There was no shortage of headhunting and warmongering in this week’s Monday Night Football tilt between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals.
So much so, that one dangerous play at the end of the game was hardly even noticed until Steelers kicker Chris Boswell brought it up.
As Boswell stepped up to take kick the game-winning kick, before he could get a foot on the ball the play was whistled dead for an offside call on Cincy’s Josh Shaw. Boswell — knowing he had a free practice kick — continued through the motions.
So did Shaw.
The Bengals cornerback appeared to kick Boswell’s foot, and the kicker told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review he thought it was no accident.
“You’re not jumping offsides that bad without trying to run into the kicker,” Boswell told reporter Chris Adamski. “It’s not an accident at all. … If you look in the NFL for the last two years, multiple teams have done it just to try to … either if it’s running into, blocking the kick, doing something. But Seattle did it last year against the Bills, Ravens did it against us last year — and now Cincinnati.”
Boswell would ultimately end up nailing the 38-yard field goal to get the 23-20 win for the Steelers.
He went 3-for-3 on field goals and 2-for-2 on extra points in the game, earning AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors. So who knows, maybe the extra challenge and pain from Shaw was worth it in the end.
