Radio Steelers Pre-Game

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4 comments

steelbydesign September 23, 2014 - 3:52 pm

Haha, I’ve been fine with DD’s development, and lost my mind initially when watching the game. I was shocked because it was out of character.

After seeing the replay though I changed my mind. DD was running in to get the LB off his receiver to hurry up, and Kuechley completely flopped.

On another note, is it just me or is Kuechley kind of a douche? I was a fan b/c he went to high school about 20 minutes from me, but the flop was bad, he did lots of talking… Particularly on Wheaton’s TD (yes, it was a TD) he ran about 15 yards across the field to get in Wheaton’s face which was really weird.

steeldad September 23, 2014 - 4:14 pm

It’s only the second or third time I’ve really watched him and I would agree. He’s a bit of an actor if that makes sense. Nice player, but I didn’t see anything that made me really stand up and say “wow!”

Dr. Michael William Sunner September 24, 2014 - 9:03 pm

This is bringing the right “attitude” for the Steelers, who haven’t played with much passion over the last 2 years. Toughness hasn’t been displayed much in the last 2 years, and this aggressive toughness display from DD is welcome and perhaps spreads to the defensive side of the ball, which would be more than welcome. Where is Jack Lambert when we need his kick butt mentality.

steeldad September 26, 2014 - 1:29 am

Glad to have you aboard Doc. I believe you are our first real doctor at SCB… Obviously I agree with you. DeCastro’s edginess is exactly what this team needs!

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