Calvin Austin III’s 73-yard punt return touchdown broke the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Monday night game against the New York Giants open. To that point, it was a tightly contested 9-9 game with both sides seeing touchdowns taken off the board. Austin’s would be the first one to stand and give the Steelers the lead for good. As happy as Austin was to personally score his first NFL punt-return touchdown, he was even happier to do it for special teams coordinator Danny Smith.
Joining Christian Kuntz’s podcast in an episode that dropped Thursday, Austin reflected on what that touchdown meant.
“That’s what really was like, probably one of the happiest moments for me,” Austin told the show. “Was just getting it for [Smith]. Because I knew how much that that meant for him. He’s always saying that. ‘We gotta get Calvin in the end zone. We gotta get Calvin in the end zone.’ For two years. When that happened, just to have that moment with Danny was definitely pretty special.”
Pittsburgh’s broken off good returns with Austin before, though several were called back due to penalty. None had reached the end zone. It was a long time coming for Smith’s unit that hadn’t scored a return touchdown, kick or punt, since Diontae Johnson’s punt return score in 2019.
It was the latest of impact special teams plays the Steelers have made over the past month. In their last four games, they’ve blocked two field goals, a punt, and run back a punt for a score while the coverage teams and K Chris Boswell have been steady. Boswell has been named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week in back-to-back months. Everyone has bought into Smith’s coaching. Even at 71, his energy and passion for his players has them going all-in for him.
Like any big play in football, it was a coordinated effort, Austin using his speed and getting key blocks to spring him.
“The ball was turning over so I saw it was sailing some. So I knew I would have room. And so as soon as I got it, I just paused and I was like, ‘I’m finna hit the sideline.’ Like my dad always tells me, since I was little, ‘Trust your speed, trust your speed.’ And so I was just like, ‘You know what, I’m finna just hit the sideline.”
Austin said in past years, he’d plan to break for the sideline but then cut upfield when a lane cleared, getting tackled in open grass. Here, he kept running horizontally and caught the edge thanks to a key block from TE Rodney Williams.
“Rodney, that was the block…when I got the edge, and I didn’t see nobody immediately right there. That’s when I was like, ‘Yeah, we got something.'”
As we noted in our breakdown of the play, Williams used the “airplane block” to shield himself in front of the defender while avoiding a potential block in the back. Austin got similar important blocks from RB Jonathan Ward while S Damontae Kazee shielded the punter to take it back the other way.
Here’s a full look at the return.
Kuntz said pregame he spoke to Giants long snapper Casey Kreiter, who admitted that Austin was “so fucking fast.” Austin got to show New York first-hand on the play that turned the tide of the game and has Pittsburgh sitting at 6-2 heading into its bye week.
Check out the whole podcast below.
