'Our kicker from start to finish': Steelers' Mike Tomlin backs the struggling Chris Boswell
Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Chris Boswell has passed his goal-post tests just enough times this season to earn the trust of his head coach, Mike Tomlin.
Tomlin and teammates have voiced support of their Pro Bowl kicker, despite him making 61.1 percent of his field goals this year, and fans are left to peer through fingers for even the easiest of kicks while Pittsburgh fights to keep a playoff berth.
Tomlin backs his kicker
Boswell missed a 32-yard field goal late in the third quarter that would have given the Steelers a 10-point cushion against the New England Patriots. It was his seventh miss of the year.
He came back and nailed a 48-yarder with 2:30 left in the game that put the Steelers up seven, 17-10. The defense stood tall to win.
“He’s our kicker from start to finish and I liked the way he came back and banged that next opportunity, and that is what this thing [football] is about,” Tomlin said, per ESPN. “You are going to be tested, we are going to be tested, sometimes you are going to fail but you better pass enough of them.”
Boswell’s struggles continue
Boswell, one of the Steelers’ “Killer B’s” from a year ago, has come upon hard times after signing a five-year, $20 million extension in August. The struggles have been extra disappointing after his Pro Bowl 2017 season in which he was 35 of 38 on field goals — including 4 of 4 on those longer than 50 yards — and 37 of 39 on extra points.
He may have passed enough in 2018 to earn Tomlin’s backing, but it wouldn’t be enough to pass a high school class. Boswell is 11 of 18 (61.1 percent) on field goals, putting Pittsburgh in danger of being the first NFL team since 2000 with a kicking rate below 60 percent.
In one of his worst outings of the year he missed a 40-yard game-winner against the Oakland Raiders last week when he slipped. He missed a 39-yard field goal wide right earlier in the second quarter of a 10-7 game.
Boswell is 41 of 46 on extra points. Only Caleb Sturgis has more than five misses on PATs; he was released by the Los Angeles Chargers after six games that consisted of 15 attempts. Of 32 kickers with at least 15 attempts, only five have missed more than two times.
(Boswell is finding other ways to help, going 1 of 1 on pass attempts.)
What’s next for Boswell
The Steelers brought in free agents after the Raiders game to practice and put pressure on Boswell. Tomlin reportedly told Boswell after the first miss against New England to keep his head up, because the coach was going to come back to him.
“I made that decision when I walked into the stadium with him that he was our kicker and I wasn’t going to play that second-guessing game today,” Tomlin said. “We evaluated that process in a very thorough manner. Prior to going into the stadium we had a great deal of comfort with the route that we chose to take.”
The Steelers (8-5-1) got a huge boost with that win over the Patriots, but it still won’t be smooth sailing as they try to hold on to the AFC North and clinch at least a four seed. They’ll face the high-rolling New Orleans Saints on the road, where they’ll need all the points they can get, before closing the season home at Heinz Field with heated rival Cincinnati Bengals.
Boswell made both of his extra points and both of his field goal attempts in the Oct. 14 matchup against Cincy. He’s 6 of 8 at home this year and 6 of 7 against teams in his own division.
The 27-year-old deleted his Twitter account and deactivated comments on his Instagram account after the victory. The Steelers are banking on him passing enough, or better yet finding that 2017 mindspace again, that they can get through.
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