Seahawks Stop the Steelers in Seattle

Though they found success passing to Tyler Lockett for 11 yards and rushing with Thomas Rawls, they ultimately backed themselves up with a false start and an 8 yard sack on Wilson.

LANDOVER, Md. Kirk Cousins threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson and scored on a quarterback sneak, Washington intercepted Eli Manning three times, and the Redskins pulled into a tie for the NFC East lead.

Wilson had fought illness most of the day, but battled to his best game of the season.

“Fun” probably wouldn’t have been the word to describe how Russell felt midgame, though. Defending the division title is all but a lost cause by trailing the Bengals by a full three games after the loss in Seattle and Cincinnati’s victory at home against the Rams.

He dragged through his postgame news conference until someone asked if he ever considered sitting. “But fortunately enough my hands were already low, so I didn’t have to go far to catch it”. Martavis Bryant is coming off the best game of his career with 178 yards receiving two weeks ago against Cleveland. The Seattle game was his fifth consecutive with at least one interception. Its quarterback, however, was not going to let that happen. Seattle’s third missed point-after-touchdown in the past two games kept the Seahawks behind 21-20. He’s trusting his underrated receivers to help him out with some big plays after the catch.

Six points had gone from probable to doubtful – then Wilson hit Doug Baldwin on a seam route for a Seattle touchdown.

“I thought we did a great job tonight on offense”, Wilson said. He saw something in his eyes – an aura that had gone from dogged to downright ruthless.

While the Steelers’ special teams committed the turnover that set up Seattle’s first touchdown, the kickoff return following the Seahawks first touchdown. But really, there’s one goal in the minds of all players: Make the playoffs.

On 3rd and 10, Seattle was nailed with a 15 yard roughing the passer penalty giving the Steelers 1st and 10 from the 46.

Saints tight end Benjamin Watson tweeted a message of support for Graham. Wilson to Graham for another 18.

That’s when Baldwin was saying he took third-down numbers “personally”.

Graham made the catch that is why Seattle traded with New Orleans for him in March. But so did Seattle’s preference to attack on the ground. But against the Steelers, it was a high-flyin’, gunslingin’ summer-blockbuster-like display.

After the Steelers defense forced Seattle into a three-and-out on the opening possession of the second half – Antwon Blake made a nice open field tackle on a quick pass to Fred Jackson on a third-and-4, Ben Roethlisberger went back to work.

Landry Jones – The early interception he threw was an absolute killer. But the real distinction came in that fourth quarter Sunday.

Wilson had surpassed three touchdown passes in a game just twice as a pro before Sunday, and he hadn’t accomplished the feat since 2013. Roethlisberger’s howitzer-like pass got Pittsburgh’s a 69-yard touchdown and a 27-26 lead.

Said left tackle Russell Okung: “Today the magic number was 3”.

Afterward, he talked about the team’s “passion” and “fire” – a pair of indefinable qualities that seemed to be lacking for the Seahawks this season.

“The Dawgs got an Apple Cup win and we won”. Instead, the chronically inconsistent Seahawks offense rallied to spare the defense. You have to think, whether it was Sunday or any previous birthday, he pictured something like this when blowing out the candles.

“We just needed to get a stop”, Tomlin said. “When you love the game, you do anything to find a way”. The Steelers did a lot of good things but still came up short in a loss that left them with a 6-5 record and little margin of error the rest of the season.

He had IV’s in his veins Sunday – and has winning in his blood.