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

Pass #41

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 25
Description: Q3-(4:20) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Right to M. Wheaton to PIT 32 for 7 Yards (B. Wagner)

This should have been two yard gain at most. The Steelers catch the Seahawks on the blitz and Wheaton (#11) presents himself quickly as the hot route receiver. Thomas (#29) is responsible for him as he comes down from his safety position to his hook zone responsibility and does a great job rallying down to try to make the tackle. He comes in out of control though and his head is looking at the turf. Wheaton easily dodges him and is able to pick up a decent gain on first down because of the poor tackling form. (25/35, 297 Yards, 1 INT)

Pass #42

Situation: 2nd and 3 PIT 32
Description: Q3-(3:42) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Right Intended to M. Wheaton Intercepted by A. Rubin at PIT 39. A. Rubin to PIT 37 for 2 Yards (D. DeCastro)

This pass is going to be an interception/incompletion even if the ball does not slip out of Roethlisberger’s (#7) hand. The Steelers are trying to run a rub route concept with Brown (#84) running a slant route underneath’s Wheaton’s (#11) wheel route. The Seahawks are in man to man coverage and Sherman (#25) does get rubbed off Brown’s slant route. Chancellor (#31) is sitting in the middle of the field and is quick to react to Brown coming his way. If Roethlisberger gets it towards Brown without it slipping out of his hand, Chancellor is either going to lay the boom on Brown or pick it off. The ball slips out Roethlisberger’s hand though and falls into Rubin’s (#77) chest for an interception. (25/36, 297 Yards, 2 INTs)

Pass #43

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 27
Description: Q3-(2:51)B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Left to A. Brown to PIT 38 for 11 Yards (D. Shead)

This is well-designed play by the Steelers to take advantage of the Cover 3. The Steelers occupy the Seahawks’s short zone coverage defenders with the Nix’s (#45) flare route in the flat zone (covered by Morgan (#57)) and Spaeth’s (#89) curl route (Covered by Wagner (#54) in hook zone coverage). This leaves Brown (#84) going one on one with Shead (#35) with his curl route. Shead has deep outside third responsibility so he has to give ground when covering Brown. Shead is three yards away from Brown when Brown curls back for the ball and he has no chance to break up this pass. The only way the Seahawks could have covered this would have been for Wright (#50) to work across the formation to cover Spaeth and have Wagner expand under Brown’s route, but this is a difficult task to ask any defense to do in this coverage and the Steelers exploit it. (26/37, 308 Yards, 2 INTs)

Pass #44

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 38
Description: Q3-(2:10) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Left to De. Williams to PIT 35 for -3 Yards (C. Avril). Penalty on PIT-M. Gilbert, Illegal Use of Hands, 10 Yards, Enforced at PIT 38 - No Play

The Seahawks coverage on this play is superb. The only receiver that is open past the line of scrimmage is Johnson (#46) and he is only going to get a two to three yard gain on the catch as both Morgan (#57) and Wager (#54) would have closed down on him quickly. You could argue that Morgan shouldn’t have expanded as deep in his drop as he did, but I personally have no issue with his drop back into coverage. I would like to point out Sherman’s (#25) technique on this play. He is playing the deep outside third of the field and sees that Brown (#84) is running a deeper speed route. Once Brown cuts outside on his out and up, he jumps to the outside to take away Brown’s outside leverage. Sherman gets beat to the inside once Brown turns upfield because of this, but this was the right decision by Sherman. Sherman knows that he has Thomas (#29) in the deep middle of the field and knows that if Brown cuts back to the inside, Thomas will be there to pick up the route. Jumping to the outside takes away a sideline route that Thomas could not get to.

The defensive line needs to get some love as well as they made Roethlisberger (#7) jittery in the pocket. Both Rubin (#77) and Mebane (#92) get penetration up the middle and collapse the pocket. This forces Roethlisberger into a quick decision and he dumps it off to Willaims (#34) to avoid the hit. Avril (#56) didn’t get a hint of pass rush on the play but sees that Williams is leaking out of the backfield and takes off after him instead of trying to continue a futile pass rush. This turns out to be a great decision as he is right there to tackle Willaims for a loss. This is all for naught though as Gilbert (#77) gets called for illegal use of hands.

Pass #45

Situation: 1st and 10 PIT 28
Description: Q3-(1:42) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Left to A. Brown to PIT 39 for 11 Yards (J. Lane; R. Sherman)

There isn’t much to talk about here. The Steelers exploit a one vs. two matchup and throw the tunnel screen to Brown (#84). Wheaton (#11) has an easy block on Lane (#20) and Brown is off to the races. Sherman (#25) does a good job of keeping Brown in front of him and not letting Brown pick up a huge gain. (27/38, 319 Yards, 2 INTs)

Pass #46

Situation: 2nd and 9 PIT 39
Description: Q3-(1:06) B. Roethlisberger Pass Short Middle to J. James to PIT 47 for 8 Yards (K. Chancellor; M. Bennett)

There is nothing wrong with the coverage on this play. The Steelers run a pop pass to James (#81) which is very hard to cover in zone coverage without giving up the pass. Wagner (#54) reads the play way and is there to hit James once he makes the catch. Wagner commits the same errors that Thomas (#29) had earlier in the game as he ducks his head and doesn’t wrap up. James bounces off of Wagner’s shoulder check and Wright (#50) whiffs as well because of James bouncing off of Wagner. This should have been a minimal gain at best but poor tackling plague the Seahawks again. (28/39, 327 Yards, 2 INTs)

Pass #47

Situation: 3rd and 1 PIT 47
Description: Q3-(0:25) B. Roethlisberger Pass Incomplete Deep Left to M. Bryant (D. Shead)

Shead (#35) makes a great play breaking up this pass, but he is lucky that he wasn’t watching Bryant(#10) run a catch in for a touchdown. Shead has Bryant in man coverage in the Seattle Cover 2 and lets Bryant get a free release. Bryant beats him with his speed again and is wide open for a touchdown as Thomas (#29) is nowhere to be found playing deep. Thomas sees that Wheaton (#11) has gotten behind the LBs against and jumps the dig route instead of playing deep. If Thomas doesn’t do this, Wheaton is likely going to be open because Wright (#50) gets minimal depth in his hook zone coverage even though he has no underneath him. But Thomas’s freelancing to make up for other player mistakes almost cost his team big time as he left Shead on an island. Shead is fortunate that Roethlisberger hesitates because Roethlisberger’s arm strength cannot keep up with Bryant’s speed and Bryant is forced to slow down on his route. This allows Shead to catch up to Bryant knock the ball out of his hands when the both jump for it. (28/40, 327 Yards 2 INTs)

4th Quarter

Pass #48

Siutation: 1st and 10 PIT 20
Description: Q4-(14:18) B. Roethlisberger Pass Deep Left Intended to A. Brown Intercepted by R. Sherman at SEA 35. R. Sherman to PIT 39 for 26 Yards (A. Brown)

Sherman (#25) is not going to have an easier interception in his career. He is matched up with Brown (#84) in man to man coverage and gets in great position against Brown’s go route. Sherman then pulls off a subtle push and Brown falls to the ground. I don’t think this should have been pass interference because I think Brown flopped and this was a good no call. All Sherman has to do after Brown falls is run under the pass and catch it like a punt. On the other side of the field, Shead (#35) is matched up with Bryant (#10) again and even in off coverage he gets burnt deep on the go route. Roethlisberger doesn’t go to him though because Thomas has drifted towards Bryant and would be able to get over the top of the go route. (28/41, 329 Yards, 3 INTs)