PITTSBURGH — Like a lot of coaches, Mike Tomlin tries to account for every situation he might face during a game. But an injury to the kicker is something that usually falls outside the realm of weekly preparation.
While Tomlin said the Steelers have an emergency kicker — he would not say who it is — preparing for what happened to kicker Chris Boswell in Cleveland is not something they spend an inordinate amount of time on in practice, if they do at all.
Rarely, if ever, do you see a punter practicing placekicks or a kicker practicing punting, at least seriously.
That's why, after Boswell was injured late in the second quarter, Tomlin told the team at halftime they were not going to attempt a field goal or extra point under any circumstance the rest of the game.
"Just because you have somebody identified doesn't mean that you're comfortable or doesn't mean that they're varsity," Tomlin said. "So, although there's somebody that occupies the (emergency) position, you still have decisions to make on whether or not that's the most prudent thing to do."
In other words, punter Pressley Harvin was not an option, though he did have to handle kickoffs (and not very well). And nobody should be surprised.
"I will say this," former Steelers kicker Jeff Reed was saying over the phone the other day. "It's surprising how many punters can't kick. But every kicker can punt."
Indeed, losing a kicker is a lot more problematic than losing a punter, for several reasons. One, a punter is relying on just himself, not a holder, too. Also, his motion is more linear, more straight up and through the ball. He doesn't have to worry about coming at the ball from the side or making sure his plant foot is exact.
"It's not to say punting is easy, that's absolutely not the case," Reed said. "But almost anyone can grab a football and swing their dominant leg and the ball will go somewhere. It doesn't mean it will be a 50-yard spiral."
Finding an emergency punter is easier than finding an emergency kicker. After all, even Ben Roethlisberger has pooch-punted six times and averaged 31.3 yards in his 18-year career.
But that doesn't mean it's easy for a kicker to be a punter, either.
Unlike on field goal and extra-point attempts, the rush to get to a punter is a 12- to 15-yard sprint that makes their job more dangerous. Kickers don't have to worry about their health as much — unless, of course, they do what Boswell did in Cleveland.
"A punter trying to kick is 100 percent harder," Reed said. "You're using all different muscles and it's totally different. I coached (former punter) Dan Sepulveda on how to kick field goals because he was so athletic. He actually would have been OK if he had to kick a field goal. Chris Gardocki started as a kicker at Clemson, but he ended up punting.
"But, other guys we had, Mitch Berger, Paul Ernster, if you told them to kick, they would just laugh at you."
Former Browns and 49ers kicker Phil Dawson, who played 20 seasons in the league, once said he occasionally worked on punting in practice, but "the more I do it, the worse I got." He said if punter Andy Lee tried to do what he did, it "would be worse."
The NFL has become so specialized there isn't even anybody like Craig Hentrich anymore. He was a punter for 16 seasons in the NFL but also handled the placekicking duties when he was at Notre Dame. In 2003, when Tennessee Titans kicker Joe Nedney sustained a season-ending injury in the opener, Hentrich came in and hit all three field goals of 49, 34 and 33 yards — his first field goals in eight years.
The last known players to handle both roles? Tommy Davis of the 49ers (1959-1969) and Don Chandler of the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers (1956-1967). That, though, would really create a problem if they were injured in a game.
