I know that the “Good, Bad and Ugly” is Brian’s weekly column, but those terms could almost pertain to the Steelers special teams role victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

There were plenty of all three.

Of course the “Good” was Steelers kicker Chris Boswell, who kicked an NFL postseason record six field goals, which were all 18 of Pittsburgh’s points in the 18-16 win.

There was some other good, a little bit of bad, and a little bit of ugly as well.

Let’s start with asking the specialists, Boswell, and punter Jordan Berry, to accomplish difficult tasks that were aimed at keeping the ball out of Kansas City’s dynamic returner Tyreek Hill‘s hands.

The first of those tasks came on the Steelers first kickoff of the game, where Boswell tried a “scrub” kick, aimed at keeping the ball away from Hill. That kick only traveled to the KC 20, and was returned 25 yards to the KC 45.

The concept was to pin the Chiefs past the 25 (where teams start from a touchback) and/or keep the ball away from Hill. Instead, the starting field position enabled the Chiefs to score a touchdown on their first drive, something the Steelers defense hadn’t allowed in 17 games this season.

The second task was performed by Berry, who attempted to kick a directional punt away from Hill, and out of bounds.

At first glance the punt looked sharp, but the sideline official kept walking, and walking, and walking up to where he “guesses” it went out.

The kick only sailed 35 yards, and setup KC on the Steelers 46.

They would score 3 on a Cairo Santos 48-yard field goal 7 plays later.

(This would also be Berry’s only punt on the evening.)

Aside from those plays, most of the special teams work was above the line. Hill was largely neutralized all night, with Boswell kicking the rest of his kickoffs deep, or in this instance, a successful “sky” kick which forced Hill to bring the ball out from the zero.

Vince Williams was absolutely ready to play, and even Jarvis Jones looked energized to be playing on special teams. Williams breezes past his defender and makes the easy textbook tackle before Hill could process where to go.

The KC blocker misses Williams, but Jones makes a nice play to also seal off any angle Hill has to escape.

On Pittsburgh’s side of the ball, many were excited to see what Justin Gilbert could do in the return game. Gilbert, a former first round pick of the Cleveland Browns who was acquired via a trade before the regular season, used to return kicks with his former team.

Surely he would be the spark the Steelers needed in their return game, right?

Yes and no.

Gilbert took the opening kickoff, a sky kick from Santos, and scampered 28 yards to the 30: a 5-yard improvement on a touchback.

This helped set the tone early, and we were excited to see what Gilbert might do with another chance. Rather than give Gilbert the opportunity on their next try, the Chiefs kicked away to Sammie Coates, the usual returner who sits back in the endzone with Fitzgerald Toussaint; a troubled returner who hasn’t had a good season, and by unfortunate circumstances, was ruled out of this game as part of the NFL’s concussion protocol.

Coates copied Gilbert’s return, bringing the ball out to the 30 as well.

Perhaps the Chiefs could do no right, and should just boot it where they need to; or take a shot at the “new” guy one more time, and see what happens.

They chose the later, rather than an onside kick, hoping to pin Pittsburgh deep on a sky kick which traveled to the 7. My guess is that Kansas City thought they could use their last remaining timeout, combined with the two-minute warning, to force the Steelers to punt with a little time left on the clock, and a chance to win.

Gilbert gave them initial hope with a return that actually lost 2 yards.

The Steelers started on their own 5, but made due with what was handed to them, converting a third down and getting into victory formation to run the clock out for the win.

Now the question remains: which special teams unit did we see on Sunday? One that attempted to keep the ball away from Hill, and had difficulty making the usual plays because of “gadget” variety kicks (scrub and directional punt out of bounds).

Or is this a unit which could stuff the runner behind the 25, as Williams did on the play above?

I really want it to be more of the latter, and with several experienced players lending a hand on this unit, because it is an “all hands on deck” approach to winning in the postseason, I believe that the Steelers have, at least temporarily, answered their special teams questions.