In his first week with the Steelers earlier this month, kicker Chris Boswell had a unique experience in practice. During a special teams period, Boswell practiced field goals with a menacing figure standing only feet from him.
That menacing figure was James Harrison, who just stared him down while Boswell kicked. If Boswell could handle that, he surely can handle the menacing conditions at Heinz Field.
On Sunday, in his first home game after replacing Josh Scobee, Boswell proved just that. He was 4 for 4 on field-goal attempts and helped the Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals, 25-13.
Boswell connected on kicks of 47, 48, 51 and 28 yards.
“I’m so happy for him,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “The thing about him, why he does so well, is he doesn’t care. It sounds weird, but he doesn’t care. We ask him, ‘If we got a chance to win the game, do you want the ball right hash, left hash [or] middle?’ ‘I don’t care.’ That sounds silly, but it’s awesome.”
Boswell only had one previous experience at Heinz Field. It was at his tryout two days after the Steelers lost to the Ravens after Scobee missed two field goals.
On that unseasonably cool and rainy early October day, Boswell kicked well and earned the job. Under similar conditions Sunday, Boswell came through for the Steelers.
“I’m just happy I could go out there and make them,” he said. “I’m doing the best I can do and just trying to do my job.”
Coach Mike Tomlin showed confidence in his new kicker. The Steelers led by only two late in the third quarter when he sent out Boswell for the 51-yard attempt.
“I’m just waiting for the call,” Boswell said. “As soon as I hear it I run out there. I love that he trusts me that much. I just hope I don’t let anyone down and keep kicking them straight.”
Bryant comes through
Receiver Martavis Bryant showed little rust in his first game of the season. After sitting out the first four games under NFL suspension and last week because of injury, Bryant had six catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns.
His 88-yard touchdown with 1:58 remaining put the game out of reach. That big-play ability, something the Steelers missed desperately in the first five games, proved to be huge against the Cardinals.
“When your number is called you have to go out there and execute the game plan,” Bryant said. “I’m not surprised. It comes from hard work in practice. Coach T is big on [running after the catch] in practice.”
Bryant said his knee is 100 percent. He said he tweaked it in practice before the San Diego game.
Mathieu: ‘We changed’
When Steelers third-string quarterback Landry Jones stepped under center for the first regular-season game of his career Sunday, his team trailed Arizona, 10-6, early in the third quarter at Heinz Field.
When he finished as Mike Vick’s replacement, the Steelers had won the game, 25-13, and Jones had the first two touchdown passes of his nascent NFL career.
The change, caused by a hamstring injury to Vick on the Steelers’ first possession of the second half, had an effect on the Cardinals, who had surrendered just 6 yards passing up until that time.
“I felt like Landry’s been around longer and understands the system better than Vick,” Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “They were able to open it [the offense] up.”
Mathieu added that he didn’t believe the Steelers changed their offense when Jones came in. Rather, the Cardinals changed their defensive philosophy in the second half.
“We changed what we were doing,” in the second half, “as far as the calls we were making and the way we were playing,” he said.
Mathieu said it was the way they approached the Steelers run game, led by Le’Veon Bell, that made the difference.
“We did a good job against the run putting eight in the box trying to stop him,” Mathieu said. “In the second half we kind of got away from it and they gashed us for some big plays. We stuffed him first half and for some reason, let him off the hook.”
Bell ran for 29 yards on 10 carries in the first half, but improved to 59 yards on 14 carries in the second half.
Big-game Brown
The offensive star for the Cardinals was wide receiver John Brown, who hauled in 10 passes for 196 yards. But he also committed one of three Arizona turnovers on the team’s first possession on the second half, when he fumbled after a catch for a short gain at the Cardinals’ 32.
The ball was recovered by the Steelers’ Mike Mitchell after a jarring hit from Harrison. Four plays later, Jones hit Bryant with his first touchdown pass of the game giving the Steelers a 12-10 lead, one they would never relinquish.
“There’s nothing to appreciate about it,” Brown said of his gaudy numbers. “I feel like at the end of the day, once the fumble happened, the Steelers fed off of that. They were on a roll from there on out.”
Just business for Larry
Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, a former Pitt All-American, had a good game, catching eight passes for 93 yards.
But as much as this former Panthers great may like coming back to the city where he starred in college, it wasn’t a pleasure trip.
“It was just a business trip for me,” he said. “If I come back for a spring game or a basketball game it is a little different. I was here just to take care of business. So it was not a very good trip.”
Quick hits
• Tight end Heath Miller had one catch to extend his streak to 110 consecutive games with at least one catch.
• Safety Mike Mitchell recorded his first interception as a member of the Steelers. It was his seventh career interception. He also recovered a fumble.
• Lawrence Timmons recorded the 10th interception of his career, becoming the ninth linebacker in franchise history to get double-digit interceptions.
• Safety Robert Golden made his first career start and finished with a career-high eight tackles.
Inactives
The Steelers deactivated Roethlisberger, safety Will Allen, cornerback Cortez Allen, linebackers Ryan Shazier and Jarvis Jones, guard Chris Hubbard and tight end Jesse James.
The Cardinals deactivated quarterback Matt Barkley, receiver J.J. Nelson, linebackers Shaq Riddick and Alex Okafor, offensive linemen D.J. Humphries and Earl Watford and defensive tackle Xavier Williams.
Jerry Micco and Ron Cook contributed to this report; Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: October 19, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
