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George Pickens Hurts Steelers Offense Again With Costly Gun Celebration

The wide receiver continues to find ways to both help and hurt his team on the same play.

Stephen Douglas

George Pickens celebrates a first down, immediately loses 15 yards.
George Pickens celebrates a first down, immediately loses 15 yards. / @Rate_the_Refs
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The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals engaged in an unusually high-scoring December AFC North contest in Week 13. The Steelers took a 27-21 lead into halftime and were looking to add more early in the third quarter when Russell Wilson hit George Pickens on a deep pass that should have given the Steelers first-and-10 at the 13-yard line.

Instead, Pickens celebrated by pointing a finger gun at the crowd, which earned him his second unsportsmanlike penalty of the game. Pickens disagreed with the call, but still appeared to get a stern talking-to from one of his teammates as officials announced the call.

After the 15-yard penalty the Steelers were backed up to the 28. Four plays later they lined up for a field goal, which was blocked by Cincinnati.

Pickens continues to have an outsized impact on the Steelers offense, in both good and bad ways. He's incredibly talented and the team's leading receiver. He also finds himself involved in non-football actions nearly every week.

Earlier in the game he gained 21 yards to get a Steelers first down and immediately negated most of those yards with another unsportsmanlike penalty.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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