Film Room: Chris Boswell gets a game ball for special teams play on Sunday

It’s time for another special teams edition of the film room, where the Steelers were still suspect at times, and excellent at others.

Chris Boswell head a career day, hitting all 6 of his field goal attempts, with 5 of those coming from 40 yards or longer.

But it wasn’t just his franchise-tying 6 field goals that gives Chris Boswell a gameball for his play on Sunday: it was this touchdown-saving diving swipe-of-a-tackle.

We all know it was a huge play, but it was even bigger at a time when the score was 17-6 in Cincinnati’s favor: the Steelers would hold the Bengals to only a field goal, and those 3 points would be their last of the game, as the defense shutout the Bengals offense in the second half.

While it’s great Boswell made this saving stop, and the D held their own on the the ensuing series, had the Steelers got down to business on this return, and stopped it shorter, perhaps the Bengals end up with no points on the drive.

Again, field position is paramount.

Jordan Berry only had one punt the entire game, for 40 yards; so there isn’t much to say about him.

However, we do have quite a bit to mention about Sammie Coates‘ play on special teams this week. While finally seeing more playing time on offense, Coates also contributed an assisted tackle, and this huge return, answering the Bengals first score of the day.

The 44-yard return started the Steelers offense on their own 45, and set up shop for a game-tying field goal, the first of Boz’ six.

I know this edition is a bit sparse, but there’s not a whole lot to show due to a lack of punts by the Steelers, and a lack of returns by Antonio Brown as well. The biggest impact plays were Boswell’s 18 points off his leg, and while we could replay those, we won’t 🙂

Again, it’s great to know we have a solid kicker with a big leg, who can perform in high pressure situations (because the Bengals game, in Cincinnati, isn’t a friendly environment!)

Hopefully the Steelers will get Darrius Heyward-Bey and Shamarko Thomas back in their special teams rotation, which should help with some of the coverage issues they’ve had in the previous weeks (and pointed out in other film rooms). If your kicker is the one making tackles, it shows that others are not doing, or incapable of doing, their jobs in coverage.

They got lucky on Sunday, because another touchdown may have put the game out of reach – something they can ill afford when making a run for the AFC North division title.