The Pittsburgh Steelers have certainly had their misadventures on kickoffs before. Just earlier this season, former Steelers WR Gunner Olszewski actually toe-tapped a kickoff at the 9-yard line when, if he’d only let it go out of bounds, the ball would have been brought out to the 40.
Their current kick returner had a better head for the moment last night. Godwin Igwebuike showed great situational intelligence as a kickoff rolled safely near the sideline. He placed his feet just out of bounds while fielding it to trigger a penalty for a kick out of bounds at the 5-yard line. Because he caused the kick to be fielded out of the field of play, which was perfectly legal, the Steelers were awarded the ball at their 40-yard line.
It ultimately led to nothing as RB Jaylen Warren fumbled a few plays later and lost possession. But that doesn’t take away from the heads-up wherewithal of the play, which could bode well for a player who is perpetually on the roster fringes like Igwebuike.
“I’d seen it dribbling over there and I said, ‘Is this my time? Is this the moment I’ve been waiting for?’”, he said from the locker room, courtesy of video of his postgame media availability from Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via Twitter. “It just got far enough and I said, ‘Okay, here it is”.
A former college free agent out of Northwestern, the 29-year-old running back only began returning kicks in 2021 as a member of the Detroit Lions. He did some returns for the Seattle Seahawks last season and began this year with the Atlanta Falcons.
The Steelers signed Igwebuike after placing RB Anthony McFarland Jr., who had opened the season as their starting kick returner, on the Reserve/Injured List. He did commendably in the opener, but that’s as far as he got.
Pittsburgh tried other options in the interim, going back to Olszewski, then working a bit with Desmond King II, both of whom were later cut, before finally giving Igwebuike the opportunity. He only returned 11 kicks on the year for 282 yards, but managed to average 25.6 yards per return, which is respectable.
He said that people on the sidelines were in shock about what he did, intentionally stepping out of bounds to field the ball, but he knew better. “I’m like, ‘Listen, I know what I’m doing’”, he said, having mentioned that he saw that play done when he first began studying kick returns and filed that away in the back of his mind.
He also gave Steelers special teams coordinator Danny Smith credit for keeping players on their toes about what to do in a variety of different situations, should they arise. This is certainly one that doesn’t come up every week. I would imagine for most of us, it’s the first time we have seen it.
