Detail oriented: What a difference a year is making for Chris Boswell. After a season where he made 13 of 20 field goal attempts and missed five extra points, Chris Boswell is off to a strong start. He has connected on 11 of 11 field goals and is 12 for 12 on extra points through six games.
Special teams coordinator Danny Smith said he sees a difference in Boswell, and most of that is in the way he is detailing his work.
"He is doing well. He really is," said Smith. "His mind is right. His work habits are good. We are getting good work done. He has been very productive. He is detailing his work. You have to detail at that position, like any other position. When you lose some of those details, which might have happened in the past with an off year, we are going to come back together and put attention on the detail and it's really showing in his production."
Trust factor: You often hear of it called the 'hands team,' the unit that is sent out on the field for an onside kick. But maybe calling it the 'trust team' would be a more accurate description.
And Cam Sutton is one of those players at the top of the list when trust is a factor.
Sutton came through with two of the biggest plays in the Steelers win over the Los Angeles Chargers, one an interception but the second possibly even more important. The Chargers clawed their way back into the game, and down by seven late they opted for an onside kick. Sutton was called upon as part of the hands team, and came through when he leaped to pull it in and recovered it with just 1:29 on the clock to secure the win.
"The onside kick in our game today is simply the bounce of the ball," said Smith. "It used to be you could line up guys over there, you could shift guys, and you could try to get an advantage. There is really no advantage any more. You have five on the side, they have five on the side defending it. It's really the bounce of the ball. It's how good the kick is and what the bounce of the ball is.
"We had some injuries with guys on (the hands team). Cam Sutton is a guy I trust and it didn't shock me he came through with the play. Not always in that situation do you put the guy with the best hands out there. It's not always the best player, but it's the one you trust the most. We put Cam in that situation because I trust him so much and he delivered and nobody was surprised."
Final results the key: The Steelers special teams unit is performing well in multiple areas, including punting where Jordan Berry's 47.1 punting average is on pace to better the Steelers all-time record for highest punting average in a season, set by Bobby Joe Green in 1961 with a 47.0 average.
But Smith knows there are areas where they can improve, and being on 'pace' doesn't mean anything right now.
"We expect it to be better," said Smith. "We are better at punting. We are better at the gunner position. It should be better. That pace stuff doesn't help me right now. When we get done at the end of the year we will talk about what it was. I don't look at it. I look at it game to game, punt to punt and how we come out of that game.
"I told Jordan going into the last game his matchup was the returner. The returner had success against us last year. That is his matchup. Good punting and good gunning can take returners out of games. That's his job and he is doing a better job of it."
