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

Pass #25

Situation: 2nd and 5 SEA 33
Description: Q2-(9:54) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Right to M. Wheaton to SEA 14 for 19 Yards (M. Burley)

I thought Wagner (#54) was supposed to be great in coverage? Wheaton (#11) is running the seam route and Wagner in his hook zone coverage has to get depth in his coverage to take away this route. There is no one in his area underneath so he should naturally be getting depth on his drop. Instead, he stops dropping and gives a window for Roethlisberger (#11) to throw this pass into. If he gets even another yard or two of depth, this could be an interception for him. (15/23, 134 Yards, 1 INT)

Pass #26

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 20
Description: Q2-(2:10) B. Roethlisberger Pass Incomplete Short Left to A. Brown (R. Sherman)

The Steelers called a great play to attack zone coverage, but Sherman (#25) showed off why he is once of the best CBs in the league on this play. The Steelers run a Curl-Flare combination with Brown (#84) and Wheaton (#11) respectively and this route combination was the bain of my existence in college. The flat defender against this route combination has to make a choice in either to cover the flare or the curl route. In this case, Burley (#28) covers the flare route and leaves the curl route for Sherman (#25) to handle. Sherman has deep outside coverage in the Cover 3 so Brown should be able to come out of his break and make an uncontested catch. Sherman does a great job recognizing the route concept and slow down his deep drop to be in a position to make a play on the throw as soon as Brown curls back. Sherman uses his long arms to reach over Brown and break up the pass on first down. (15/24, 134 Yards, 1 INT)

Pass #27

Situation: 2nd and 10 PIT 20
Description: Q2-(2:06) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Right to M. Bryant to PIT 29 for 9 Yards (D. Shead)

Shead (#35) needs to stop spinning to the outside when he transitions out of the backpedal if he is going to have success in the NFL. Shead is matched up on Bryant (#10) in man to man coverage and jumps to the outside to take away the go route. Bryant is running a curl route instead and gets inside leverage because of this. To compound matter worse for Shead, he spins to the outside and ends up giving Bryant a yard or two of space to the inside. Giving up the inside that easily on a curl route is asking to be picked on and Roethlisberger (#7) does just that for a good gain. Shead needs to make the much shorter turn to the inside and battle Bryant instead of turning to the outside and giving up the curl route. (16/25, 143 Yards, 1 INT)

Pass #28

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 31
Description: Q2-(1:30) B. Roethlisberger Pass Incomplete Deep Left to M. Bryant

The initial coverage by the Seahawks is pretty good as Roethlisberger (#7) has nowhere to go before the pass rush gets close to him. But Bennett (#72) is the Seahawks own worse enemy as his athletic attempt to sack Roethlisberger allows him to escape. Bennett and Hill (#97) do a great job collapsing the pocket as Bennett beats Villanueva (#78) to the outside with a speed move and Hill pushes DeCastro into Roethlisberger’s lap. Bennett doesn’t have a good angle to sack Roethlisberger though so he jumps in the air and tries to strip sack him. He misses though and knocks down DeCastro. Hill for s split second is wondering where the heck his blocker went and this gives Roethlisberger enough time to escape the pocket.

Shead (#35) does a great job initially covering the go route of Bryant (#10) and maintains down field leverage on him. Once Roethlisberger gets out the pocket, scramble rules are in effect and Bryant stops his route and comes back to Roethlisberger. Shead doesn’t do a good job of keeping track of him and is caught off guard by this sudden break in Bryant’s route. This leaves Bryant wide open for a big gain and Shead is very lucky that Bryant flat out drops the pass. Chancellor (#31) also needs to be questioned as well as he has no clue where Bryant is on this play. He only focuses on the dig route of Wheaton (#11) and as the deep half defender Chancellor has to be more aware of what is around him. If he was, he would have been closer to Bryant and may have been able to break up this pass. (16/26, 143 Yards, 1 INT)

Pass #29

Siutation: 2nd and 10 PIT 31
Description: Q2-(1:22) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Right to M. Wheaton to PIT 44 for 13 Yards (D. Shead)

I think Wagner (#54) goes rogue on this blitz as there is no one in either A-gap for the pass rush. He looks like he is going to blitz up the middle, but instead he bounces to his outside and rushes off the edge. If he blitzes up the middle, Roethlisberger doesn’t have the ability to step up in the pocket and Avril (#56) may have a chance to grab Roethlisberger by the legs and bring him down. Instead, Roethlisberger has a clean pocket to step up into and has no one in his face.

The route by Wheaton (#11) is almost unfair, but Burley (#28) needs to do a better job of staying in control. Burley has Wheaton in man coverage and has great position on Wheaton in coverage initially. Burley is expecting that Wheaton is going to run the post route and is trying to run the route withWheaton. He doesn’t see that Wheaton is throttling down though and runs right by Wheaton when Wheaton curls back for the ball. Burley needs to sense that Wheaton is slowing down and slow down with him in coverage if his is going to be able to take away this route (17/27, 156 Yards, 1 INT)

Pass #30

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 44
Description: Q2-(1:16) B. Roethlisberger Pass Deep Left to M. Wheaton to SEA 15 for 41 Yards (B. Wagner)

While the Seahawks pass rush does the secondary no favors, Wagner (#54) and Chancellor (#31) look completely lost out there. Wagner is playing hook zone coverage on this play and he should be dropping underneath the seam/corner route of Wheaton (#11). Instead, he runs to the middle of the field chasing ghosts and runs into Thomas (#29) who has the other hook coverage. Wagner needs to stay disciplined and get depth in his zone to take away Wheaton. Even with this, though, Chancellor should be sitting on the top of this route and taking Wheaton away. Instead, he turns his back (again!) on the route and is worried about Brown going deep. Chancellor needs to trust that Sherman can handle Brown and play is responsibility. Both Wagner and Chancellor blow their responsibilities and leave Wheaton wide open for a big gain. On a side note, did Thomas and Wagner see the same ghost? Thomas jumps towards the middle of the field despite there being no players in that area of the field. If he stays still, he is sitting right in the window of any throw to Brown (#84) on the curl route. (18/28, 197 Yards, 1 INT)

Pass #31

Situation: 1st and 10 SEA 15
Description: Q2-(1:05) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Right to M. Wheaton Pushed Out of Bounds at SEA 6 for 9 Yards (M. Burley)

This isn’t even fair for Burley (#28) as Wheaton (#11) cuts that sharply at full speed and Roethlisberger (#7) throws a perfectly timed pass. Burley has Wheaton in man coverage and is in good inside position. He is playing downfield of Wheaton though and this leads to his downfall as his momentum is moving backward once Wheaton makes his cut. Wheaton’s cut is ridiculous though as he cuts at almost ninety degrees at full speed and makes my knees hurt even thinking about making that sort of cut. Burley tries to recover, but he has no chance as Roethlisberger throws this pass before Wheaton is out of his break. It would take a top level corner to take away this route and Burley is not close to that at this point in his career. (19/29, 206 Yards, 1 INT)

Pass #32

Situation: Two-Point Conversion Attempt
Description: B. Roethlisberger Pass to J. James is Complete. Attempt Succeeds.

Shead (#35) needs to be more situationally aware and aggressive in his coverage. The Seahawks are in a match-up zone and Shead has Rookie TE Jesse James (#81) in coverage. Shead is playing off coverage in the end zone and does no make up the cushion on James. This makes it too easy for James on the jerk route to cross the goal line and make himself available for the conversion. Shead has to eat up this cushion and get right on James’ hip instead of sitting back and trying to mirror him in this situation.