Steelers Throwback Thursday: Chris Boswell’s career-long field goal is the game winner

by Joe Kuzma (joe_kuzma) on November 7, 2019

Steel City Underground presents “Steelers Throwback Thursday” featuring plays from recent seasons which you may have forgotten about! Now we’re “bringing them back!”

Once upon a time we used to have an internal debate here at SCU as to whether or not Chris Boswell should’ve been considered a “Killler B”.

Unfortunately, that moniker fizzled as each of the “Killer B’s” contributed to killing the Steelers in 2018:

Ben Roethlisberger led the league in interceptions
Le’Veon Bell didn’t show up to play all season
Antonio Brown flew the coop, then demanded a trade

Chris Boswell wasn’t the Pro Bowl kicker he previously was in 2017 either, leading to missed field goals which cost the Steelers close games, and eventually, a playoff appearance.

Many were calling for Chris’ head back in 2018 and even heading into 2019, but it appears that the Steelers kicker is back to being a consistent, solid scoring option from just about any distance.

How soon we forget this play, which was almost superseded by Boz’ 54-yard attempt against the Miami Dolphins, which fell short of the mark. However, Boswell isn’t inept from kicking from 50-plus and displayed that once again in an untimed down against the Colts on Sunday, as he booted a 51-yard attempt to the uprights to send the Steelers to within three points at half.

But it was this play that may have cemented his status as one of the league’s best, at least prior to his drop in performance in 2018.

The score was knotted at 28-all in a Sunday Night Football encounter with the Green Bay Packers. With nine seconds on the game clock from Pittsburgh’s own 33-yard line, the Steelers attempted to gain more ground in order to make a potential tie-breaking Boswell kick easier.

However, they ended up losing two yards instead.

The air came out of the stadium, as Boswell previously missed his first extra point attempt of the evening: which was a much closer kick!

Moving the field goal try back two more yards, to a 53-yard attempt, could be problematic as Boswell’s previous long was, coincidentally, a 51-yard attempt: and the longest field goal ever made at Heinz Field was the same 53-yard distance Boswell was about to attempt!