Mike Tomlin will bring officials to practice in attempt to reduce number of Steelers penalties

Frustrated by the number of penalties that extended drives and helped the Denver Broncos nearly come back from a 14-point halftime deficit Sunday, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin will have officials on hand at practice this week.

The Steelers routinely bring in officials during training camp, and Tomlin has done it during the regular season, too, when he feels the need to have some physical mistakes corrected.

“We need to ratchet up our quality of play in that area and that’s a reasonable approach in doing so,” Tomlin said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.

The Steelers were penalized 10 times for 89 yards in the 26-21 victory. Four pass interference penalties were called, including four in the second half when the Broncos rallied to within 17-14 and had the ball with a chance to go ahead in the final two minutes of the game.

Two other personal fouls — a horse collar tackle on Minkah Fitzpatrick and a roughing-the-passer call on Mike Hilton — also were called against the Steelers in the second half.

In addition, Diontae Johnson’s 81-yard punt return for a touchdown was brought back because of Cam Sutton’s illegal block in the back.

Not to be outdone, Tomlin pointed to holding calls against tight ends Vance McDonald and Eric Ebron that led to a pair of second quarter drives ending in punts.

“There’s too much scarcity in that discussion to get major penalties and throw yourself behind the chains,” Tomlin said. “We’re just not good enough to overcome those things at this juncture.”

Tomlin didn’t take issue with any of the calls, particularly the flags for pass interference thrown against Joe Haden, Devin Bush, Fitzpatrick or Terrell Edmunds.

“We are not assessing judgment based on what’s called,” he said. “We are simply acknowledging what is called and we are making whatever necessary change in our behavior to make sure that it is not called moving forward. It’s as simple as that for us.”