Pittsburgh Yinzer and Steelers long snapper Christian Kuntz probably didn’t feel too good rolling out of bed Monday morning. Or Tuesday, for that matter. But he gutted out some tough reps to help Pittsburgh beat the Green Bay Packers this weekend.
Injuring his ankle on the field goal unit, Kuntz hobbled around the rest of the game. Here’s the shot of him getting injured against the Packers early in the fourth quarter. Like you’ve seen so many times, Kuntz’s leg gets bent from the opposite side falling into him.
Ouch, to say the least. He got his ankle taped and didn’t bow out. Which is good because the backup plan for a long snapper is always shaky, as the Steelers once found out with James Harrison, costing them a game against the New York Giants.
If there was any way Kuntz could stay in the game, he had to. Not only do you never want to test out your backup long snapper, the Steelers’ backup snapper was likely LB Cole Holcomb, who snapped a bit in training camp and was an emergency option in Washington. Of course, Holcomb was no longer the Steelers’ Plan B, having been lost for the season due to a knee injury the week before.
Meaning, if Kuntz couldn’t do it, Pittsburgh would’ve been on its third-stringer. And who would that have been? Probably T.J. Watt, who also toyed around with it in the summer (after brother Derek was the team’s backup snapper while a Steeler).
Thankfully, Pittsburgh never had to find out if Watt could be an elite snapper to go with his Hall-of-Fame rush resume. Kuntz took the field two more times to finish out the game. The first was a field goal where the snapper is afforded more protection and the Packers rushed hard from the overload side instead of up the middle. Largely, that play went off without a hitch, and Kuntz’s snap was money to holder Pressley Harvin III as Chris Boswell’s kick was true.
His last snap? That one hurt a lot more. Kuntz’s snap wasn’t the problem. It was solid. But the Packers, knowing Kuntz was hurt, rushed him hard. They used No. 90, rookie defensive linemen Lukas Van Ness, to bull Kuntz backwards. Somehow, Kuntz stayed on his feet long enough to, as coaches say “die slowly.” Get run over as slowly as possible. It wasn’t pretty but pretty doesn’t matter – just let Harvin get the punt off.
You can see Kuntz grab his ankle after going to the ground, though he even managed to get back up and watch the rest of the play unfold. Harvin’s punt bounced and wasn’t returned, giving Green Bay a long field. The defense closed things out from there.
Football is a game of toughness. Guys playing hurt, gutting it out, especially knowing the fragile position Pittsburgh would be in if Kuntz sat out. I’m sure his ankle is in rough shape today, I’m not even certain that he’ll play this weekend, but a tip of the cap to him for sticking it out and preventing a Harrison Part II scenario.
