Coming out of the locker room at halftime, Seattle Seahawks’ head coach Pete Carroll told NBC’s Michelle Tafoya that the Seahawks needed to start running the football. Mike Tomlin then stated he believed the Seahawks were going to push the football down the field trailing 14-0.
True to his word, Carroll and the Seahawks came out firing on all cylinders on the ground, rushing for 125 yards in the second half, bludgeoning the Steelers’ front seven play after play, dragging the Russell Wilson-less Seahawks back into the game on the road.
It was familiar foe Alex Collins who led the charge for the Seahawks in the second half as Seattle ran away from Cameron Heyward and right into the likes of Isaiah Buggs, Henry Mondeaux and Chris Wormley, picking up chunk play after chunk play running through large gaps and poor tackle attempts tp stun the Steelers’ defense, which had its way in the first half against the Geno Smith-led unit.
After the overtime win, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin gave credit to the Seahawks’ game plan for successfully running the football in the second half, taking the pressure off of Smith on the road and getting after a depleted Steelers’ front seven.
“Man, they had a great, great plan,” Tomlin said following the game to reports, via the Steelers’ official YouTube page. “Kudos to those guys, man. They had a great plan. On the line of scrimmage, we didn’t get off enough blocks and things of that nature. We didn’t tackle well enough. Collins ran really well. I wouldn’t take anything away from them.”
The Seahawks certainly deserve credit for committing to the run game coming out of the half trailing 14-0, but what exactly where the Steelers doing defensively, especially after the opening drive of the second half went the way it did for the Seahawks, who chewed up the Steelers’ front seven leading to Collins’ rushing touchdown?
There were few adjustments prior to the second drive in which the Seahawks went right down the field again running seemingly the same zone duo to the left side of the Steelers’ defense, gashing them time and time again.
Fortunately for Pittsburgh, the defense was able to adjust late, shutting down the Seahawks’ rushing attack without Collins on the field, forcing Seattle to throw, which led to T.J. Watt’s heroics in overtime.
Moving forward though, the success teams have had on the ground to date this season cannot continue to be chalked up to a great game plan week after week. The Steelers must get this corrected. The pending return of a healthy Stephon Tuitt will certainly help that, but without him things need to get cleaned up — and fast – over the bye week.
