Forsake special teams at your own peril. You never know when a play in the third phase can turn a game. The Pittsburgh Steelers know this well, thanks in part to their All-Pro special teamer, Miles Killebrew, who has become one of the best in the NFL at blocking punts.
Having recently told reporters that one of the only reasons he ever got recruited even to small colleges was because he actually put special teams clips in his highlight reel, Killebrew has never taken his job lightly. Nor has he an opponent.
That includes the Buffalo Bills, who were greatly aided on their path to the second seed thanks to a pivotal special teams play in the season finale against the Miami Dolphins. It was a 96-yard punt return by Deonte Harty that allowed them to tie the game back up at 14 in the fourth quarter, eventually winning in regulation with a touchdown pass from QB Josh Allen to TE Dawson Knox.
“They’re fast, they block well, and it seems as though they’re technically sound,” Killebrew said in assessing Buffalo’s special team’s prowess via the team’s website. “But these are things that are not foreign to us. It’s something that we pride ourselves on as well. I don’t want to take anything away from them, but I’ll take my guys any day”.
While he may treat them with the appropriate amount of respect owed to any opponent, Rick Gosselin only ranked the Bills’ special teams 28th in the league this past season. For comparison, Killebrew and his companions ranked 17th on the same annual rankings list.
That is something of an aberration, however, because they ranked fifth just a year prior and eighth the year before that. Heath Farwell was their special teams coordinator in 2021—when Killebrew had a crucial blocked punt returned for a touchdown in a shocking season-opening win. His former assistant, Matthew Smiley, has run the unit for the past two years.
Outside of Harty’s punt return touchdown, the Bills’ return game has not been great this season. They have averaged 20.5 yards per kick return, and their 11.6-yard punt return average looked much different before the 96-yard return in the finale, accounting for more than a quarter of their total punt return yardage on 30 other returns.
Likewise, K Tyler Bass did not have a great season, going only 24-for-29 on field goals and missing an extra point attempt as well. P Sam Martin was held to a net punting average below 40 yards, which is pretty much an established baseline at this point.
Then again, the Steelers’ Pressley Harvin III was even lower at 39.1 yards to his 39.8. But Chris Boswell was once again one of the top kickers in the league and one of the most reliable from long range. Calvin Austin III did not give much of a spark as the punt returner but showed some flash in the finale. They had a parade of kick returners, settling on Godwin Igwebuike, who finished with a respectable 25.6-yard average and one of the smartest plays you’ll see in football.
