Heading into Sunday’s matchup against his former team in the Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks linebacker Devin Bush raised some eyebrows when he stated that he expected the Steelers to run the football without Kenny Pickett under center, and that he felt he knew how to stop the run after his time in Pittsburgh.
Turns out, all that experience working against the Steelers’ run game during his tenure in the Steel City didn’t make a lick of difference for the Seahawks. The Steelers gashed Seattle on the ground, rushing for 202 yards and three touchdowns. Pittsburgh physicality dominated the Seahawks from start to finish in the run game, averaging 4.4 yards per carry in the 30-23 win.
Najee Harris rushed for 122 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries, while Jaylen Warren rushed for 75 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. Each had some angry runs in the process, displaying serious power with the rock in their hands.
Though Bush stated he knew what was coming and felt he knew how to stop it, he didn’t have an answer, even with his 17 tackles (five solo) for Seattle.
After the game, Bush doubled down on his comments from last week, stating that nothing Pittsburgh did surprised him.
“It wasn’t anything that I hadn’t seen before,” Bush stated to reporters, according to the transcript provided by the Seahawks. “They just beat us on the line of scrimmage. They beat us physically. That’s it.”
It might be as simple as that, but it’s rather rich coming from a guy like Bush.
Maybe it wasn’t anything different he was used to seeing during his time in Pittsburgh. It’s worth noting he had plenty of 9-on-7 reps working against the run game during his time in Pittsburgh in training camp and in practice settings. He knows the plays, the blocking concepts, some of the terminology, all of that.
And yet despite having that inside knowledge, he couldn’t do a single thing to stop them. He was part of the Seattle problem getting dominated up front.
The 17 tackles are a nice number for him to have in a matchup against the team that traded up to draft him at No. 10 overall in 2019 and then decided to not pick up his fifth-year option and let him walk in free agency. But doubling down after getting physicality dominated and stating that you knew what was coming (in so many words) is bold.
So much for knowing what was coming and having a plan to stop it. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Devin Bush found that out the hard way Sunday.
