EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles looking back at some of the highlights from the 2024 season.
Chris Boswell's first field goal of 2024 set a tone.
The next five helped win the regular-season opener.
"Man, we all know what he's capable of," head coach Mike Tomlin insisted regarding Boswell, whose six field goals accounted for all of the Steelers' scoring in an 18-10 triumph over the Falcons on Sept. 8 in Atlanta.
"I don't think anybody in that locker room was surprised by what he was able to do."
The first was from 57 yards away and tied the game at 3-3 with 4:37 left in the first quarter.
Boswell would subsequently strike from 51 and 56 yards out while finishing off his six pack on the way to becoming the first kicker in Steelers' history to register three field goals of 50 yards or longer in a game.
"He wants the long ball," Tomlin insisted. "He's built for it.
"I think it's just really displayed in my confidence in him. I don't have any hesitation to send him out there. As a matter of fact I look forward to sending him out there because I know he relishes it."
Boswell connected on six fields goals in a game for the second time (Dec. 18, 2016 at Cincinnati) and tied for the second time the franchise record for field goals in a game he shared with Jeff Reed (Dec. 1, 2002 at Jacksonville) and Gary Anderson (Oct. 23, 1988 against Denver).
Boswell's sixth field goal against the Falcons, a 25-yard effort with 28 seconds left in regulation, was converted with wide receiver Scotty Miller filling in at holder for injured punter Cameron Johnston.
Boswell also punted once for Johnston, a 43-yard boot on fourth-and-31 from the Steelers' 17-yard line with 3:29 left in the fourth quarter.
"It definitely feels good," Boswell acknowledged. "But we are right back on to the next week.
"Whatever I did this week has no relevance to next week."
Maybe not, but it was definitely the beginning of a trend.
Boswell went 6-for-6 again in an 18-16 victory over the Ravens on Nov. 17 at Acrisure Stadium (including 3-for-3 on attempts of at least 50 yards).
And by the end of the regular season he had authored a campaign that included:
• Boswell scoring 158 points, the most by an NFL kicker since Greg Zuerlein of the Rams in 2017 (158).
• A franchise-record 41 field goals (three shy of San Francisco's David Akers' NFL-record 44 in 2011) on 44 attempts.
• And Boswell emerging with a career success rate of 82.7 percent on field goal attempts of 50 yards or longer, the highest since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger for players with at least 50 attempts.
Boswell was named an Associated Press First-Team Al-Pro for the first time in his 10-year career with the Steelers.
Atlanta, as it turned out, was the appetizer.
"Just having a weapon like him on the offensive side of the ball, we only have to get the ball to the 40-yard line," said Justin Fields, who quarterbacked the Steelers to victory over the Falcons. "It makes our job way easier."
