Cam Heyward walked past the rarest of rarities in the Steelers locker room Friday morning and shouted to no one in particular as a crowd formed around kicker Chris Boswell. "We just need to block better," Heyward yelled. Boswell didn't seem the least bit worried in one of his biannual interviews with reporters ahead of an AFC wild-card playoff game Monday night...
"We just need to block better," Heyward yelled. "Don't worry about that [expletive]."
Boswell didn't seem the least bit worried in one of his biannual (give or take) interviews with reporters ahead of an AFC wild-card playoff game Monday night against the Houston Texans. Then again, that's the whole intrigue with kickers, right?
It's a psychological job as much as it is a physical one - at least when you get to the
All you can go by is the numbers. And for Boswell, the numbers this season are less than his usual stellar work.
"I'm on the bad end of some kicks right now," he said. "Eleven years into it, I'm gonna be on the bad end of some kicks, but that never wavers the confidence in myself or the snap or the hold or anything. Some go in, some don't. Obviously, you feel down about the ones that don't, but you've got to move on to the next one."
Most go in for Boswell, historically. And his point, of course, is that no one's going to make them all.
But he already has missed more kicks this season than any year since 2022. Now, one of those was blocked in
But since then, he has had two misses in domes, a tough 54-yarder in
"There's definitely some weird kicks that are happening this year," Boswell admitted, adding that he believes he's hitting the ball well. "It's just part of the game. Everybody goes through it, and you just keep going."
That said, Boswell is indeed in a slump compared to the Wizard of Boz whom fans are used to watching. And while there's plenty of nuance baked into his 84.4% on field goals, that mark ranks 22nd among
His missed extra point, which could have been the difference in winning or losing last week, was his first since 2023. Boswell had hit 91 in a row. The Ravens were credited with a block, though Boswell isn't sure, and doesn't really care.
"Obviously, it took the path that it did, and they're calling it a tip, but I have no idea," Boswell said. "You can't tell on film whether it's tipped or it's just a shanked kick, but at the end of the day, it's on me."
That's when Heyward, who's on the field-goal protection team, weighed in to take the weight off of Boswell. Teammates playfully give Boswell grief for not watching tape like them, for making himself scarce at practice beyond his duties and even for his propensity to avoid the media as reliably as
But every
"We're gonna block our [butt] off and give him the time he deserves," Heyward said. "It [stinks] that you put it all on a kicker."
That's what happened to Boswell's counterpart Sunday night, Ravens rookie
Surly as he can be sometimes, Boswell was anything but when he sought out Loop on the field after that game. They didn't have a relationship that went beyond pregame chatter from their first meeting in
"I've been in every situation in this league possible - good, bad - and when we fail, it's in the public eye for everyone to see," Boswell said. "I just wanted to run over to him and let him know a kick is a kick. Gotta move past it. This is gonna better him for the future."
Boswell certainly has been in the doldrums, from that season a few years ago in 2018 when he missed seven field goals and five extra points. So, as he told Loop, he has been there before.
But Boswell isn't entirely correct. There is one notable situation he has yet to find himself in the
They will do so against the Texans, who first signed Boswell as an undrafted free agent in 2014 out of nearby
"There's definitely excitement for a home playoff game," Boswell said. "That's very big for this city. But it's just another game, another kick for me."
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Copyright Pittsburgh Post - Gazette Jan 10, 2026