Alive and kicking; Boswell is delivering
PITTSBURGH » Danny Smith wasn’t just looking for somebody who can kick. A lot of guys can kick. The Pittsburgh Steelers special teams coordinator was searching for something more on that raw fall day at Heinz Field two years ago.
Over the course of an hour or so, Kai Forbath, Randy Bullock and Chris Boswell went through the paces, doing what they could in cold and wet conditions in a notoriously difficult stadium that makes their job tricky at best and nightmarish at worst. When it came time for Smith to make his recommendation to head coach Mike Tomlin, the deciding factor wasn’t necessarily performance but potential.
Smith opted for Boswell, who’d bounced around four different clubs but always seemed to finish runnerup. Not this time.
“I wanted to take a guy that wasn’t scarred,” Smith said. “The other two had been, not in a negative sense ... but I just thought it was time to go with a guy who wasn’t scarred, develop him, teach him, mold him, and it worked.”
The tall, quiet athletic Texan who won Smith over was on the verge of looking for another line of work in 2015 when the Steelers called looking to settle an unsettled position shaken by an season-ending injury to Shaun Suisham followed by a month’s worth of meh from Josh Scobee.
Two years later, Boswell is one of the reasons Pittsburgh (11-2) is tied for the NFL’s best record going into Sunday’s showdown with New England (10-3). The Steelers have ripped off eight straight victories over the last two months, four of them coming courtesy of game-winning kicks by Boswell in the final minute of regulation, three of them on the final snap.
While Boswell insists he’s just doing his job, there’s more to it than that. He’s made 90 percent (45 of 50) of his field goals at Heinz Field, including all 21 he’s attempted this season. The most notable among them a bending 53-yarder against Green Bay two weeks ago that provided the final margin in a 31-28 victory. Boswell didn’t offer any sort of range to Tomlin before Pittsburgh’s final drive, and Tomlin didn’t ask. Boswell didn’t focus on the distance but making sure he could get the proper footing, never a guarantee on turf turned into a choppy maw from three hours of trampling.
The kick was good all the way, tucking inside the left upright as time expired. One celebratory headbutt with punter/holder Jordan Berry, and Boswell found himself mobbed at midfield.
“If you watch it on the film, it curves almost half the width of the whole goal, which is quite a lot,” Berry said. “It’s probably one of the best kicks I’ve ever seen anybody make.”
Not that Boswell wants to talk about it much. On an team that features Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, Boswell figures the best he can do is not mess it up for everyone else.
“He’s always prepared,” Smith said. “Nothing surprises him. Nothing ever surprises him.”
Certainly not the pressure, maybe because Boswell does a pretty good job of occupying himself until the moment arrives. He admits he will intentionally get himself playfully worked up over something that has nothing to do with the stakes.