The oft-forgotten third phase of football, special teams, came up so big during the Steelers victory vs. the Falcons, that we had to do a separate film room session to highlight some of their best plays and give credit where credit is due.

Great Open Field Tackle

The Steelers brought in RB Knile Davis this offseason to not only compete with Toussaint for the #3 RB spot, but also for his special teams acumen. Here, he makes a great open field tackle on Falcons’ WR Andre Roberts for a return of only 11 yards.

So Close

The Falcons’ wing protectors (#27 Damontae Kazee and #35 Jhurell Pressley) had a tough time protecting their punter. Jordan Dangerfield and Roosevelt Nix got incredible pressure which forced a short punt of only 31 yards.

Another Nix Block

How can you not love Rosie? He made this team with his punt block back in Week 4 of the 2015 Preseason and continues to be a special teams stalwart. Yet again, Nix is able to bring pressure from the right side of the line, but this time makes contact with the ball. A rough day for Pressley.

The best part? Nix still hustles for the ball afterward and prevents the punter from making an easy recovery. It’s the end of the first half of the second preseason game, and Nix is still going all out. You can’t coach that, folks.

Inside the 5

CB Greg Ducre does an incredible job of keeping the ball in play without stepping into the end zone, and the rest of the Steelers squad downs it. Always love to see this kind of hustle from your players, especially on special teams. There are six players around that ball when LS Colin Holba downs it. Great stuff.

Unfortunately, Ducre was injured on this play and was Waived/Injured on Wednesday. On the same day, the Steelers traded C Lucas Crowley to the Redskins for CB Dashaun Phillips.

Wonder What They’re Saying?

“Yo, we heard that you think Julio is better than AB?” *cracks knuckles*

Williams to the House

Could this have come at a better time? With little momentum on the Steelers’ side, Trey Williams made the most of the opportunities he was given.

After sidestepping the first defender, he took advantage of some poor angles by the Falcons punt coverage team and used his speed to get past five Falcons players. No literally, five of them:

That’s crazy. On top of that, it looks like he misread Jacob Hagen’s block downfield, and instead of cutting right, he cuts left, but still somehow breaks two tackles to get into the end zone.

Although this won’t earn him a roster spot, it definitely opened the coaches’ eyes. Reports have come out that Williams has taken kickoff return reps in practice, so that’ll only help his stock if he can make a splash play or two in that department as well.

Malik with a Golden Opportunity

This is probably not one of the plays that come to mind when you look back at the game, but S Malik Golden’s big tackle on this kickoff put the Falcons on the 14-yard line, and one play later, Roy Philon would back the Falcons up 9 more yards with a sack. It’s all about controlling field position.

Welcome to the NFL, Rookie

A lot of times, playing special times involves getting through blocks to make tackles. Brian Allen learned first-hand how physical the NFL can be.

 

That wraps up another film session. Were there any other special teams plays that you thought were particularly special? Please let us know!