ATLANTA -- The kicker had to punt.
"I used to mess around with it in Latrobe," Chris Boswell would tell me, "but I don't remember what was the last time."
The kicker had to punt because the punter, Cameron Johnston, had just gone down with a serious knee injury, and the kicker had to do so from his team's 17-yard line, with a five-point lead to protect, with 3:27 left in regulation ... and with no clue what he was doing.
"Guys up front turned around asked, 'Hey, which way are you kicking?' " Boswell recalled. "And I'm, like, 'Man, just follow wherever the ball goes.' "
And there it went ...
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) September 8, 2024
... a respectable 43 yards in the air and returned for zip, thanks to a razor-sharp pursuit from Scotty Miller.
Soon thereafter, Miller, a wide receiver by trade, had to hold for a field goal since that's the punter's other job.
And there it went ...
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) September 8, 2024
... accounting for the final score of the Steelers' 18-10 season-opening outslugging of the Falcons on this Sunday afternoon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
And if it seemed strange that Miller emphatically raised both arms after a 25-yarder off the toe of a Pro Bowl-level vet who'd already placed five other kicks through the uprights -- a franchise-record three of them from 50-plus yards -- it's safe to say he had cause:
Why, I asked, such a reaction?
"I'd never really done it before."
Never?
"We'd done it for the first time on Friday and, then, of course, it pops up in the game."
Friday?
"I think it's just, before the first game, you want to make sure you've got somebody who can do it. All the coaches think about all the different emergency situations, and that was one of what Mike T. had thought about."
Mike Tomlin.
"He came up to me and asked if I could do it. And I was like, yeah, I'll figure it out."
Did that work include a semi-high snap like the one Christian Kuntz sent his way on this kick?
"Yeah, I mean ... I, I thought it was a good snap," Miller would reply with diplomacy when I asked. "But, like I said, I ain't never done it before, so I don't even know what's good and what's bad. It just came right to me, I put it down and Boz is gonna do the rest. He told me, if I just got it down, no matter what, he was gonna put it through."
Neat feeling, huh?
"Yeah, it was cool, especially being up five and going up eight knowing, it's probably the game. It was good."
“It’s team supporting team," Tomlin would say of this whole scene. "There'll be plenty of times in a 60-minute battle that all three phases get a chance to support one another and, when you really think about it, you saw really vivid examples of that today in a lot of areas. Man, that Boz punt and that coverage by Scotty and whoever that other gunner was, was significant.”
Other gunner: Ben Skowronek.
Yeah, the one and only. Elevated from the practice squad less than 24 hours before kickoff.
Everyone was significant.
____________________
I mean, that's it. That's the template.
No, not the kicker/punter/holder craziness, but almost all of the rest. Everything, I'd say, aside from the glaringly obvious lack of touchdowns to show for 270 yards of offense, seven trips across the Atlanta 40, two inside the 10, a time-of-possession advantage of 35:36 to 24:24, a better pass-run balance than I'd envisioned and, at the risk of drawing worldwide wrath, a mostly smart initial game plan from Arthur Smith.
While I grasp that ignoring a lack of touchdowns can be akin to asking Mrs. Lincoln what she thought of the play, I'm sorry, but I can't concoct any concern over whether this offense will be capable of converting figures like those into touchdowns. In particular because, as the game wore on, and as the nonstop pounding wore on the Falcons' defense, it became clear that the goal line was the only goal that remained unrealized.
Justin Fields completed 17 of 23 passes for 156 yards, highlighted by this burning-at-both-ends 40-yarder to George Pickens ...
A DIME TO GP 🎯
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) September 8, 2024
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... and ran for 57 more, in addition to not turning the ball over despite another of those center-quarterback flubs on the very first snap.
“Yeah, we definitely got off to a slow start, especially the first play, and then I missed a throw to Van Jefferson," Fields would say. "But after the first drive, I feel like we settled in a little bit, and especially as the game went along. Definitely settled in."
And what caused that start?
“I don't have a reason, but I just know that won't happen again.”
Maybe he'll start again next Sunday in Denver. Maybe he won't. My feel is that it'll be entirely up to Russell Wilson's calf, as Tomlin's preference as a starter has been plain for months, even though all he'd say about his quarterback against the Broncos when asked was, "You can come ask me that question on Tuesday."
Bottom line: Fields got the job done. He won. He demonstrated that the team truly does have two NFL quarterbacks.
All of that's good. It'll get better.
Pickens caught six of his seven targets for 85 yards, rising up to be exactly the WR1 this offense will need in the absence of a bona fide WR2. I'm not wild about Arthur Smith and company showing so little confidence in all the rest of the wide receivers that they'd combine for two catches and eight yards, but that's moot without Pickens being BMOC. Which he was.
That's good. It can get better, especially if Omar Khan keeps working the phones.
Najee Harris rushed for 70 yards, a lot of them hard yards, on 20 carries. He had to carry more than the norm since Jaylen Warren was willfully limited to two carries by a healing hamstring, he had to stay patient for holes that weren't materializing in the first half, and he even pulled out the patented hurdle once in the fourth quarter.
That's good. It'll for-sure get better.
The line, maybe the question mark of the offseason, made the backs' patience pay off by becoming stronger with each series, and Fields was sacked only twice. Rookie Zach Frazier and Spencer Anderson, who received his first start in place of the injured Isaac Seumalo, looked more than encouraging, as did recently beleaguered Broderick Jones.
"We ate up a lot of time out there," Jones would reply when I asked what he liked, though he'd instantly turn it to, "But, you know, even though we came out with the win, those aren't the results we were wanting on the offensive side of the ball. We gotta finish drives and not kill ourselves with all the penalties and stuff."
That's accurate about the Steelers, who committed nine penalties, albeit only one on the offensive line.
I spoke with almost all of the big boys, as I always do, and they're emboldened.
"They were kind of tired," Anderson would say of the Falcons. "Some things were said like, 'Man, can we get a pass play?' Us as O-linemen, we were like, 'No, let's just keep punishing them.' "
Uh-huh.
For this line at this embryonic stage, that's sigh-of-relief good. They're young, they're gifted, and they'll grow.
The tight ends were out there in full force, as expected under Smith, and their blocking came with passing grades, too. Pat Freiermuth caught all four targets for 27 yards and, though the Falcons' superlative safety tandem of Jessie Bates and Justin Simmons, limited Smith's willingness to throw over the middle, so it all went wide.
Which also was good, as Freiermuth and all of the quarterbacks have practiced such routes more than any other all summer.
For the offense overall ...
"We're fine," Freiermuth would tell me. "I thought we'd move the ball, and we were able to do that. We just got to finish the drives and punch 'em into the end zone.”
Worried about that?
"Oh, wow, no. Just wait."
____________________
So, what's this template I mentioned, if most of what's above is a bunch of conditional fare?
Well, I'll rewind back to Tomlin's "team supporting team" remark. Because it really was all three phases feeding off each other to varying degrees and, within that, especially, it was the offense buying the defense time to breathe.
Which, from what I was told, was pretty much all that had held the defense back in the first half.
"Part of it was just actually seeing all our ones get to play together, since those guys really didn't play too much in the preseason," Keeanu Benton would tell me, referring to a risk I'd referenced in the gameday column earlier in the day. "So, the first half was just kind of getting to feel what they were going to do and, in the second half, come out and execute what we've seen."
Nothing schematic, then?
"Not really. Just balled out."
Man, did they ever. Beyond, even, the standard brilliance from the best player in the world.
Try 51 yards allowed, three first downs allowed and zero points allowed. Plus two takeaways, my favorite of which was this from Donte Jackson on Kirk Cousins in the closing minutes ...
ACTION JACKSON 🎬
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) September 8, 2024
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... and not just because it was richly deserved after a solid overall debut, even if he'd playfully moan, "Really wanted to take that one to the house."
No, it was more because of the way the front and back behaved in harmony.
DeShon Elliott, who had a pick in his own debut, said of Cousins, "I think he threw it because of the rush. If you do your job and are in the place at the right time, the ball will come to you."
"That's how it's supposed to go," Minkah Fitzpatrick would tell me. "They brought the heat up front, and we're making the plays in the back."
As for the star, although T.J. Watt had to crack the code for NFL referees allowing him to be choked while held, he'd whirlwind his way to a sack, two tackles for losses, three quarterback hits and a fumble recovery. An analytical source confirms he might've also been detected doing some heavy breathing in Cousins' vicinity, to tack on some bonus Myles Garrett points.
“It was about trusting each other, playing sound defensive football," T.J.'d say of the second half. "We have a lot of new guys, like I just mentioned, and it’s all about leaning on each other and trusting that everybody is going to do their job and not try to do too much.”
Except him. He's always too much.
I asked T.J. if this game, the way it played out, even if far from perfect, provides the template for how these Steelers will have to compete, to contend, and he'd reply without hesitation, "Oh, absolutely. Offense moves the ball, defense stays fresh and does damage when we're out there, special teams do their thing ... this is it."
Mix in touchdowns as needed.
• For anyone complaining about any of this, consider the coincidental plight of the combined citizenries of Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati, and count the blessings instead.
• Best wishes to Johnston on a full recovery. Wouldn't wish a knee bending back the wrong way on anyone, but least of all a good dude like this.
• Chris Halicke's here, too, and his Chalk Talk digs deep into T.J. and the defense.
• Chris also shines his Spotlight on Boswell.
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