Steelers Need to Figure Out Kicking Problems

When you play on Thursday night, you're the only game going on, so you're in front of a national audience.  So everybody saw how terrible now ex-Steelers kicker Josh Scobee was.  In fact he was so bad, he probably cost the Pittsburgh Steelers the game.  He missed two field goals late in the game that each would've made the Ravens score a touchdown and putting the game on ice rather than a field goal.

It wasn't only Scobee's fault though.  Todd Haley called a terrible game, Mike Vick was erratic, and the normally sure handed Antonio Brown dropped a touchdown pass.

But, kicking has been a huge problem for the Steelers since the preseason.  During the Hall of Fame Game, nearly automatic Shaun Suisham tore his ACL trying to make a tackle.  Then, the Steelers signed former New Orleans Saints kicker Garrett Hartley, who hurt his hamstring in a preseason game.  Then, they traded a sixth round draft pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for kicker Josh Scobee.

Now after only making six of ten field goals and missing an extra point, the Steelers cut their losses and let Scobee go, after signing Chris Boswell to be his replacement on a two year contract.

Boswell went to college at Rice, and had a great preseason with the Houston Texans, although the Texans held on to incumbent Randy Bullock, who later got released.

The fact is that whoever it is, the Steelers need an answer at kicker.  The Steelers coming into the season were hyped to be Super Bowl contenders, and they still can be.  Their defense has been much better than expected, and Ben Roethlisberger is on schedule to be back for the Chiefs game on the 25th, after getting a four to six week timeframe for recovery.

But if they can't make field goals, those points will all be mute.  If Scobee wasn't bad the first four games, they could be 4-0.  But instead, they are now a very average 2-2 and are without Roethlisberger for a few more weeks.  The last month has shown just how valuable a good kicker like Shaun Suisham is.

Another thing worth noting is that Boswell got signed to a two year deal.  Does that mean if Boswell has a great season, that Boswell takes over Suisham's job?  Of course, they can't think about that right now, but I think that's interesting considering now they have about six million dollars invested in kickers this year alone, and it'll be interesting to see how Boswell works out for the Steelers.