Why was Isaiah Land flagged for roughing the passer, but Minkah Fitzpatrick wasn't?

The Indianapolis Colts pulled off an epic upset over the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday, emerging victorious with a 27-24 win. The Colts played well, but the game has already been controversial, for numerous reasons. As per usual for Steelers fans, their loss is being blamed on the referees being biased in favor of the Colts. (In reality, the Steelers only had two more penalties than the Colts did.)

However, there were some questionable calls involving the quarterbacks for both teams. Anthony Richardson and Justin Fields both took hard hits, with Richardson having to exit the game injured afterwards. Yet only the hit on Fields got flagged for roughing the passer.

Why the double standard?

Isaiah Land sacks Justin Fields

Isaiah Land thought he made a major play, and rightly so. The Steelers had the ball at 3rd and 9 on their opening drive. Land got past Steelers right tackle Broderick Jones, and sacked Justin Fields. The Colts were understandably celebrating, only for referee Land Clark to nail him with a roughing the passer penalty, giving the Steelers the first down.

Almost immediately, that call was blasted on social media by fans and analysts alike. As many pointed out, there were other players surrounding Fields and Land, giving Land nowhere to go. It's a point that analyst Gene Steratore and Land himself made.

“The pocket was so tight that when I tackled him, there was nowhere for me to go,” Land told the IndyStar. “I tried to put my hands out, I was trying to roll, but it was so tight in there that there was nowhere for me to go.”

He continued, “The most I could’ve done was put my hands out. I put my hands out last second, but I don’t know what else I could’ve (done), honestly.”

Minkah Fitzpatrick's hit on Anthony Richardson

While Land got flagged for accidentally landing on top of Fields, Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick not only tackled Richardson, it was a helmet-to-helmet hit, too. Yet the referees shrugged that off as mere "incidental contact."

In a pool report interview with IndyStar reporter Joel Erickson, Clark had no justifiable explanation as to why the sack against Fields was flagged, but the helmet-to-helmt hit on Richardson wasn't.

"We ruled the contact was incidental. It was not enough force to warrant a flag," Clark said, and then reiterated, "The contact was incidental and it wasn't enough force."

For his part, Richardson was unfazed. “No, I don’t really care about it,” he said. “I was trying to make sure I got down for the team because like I said, I couldn’t really accelerate how I wanted to. So, I just tried to gain a little bit of yards and get down to the ground. But I don’t know if they should have thrown the flag or not. I didn’t even really care about the hit, honestly.”

But that doesn't change the double standard the referees clearly had.