The Pittsburgh Steelers were 18-10 winners over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday and they have two units of their team to thank for it.
Their defense, which forced three takeaways and ruined Kick Cousins’ Atlanta debut, was one of them.
The other was kicker Chris Boswell who had one of the absolute best days a kicker could have in the NFL.
Boswell not only kicked six field goals to account for every Steelers point, he was a perfect 6-for-6 on the day in making all of his attempts. Along with that, three of those field goals were beyond 50 yards (57, 51 and 56 yards).
That would have been enough to make him the player of the game, but he might have made an even more important play than those big kicks.
That might have been a punt that he had to make late in the fourth quarter with the Steelers clinging to a five-point lead.
With just under four minutes to play in regulation, the Steelers were forced to punt after being stopped on a third-and-long. The initial punt was delivered by Cameron Johnston on a play that resulted in him being run into and causing a significant leg injury. The Steelers were the ones penalized on the play for holding as the officials determined that was what caused Johnston to be hit.
The Falcons accepted the holding penalty and forced the Steelers to re-kick, knowing they did not have a punter.
That was where Boswell came in as an emergency punter and delivered a 43-yard punt to drive the Falcons back to their own 40-yard line. On the second play of the ensuing Falcons drive Kirk Cousins was intercepted by Donte Jackson, his second turnover of the game.
Boswell has been one of the NFL’s best kickers from the time he arrived in Pittsburgh and one of the most accurate kickers ever from beyond 50 yards. He showed all of that on Sunday, while also adding in a new role.
