Santonio Holmes Picks Good Time for First Good Return

A year after the Steelers' special teams were a disaster, Pittsburgh has fixed half the problems. This year's coverage units are some of the best in the league, and Pittsburgh did not allow a 50-yard return all season.

But the return units had been just the bizarro twins of the coverage teams, as punt returner Santonio Holmes and kick returners Gary Russell and Najeh Davenport have been more focused on holding on to the ball than actually getting any significant yardage.

Steelers fans were still pretty happy with that though. We remember way too many special teams nightmares -- too many kick and punt returns for touchdowns, the infamous blocked field goal/return that beat the Steelers in the AFC Championship among others. So to have good coverage teams and bad returns teams seemed like a good trade.


But at least in the first quarter today, the Steelers have gotten more than that. They bottled up the Chargers on their first kick return of the game, and then got their biggest return of the season. It's pretty shocking that Pittsburgh's first big play of today's game would come on a punt, thanks to Holmes' 67-yard punt return for a touchdown. Holmes had averaged only 6.6 yards per punt return this year, which ranked 52nd in the NFL among everyone who returned at least one punt and Pittsburgh hadn't had a return of more than 40 yards all season.

Holmes had been a pretty outstanding returner as a rookie in 2006, but it seems he needed nearly a full season to shake off the rust in this his third season.