The wisdom of Mike Tomlin’s decision to pass up a chip shot field at the end of the second quarter in favor of a fake field goal that landed Chris Boswell in concussion protocol aside, the more global question is – why hadn’t Tomlin and the Steelers identified another player to kick in an emergency?
How many times since Sunday afternoon have you either heard someone say Hell, I could make a 20-yard field goal? Maybe you’ve even said it yourself.
Perhaps you could, if you’d had high school or college experience. For the rest of you, with a snap and a hold and timing a 3-step run-up and then the kick itself? Even from the 10-yard line your kick would likely hit Christian Kuntz in the butt. That’s if you even got it off at all.
Don’t even think about extra points. Since the league moved the 1-point PAT back to the 15-yard line that’s the equivalent of a 32 or 33-yard field goal. That’s not happening.
But the Steelers do have a roster made up exclusively of athletes who played in both high school and college. Surely, someone could have stepped up. Yet, not even punter Pressley Harvin III had ever really done any placekicking, as demonstrated by his first kickoff (although kudos to Harvin for getting his second one to the 10-yard line).
Since we – sorry – kicked around the “even I could make a 20-yard field goal” notion on The Fan Morning Show, I asked linebacker Joe Schobert Monday if that had come up among the Steelers players on the victorious bus ride back to Pittsburgh. He didn’t say if they discussed it but did let on that he has a bit of a background.
“I messed around kicking field goals in high school but I wasn’t our starting kicker, I was just a back-up,” Schobert said, “so I would not have a lot of faith in myself in an NFL environment to make a kick.”
So forget Schobert. But he did offer a decent suggestion.
“I know Derek Watt kicked in high school,” Schobert remembered, “but I only know that because I played and grew up in a town over from him. He scored a lot of points on field goals and extra points (and touchdowns) in high school.
“I’d probably have to go with Derek if I had to choose one because I don’t know anybody else on the team who has a history of kicking besides the specialists and obviously Pressley doesn’t have a lot of experience with kicking,” he laughed.
Watt Is the Special Teams captain, after all! Plus, his senior year at Pewaukee HS, Watt converted 33 of 34 extra points – which in high school is like a 20-yard field goal. The one he missed, though, was his last attempt - in a 14-13 loss to Catholic Memorial in the state playoffs. So maybe the pain still lingers 11 years later.
Ironically, the lack of a replacement kicker may have helped win the game. Had Tomlin trusted someone to make that short field goal, Pat Freiermuth wouldn’t have had a chance to make his fabulous TD catch and they’d have led 12-10 instead of 15-10.
Of course had Boswell not been hurt that would have changed many things. It is a circular argument.
One thing is for certain (I think). Tomlin and Special Teams Coordinator Danny Smith will work with a player – or 2 – to prepare in case of another kicking emergency.