It came on third-and-10 with 2 minutes left, when a Steelers’ stop might have sent the Seahawks back under.500.
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“He stepped up and covered for me, otherwise I’d have been in the doghouse”, Sweezy said.
Baldwin wanted to give a “shout-out” to teammate Tyler Lockett. It was the first TD rush by a Steelers wide receiver since 2004. That block ensured the clinching score. Roethlisberger got a week of rest thanks to the bye to let a foot sprain heal, but he’ll continue to wear a brace on his left knee due to an MCL sprain earlier in the season. But on this occasion the roles were reversed, with the offense picking up the defense when the defense seemed down and out.Wilson was imperious. Wilson slid out of bounds taking out 3 of his own players on the sideline and Pittsburgh was nailed with a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty when the replay clearly showed Wilson was still in bounds when he was hit.
No drop. No miss. He was extremely important early in the week 12 game against the Steelers, but that came to a crashing halt in the end zone.
It was as seesawing and thrilling a game as Seattle’s hosted in years. Most of the CenturyLink Field record crowd of 69,055 noticed. We need to do better, and there are so many plays we can go back and coach up and improve on.
And the Seahawks needed every one of them just to peek over the. He was undergoing concussion tests, although results weren’t immediately available. Seattle went 3-and-out to end the half.
From missed tackles to blown secondary assignments, trouble containing running lanes to a failure to get off the field on third down, all of the Steelers’ weakness were on display on Sunday in Seattle.
All the second guessing in the world won’t change the fact that the Steelers defense gave up 19 points in the fourth quarter in a performance that likely would have made any Tomlin decisions moot as long as Seattle got a chance with the ball before time expired.
Baldwin’s mammoth, 80-yard score versus man coverage ruined that plan. Antonio Brown, his intended receiver, fell down and Richard Sherman intercepted it at the Seattle 35. Roethlisberger’s pass to Jesse James was good for the two-point convesion.
With his team down five points late and facing a 4th-and-goal from inside Seattle’s 5-yard line, head coach Mike Tomlin opted to kick the field goal instead of going for the lead.
Steelers linebacker Jarvis Jones wasn’t about to blame the loss on this or that little thing. So did Markus Wheaton, DeAngelo Williams and the rest of the Steelers offense. Pittsburgh had a 3-0 lead heading into the second quarter and they had the ball on the Seahawks’ 22-yard line, but they were faced with a fourth down and two yards to gain.
Seattle is looking to get their season pointed back in the right direction. That essentially ended Seattle’s chances for a third consecutive NFC West title.
Roethlisberger completed 36 of 55 passes for 456 yards and a touchdown before leaving the game. That 147.9 passer rating is a career best over a two-game span.
“You can see his focus is sharper”, Baldwin said, adding that it’s not as if Wilson wasn’t focused before. “I don’t know. We’ll find out”.
“That’s Russell Wilson. Whenever his back is against the wall is when he plays his best”. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been dealing with a mid-foot sprain but said the bye week helped to alleviate the swelling. The Seahawks would have been down more than 18-14 at halftime if not for Pittsburgh getting too cute. So was Tomlin’s decision to open the second quarter with a fake field goal that had Jones take the place of usual holder Jordan Berry and saw the Steelers shift into an offensive formation on fourth-and-two. It was Ben’s 5th game in a row with an interception thrown, a career high. The issue comes from doing it after the quarter break, when Seattle clearly had time to recognize Landry Jones was on the field as the holder, as evidenced by the fact they shifted into a base defense when Jones went into the shotgun.
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That set up Wilson’s 16-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Baldwin down the slot.
