How the Seahawks will beat the odds and the Steelers
The Seahawks take to the road to face Big Ben, the Steelers, and the odds today. It won’t be easy, but this is how they’ll come home with the win.
The Seahawks didn’t play particularly well last week, but they still managed to come out with the win. The blocking of the offensive line was suspect at best. That’s putting it as nicely as possible, because they were actually awful. No one was thrilled with the play of the secondary, either. Seattle hadn’t given up 400 yards through the air since 2015. Not-so-funny side note: that was against the Steelers. So why am I optimistic about today’s game?
Let’s address the two major issues of the win over the Bengals. The offensive line was bad, there’s no way around that. When your quarterback is pressured on 42 percent of his dropbacks, that isn’t very good. The players owned that, as both Duane Brown and Germain Ifedi admitted after the game. As Ifedi said, better communication will go a long way to stifling the Steelers pressure. Hopefully getting more than one snap for guard Mike Iupati will help, too.
It wouldn’t hurt to see a little more of George Fant and Nick Bellore, either. Fant was only in for nine snaps against the Bengals. That’s a huge drop from 2018 when he averaged 24 snaps per game. Fullback Bellore was in on just three offensive plays. A few extra shots of the 250-pounder would make life a bit easier for Russell Wilson and Chris Carson. And let’s see more play-action. Wilson is exceptional at it, and it makes average quarterbacks look like Pro Bowlers. Well, not quite, but DangeRuss already is one. I expect him to throw for three scores, all off play-action.
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As for the secondary, it may help to simply have more of them on the field. Strongside linebacker Mychal Kendricks was on the field for 67 snaps last week. Ugo Amadi, who mainly played the slot corner, was in for only 20 plays. Against the pass-happy Steelers, expect to see a lot more of the newly re-signed Jamar Taylor. He may not be Minkah Fitzpatrick, but he’s pretty good. Cornerback Tre Flowers needs to play better than last week, too.
Above all, the Hawks need to get better play out of the free safety. Tedric Thompson is listed as doubtful, so expect Lano Hill and Marquise Blair to play strong safety. This leaves the dependable Bradley McDougald to patrol the Seahawks secondary. McDougald has made it known that he prefers to play in the box, but I’m much happier with this combination. I don’t think we’ll ever see the veteran whiff on a volleyball spike the way Thompson did last week.
As for the Steelers, they were embarrassed last week against the Patriots. Ben Roethlisberger threw 47 times but couldn’t manage a single touchdown. New England controlled the Pittsburgh ground game, allowing James Conner just 21 yards. On defense, the Steelers shut down the Patriots Sony Michel, who had 14 yards on 15 carries. That is not a typo. But they gave up 70 yards on just 10 carries to the Rex Burkhead – James White combo. I think this is a great chance for C.J. Prosise to shine.
dark. Next. Seahawks game-by-game predictions
So how will the Seahawks win this one? More play-action would be nice. Better use of personnel would be helpful too. That includes targeting Tyler Lockett more than twice. I know I’m in the minority on this prediction, even among our own staff, but I like the Seahawks chances in this one. A week ago I wrote the Hawks would take this one. I still see this as Seahawks 27, Steelers 20.