Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Antwon Blake had another rough game Sunday in the team’s 39-30 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. While Blake gave up several completions in the game along with missing several tackles, it’s what happened on the Seahawks final score that seems to irk the cornerback the most
“They saw we were in man (coverage) on that play, but I have to make the tackle,” Blake said, according to Ralph N. Paulk of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “It doesn’t matter how close it was. We just have to stop giving up the big plays. We didn’t do a good job of that.”
No, the Steelers certainly didn’t do a good job on that play as not only did they allow Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson to connect with wide receiver Doug Baldwin on that 3rd and 10 play with 2:14 left in the game, they missed two tackle attempts on the pass catcher on his way to scoring an 80-yard touchdown that put the game away for good.
“They ran a good concept to beat the coverage we were in,” Blake said. “The bottom line is that we have to make an incomplete pass or make a tackle on that.”
As we have pointed out on the site several times over the course of the last several weeks, Blake is obviously not 100% healthy. In fact, judging by what transpired on Sunday, the former undrafted free agent didn’t even look 50% healthy from the waist up as several times he halfheartedly made tackle attempts without the use of his arms.
In about 45 minutes from now, head coach Mike Tomlin will address the media and one would think he will be asked about Blake’s performance on Sunday and if he’s thinking about possibly benching him in favor of seldom-used cornerback Brandon Boykin.
If Tomlin says that Blake is healthy enough to play Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts this coming Sunday, he probably needs to tell his cornerback to start using his arms to wrap up with while attempting to make a tackle.
