Thankfully, the failed fake field-goal attempt by Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Chris Boswell didn’t cost the Steelers the win over the Cleveland Browns. It did give Boswell a concussion and his status for next week’s game will be up in the air all week.
But for head coach Mike Tomlin, he could speak freely about it because despite how badly it went, it did not ultimately impact the outcome of the game. This gave Tomlin the freedom to fall on his sword for it, thank his team for picking him up and moving on from it.
Was the timing of the call terrible? Absolutely. Was the execution of the play worse? For sure. But ultimately, the Browns read the fake and covered it perfectly. This put Boswell in an impossible situation. If the play works, no one questions Tomlin’s decision to do it but when the team gets back together the conversation has to be about what to do when things go wrong.
“The fake FG was my fault because we didn’t execute it and that’s on me.” pic.twitter.com/r11e3vdkwM
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) October 31, 2021
