Steelers' Confusing First Half Blunder In Week 1 Gets Explained

The Pittsburgh Steelers began the season with a win against the Atlanta Falcons. There were definitely a lot of growing pains, especially on offense, but that is to be expected with a brand-new coaching staff. Outside of a couple of rough plays, the defense did its job for the most part. The front four were the stars of the game overall as that unit was all over the field, batted passes, and even had a pick-six. They tormented Cooper Rush all game long, and that's why Pittsburgh was able to open the year with a victory. 

Disaster nearly struck right before halftime that could have ruined everything. The Steelers were lining up for a 62-yard field goal, but there was a clear miscommunication on the snap. Nobody was set, but long snapper Christian Kuntz sent the pigskin back anyways. Chris Boswell was clearly not ready to kick, and holder Cameron Johnston just had to throw the ball away and take the turnover on down.

Luckily, the Steelers didn't give up any points on the ensuing drive, but it's still a wild occurrence that should not have happened. In his postgame press conference, Head Coach Mike McCarthy explained what happened to cause that issue in the first place.

"Speaking of special teams, we had a communication breakdown there on resetting the clock, and then getting it in under six seconds," McCarthy said. "We were getting into a rhythm with our operation. We were under six, and then they reset the clock, and then there was some verbal communication. I'm glad we're in a position where we win the game and we can learn from these experiences."

McCarthy was talking about a miscommunication that stemmed from the play clock getting reset. That can definitely be hard on the long snapper. Once Kuntz gets set and has his hand on the ball, he's looking through his legs while waiting for the holder to call for the ball, so he doesn't see what's going on at all. That rhythm was just not there at all. 

It's unclear whether Johnston called for the ball at the wrong time or if Kuntz mistook a movement of his for calling the ball, but either way, this is a situation that can never happen again. From the game film, it looks like the holder was not ready, as he looked back to the line of scrimmage after catching the snap, as opposed to putting it down for Boswell, but that may not have been the case. 

Luckily for them, the Falcons ended up going three-and-out after that and punting the ball away before the Steelers eventually ran the clock out for halftime. Because of that happening, as well as Pittsburgh winning, this is something can be laughed about now, but they still need to fix the communication. With all three of the players being veterans, expectations are that this will not be an issue ever again.

Steelers Had A Rough Start On Special Teams

Along with that play, there was a kickoff in the first half where both Kaden Wetjen and Eli Heidenreich moved to catch the ball. Luckily, they were able to communicate at the right time with Heidenreich fielding the kick, but both of them calling for it still resulted in one less blocker for the return. Boswell later missed a field goal, and the punt unit allowed 11 yards per return.

Even before the regular season began, there have been a lot of criticisms directed towards new special teams coordinator Danny Crossman. It has been a very shaky start for his unit despite the win, and that can't happen. Hopefully, these are just growing pains as well, but this will be an area to watch throughout the season to see if they can get on track or not.

What do you think about the Steelers' field goal blunder before halftime? Let us know on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.

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