Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Brandon Boykin saw his first significant playing of the season Sunday night in the team’s big home win over the Indianapolis Colts and the former draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles responded with an interception of a tipped pass in addition to one other pass breakup. During his Tuesday press conference, head coach Mike Tomlin was asked to evaluate Boykin’s play Sunday night.
“I thought it was good,” said Tomlin. “Alignment and communication is not an issue with him. He appears to be a bright guy and has really done a nice job of fitting in in that regard. I thought he did a nice job in the snaps that he had and we’ll continue with that as we move forward.”
The Steelers use of Boykin Sunday night, in addition to the rotation of outside cornerbacks Antwon Blake and Ross Cockrell, wasn’t overly surprising as both Tomlin and defensive coordinator Keith Butler hinted all week leading up to the game that that might happen. Tomlin talked specifically on Tuesday about how the extra plays off helped Blake against the Colts.
“I thought just largely, the redistribution of snaps, I thought aided all of us,” said Tomlin. “I thought Antwon Blake was more significant on special teams, for example, because of the reduced number of snaps. I think he had a kickoff tackle inside the 15-yard-line. There’s a lot of byproduct, or hopefully positive things, from a redistribution of the snaps. Hopefully it continues.”
Judging by Tomlin’s Tuesday comments, I think it’s safe to say that we’ll continue to see the same plan of action with the Steelers cornerbacks moving forward the remainder of the season with Boykin only seeing the field in nickel sub package situations.
Against the Colts, Boykin played a total of 42 defensive snaps while William Gay, Blake and Cockrell played 48, 45 and 32 snaps respectively. Gay, however, didn’t finish that game because of a possible concussion.
