Seattle Seahawks Pass Defense vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: 37/59, 480 Yards, 1 TD, 4 INTs

Pass #9

Situation: 1st and 10 SEA 43
Description: Q1-(8:27) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Left to W. Johnson to SEA 38 for 5 Yards (B. Wagner; M. Morgan)

The Steelers dial up the right play to beat the Seahawks defensive play call. The Seahawks run a Cover 3 and bring Shead (#35) off the edge as a blitzer. This leaves only three defenders underneath in zone coverage and the Steelers exploit it by running FB Will Johnson (#46) on a slant route underneath Spaeth’s (#89) curl route. Wright (#50) initially respects the curl route of Spaeth and slows down Spaeth to help Chancellor (#31) behind him. Johnson comes underneath this and is open as Wagner (#54) has to take away the curl route of Miller (#83) on the other side of the formation. Roethlisberger sees this and makes the easy throw. Wright would have needed to jump Johnson’s slant route and let Chancellor handle the curl of Spaeth to defend this play, but this is asking a lot out of Wright. (6/9, 48 Yards)

Pass #10

Situation: 1st and 10 SEA 31
Description: Q1-(7:07) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Left to A. Brown to SEA 29 for 2 Yards (R. Sherman, B. Irvin)

I’ve been critical of Wright (#50), but I have to give credit when credit is due as he made a great play here. The Steelers run the quick screen to Brown (#84) on the outside and get Miller (#83) and LT Alejandro Villanueva (#78) on the outside as lead blockers. Wright recognizes the screen immediately and races Miller to the spot. He beats Miller’s block which forces Villanueva to block him instead of blocking Sherman (#25). This leaves Sherman unblocked and he and the hard pursuing OLB Bruce Irvin (#51) are able to make the tackle on the play. (7/10, 50 Yards)

Pass #11

Situation: 3rd and 5 SEA 26
Description: Q1-(5:43) B. Roethlisberger Pass Incomplete Deep Left to M. Bryant

I’m sort of confused on what the Steelers are actually trying to do and I think Bryant (#10) is running the wrong route on this play. Sherman (#25) has man coverage on Brown (#84) in the slot and this is a mismatch. Sherman is not a slot CB and rarely plays in the slot as his quickness is not his strength. But Seattle doesn’t have a slot corner who they trust on Brown and Sherman has to cover him in man coverage. Brown runs right by him on the wheel route and is open for a TD. But two things on this play prevent this. The first is Bryant’s route makes no sense. I think he is supposed to be running a post route, but instead he runs a straight go route and gets in the way. He also drags Shead (#35) into the area and makes the whole left-hand corner of the field clogged up. The second is the pass rush of the Seahawks. Wagner (#54) comes through the A-gap and runs right by LG Ramon Foster (#73) as Foster is trying to get into position for the screen pass phase of the play. Wagner’s pressure forces Roethlisberger to throw off his back foot and he doesn’t get close to enough on this pass to get it to Brown. (7/11, 50 Yards)

Pass #12

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 8
Description: Q1-(3:25) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Left to H. Miller to PIT 16 for 8 Yards (B. Wagner)

Wagner (#54) has to expand in his hook zone coverage on this play and there is no reason why he was flat footed at the stat of the play. Mebane (#92) is dropping into coverage so Wagner should be naturally pushing more outside towards Miller (#83). Instead, he stays flat footed and has no chance to keep up with Miller on the out route. Roethlisberger (#7) has an easy throw to Miller for a good gain on first down. Sherman (#25) is very lucky that Miller gets open quickly as he was burnt badly by Brown (#84). Sherman has deep zone responsibilities in the Cover 3 but for some reason stops dropping backward into his zone. Brown gets on top of him quickly and Sherman has no momentum going into his turn out the back pedal. Brown has 2-3 yards on Sherman because of this and I don’t think Sherman is going to catch him if a ball is thrown that way. (8/12, 58 Yards)

Pass #13

Situation: 2nd and 2 PIT 16
Description: Q1-(2:51) B. Roethlisberger Pass Incomplete Short Right to A. Brown

Wagner (#54) does exactly what you are supposed to do as the middle zone defender in Cover 1 and helps bail out a defensive mistake. Sherman (#25) has man coverage on Brown (#84) on the crossing route but as soon as Brown cuts to the inside, Sherman gets rubbed by Wright (#50) who is playing man coverage on Williams (#34) on the flare route. Sherman has to go route him and loses any chance of covering Brown. Wagner sees the crossing route and carries the route across the middle of the field. He can’t keep up with Brown, but his tug on Brown’s jersey (which was legal since it was within five yards) throws off the timing of the throw and Roethlisberger misses Brown to the outside. The good thing about Sherman being rubbed in his man coverage is that he is in position to bail out CB Marcus Burley (#28). Burley has good initial positioning on WR Markus Wheaton (#11) but he gives up inside leverage and Wheaton is able to run away from him. Wheaton runs right into the path of Sherman and he doesn’t end up getting open on the play. (8/13, 58 Yards)

Pass #14

Situation: 3rd and 2 PIT 16
Description: Q1-(2:47) B. Roethlisberger Pass Incomplete Deep Left to A. Brown. Penalty on SEA-M. Bennett, Defensive Offsides, 5 Yards, Enforced at PIT 16 - No Play

This play doesn’t count because of the offsides by Bennett (#72) but the range of Thomas (#29) is impressive. Thomas is sitting in the middle of the field and has to split the deep routes of both Brown (#84) on his right and Wheaton (#11) on his left. Roethlisberger (#7) knows he has a free play so he is going to go deep no matter what. He sees that Shead (#35) is bailing into his deep zone coverage so he comes back to his left and lets Brown go one on one with Sherman (#25). Sherman is in decent to good position for most of this play but at the last second he loses a stop on Brown. Sherman could have been in great position and it wouldn’t have mattered as the throw from Roethlisberger is inch perfect. Thomas though comes from all the way in the middle of the field and is able to dislodge the ball from Brown with a legal shoulder check. Chancellor (#31) shows a complete lack of awareness again as he doesn’t even see Wheaton running behind him. Chancellor needs to get some depth in his drop to help Thomas out. If Roethlisberger didn’t go to Brown, he had Wheaton wide open on the seam route for a big gain.

Pass #15

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 21
Description: Q1-(2:41) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Middle to De. Williams to PIT 29 for 8 Yards (K. Wright; B. Wagner)

The Seahawks should have stopped this play for a minimal gain. The Steelers call a good play against this coverage as Williams (#34) is going to be open on the pop pass no matter what. Wright (#50) has to go into the flat to take away the in route of Brown (#84) and this leaves a void in the coverage as Thomas (#29) is coming up from his safety position to get into his hook zone coverage. Thomas’s reaction to the throw is great, but his tackling technique is really poor as his head is down, he bends with his back instead of his hips, and he doesn’t use his arms to wrap up. Williams bounces off of him and is able to pick up more yards due to DT Jordan Hill (#97) being out of control when coming in for the tackle and Miller’s (#83) block of Wagner (#54). (9/14, 66 Yards)

Pass #16

Situation: 2nd and 2 PIT 29
Description: Q1-(2:15) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Left to A. Brown Pushed Out of Bounds at PIT 44 for 15 Yards (R. Sherman)

The back shoulder fade is one of the hardest routes to defend in man coverage, in general, but Sherman (#25) opens himself to be exploited on this play. He is matched up in man to man against Brown (#84) and at this point Brown has already beaten Sherman deep multiple times. Sherman sees that Brown is releasing to his outside like he is going to run another go route and tries to cut him off by getting over the top of Brown. By doing this, it opens up the back shoulder fade as Sherman cannot deaccelerate nearly as well as Brown can. Brown sees this and turns for the back shoulder fade and Sherman runs right by him. Roethlisberger (#7) is on the same page as Brown and exploits Sherman’s technique for a big gain. Sherman needs to play proper technique and trust that he has the speed and size to knock Brown off his route and keep up with him. (10/15, 81 Yards)