When I started doing film room reviews I had no idea that special teams would have so many plays to review in the coming weeks. Typically, kicks, punts, and the like are bathroom breaks. Get off the couch, or disrupt the entire row at the stadium, so you can be back to watch the “real” plays in the coming minutes.

However, the third phase of football has been both good and bad to the Steelers recently. In Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys, that was also true.

We saw Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey make a Heinz Field record 53-yard field goal in the second quarter, and witness Steleers kicker Chris Boswell attempt to break that with a 55-yard attempt at the end of the half (which he missed just wide).

However, there were a few plays that need examined, starting with Boswell’s second kickoff of the evening following Pittsburgh’s first touchdown.

This one is self explanatory, though I don’t understand what they were trying to do. I believe Boswell wanted to attempt the “sky” or “mortar” kick, which is a newer strategy among NFL special teams units. The kick is designed to land short of the goal line, forcing the returning to bring it out.

The concept of the play is that the special teams unit can force the opponent deeper than the 25 yard starting position they would receive for a touchback.

The ball travels short as planned, but bounces out of bounds, instead giving the Cowboys a great starting field position on their own 40, following the 15-yard penalty.

The next misstep is on a booming 56-yard punt by Jordan Berry.

One of the problems Berry has had in the past is out-kicking his coverage team, but this was not the case here. Anthony Chickillo overruns the play, and kind of hesitates. By that time, Dallas punt returner Lucky Whitehead is well past most of the Steelers, including the two gunners: Al-Hajj Shabazz and Sammie Coates.

Typically, those two roles are filled by Darrius Heyward-Bey and Shamarko Thomas. DHB was ruled out of this game with an injury, and Thomas left the game, re-aggravating the injury that kept him out in previous weeks.

Luckily it was another player who had recently returned from injury that stopped this play: Roosevelt Nix. Whitehead may have taken the punt back all the way for a touchdown, but instead, Nix cuts off his angle and makes the saving tackle.

Regardless, Whitehead had a 39-yard return, which in turn setup Dallas on the Pittsburgh 49, and the 50 yard Dak Prescott touchdown pass to Dez Bryant minutes later.

Fortunes would be flipped on this Antonio Brown punt return, however:

Some were criticizing Brown for stepping out of bounds here, but the overview shows this is likely the correct decision. Using Brown as a punt returner has it’s risks, and one of those is injury. Rather than force an injury-risking move into defenders, which may have yielded only a few more yards, AB steps out.

I’m okay with that, as that has been the knock on allowing AB to return punts at all. However, this 22-yard return is the reason you want him back there, and had things gone one way or the other, he may have broken this play open for a score as well.

As it stands, this setup a short Pittsburgh drive which ended in a 1-yard Le’Veon Bell touchdown run.

Injuries have plagued the Steelers all year, and this was no different in this game. Steven Johnson had been a key contributor to the special teams unit in the last few weeks, and left this game with an injury; as well as being placed on Injured Reserve, ending his season. Along with missing DHB and Thomas, special teams had to overcome losses as well in this game.

I believe they managed okay, but the contributions of those players cannot be underestimated. Going forward the Steelers will have to tighten up their special teams game to perfection, or risk giving teams excellent field position which puts an already suspect defense into a more precarious situation.