Steelers vs. Seahawks: Pittsburgh Grades, Notes and Quotes

It never fails that this version of the Steelers secondary—which is roughly the same personnel as last season—makes a very bland, average passing attack look like the next "Greatest Show on Turf."

That's just what happened Sunday in Seattle as Russell Wilson (a pretty good quarterback with limited targets) carved up the Steelers defense to a tune of 336 yards and five touchdowns without turning the ball over.

Wilson was sacked just twice on the day and had ample time and space to find Doug Baldwin (six catches, 145 yards, three TD's), Jermaine Kearse (four catches, 47 yards, two TD's) and Jimmy Graham (four catches, 75 yards) as the Steelers secondary barely put up a fight in the 39-30 loss to the Seahawks. The Steelers dropped to 6-5 on the season in a muddied AFC Wild Card playoff picture.

As a unit, the Steelers defense allowed a very vanilla Seahawks attack to gain 436 total yards on just 59 plays (7.4 yards per play).

Antwon Blake and Ross Cockrell had a rough day against Seattle, each getting beaten badly for touchdowns in the loss. Outside of sacks from William Gay and Cameron Heyward, the Steelers recorded very little pressure on Russell Wilson, who had—by far—the best game of his career.

With the defense serving as a swinging gate for the Seahawks offense, the Steelers offense had to pick up the slack against a relatively tough Seahawks defense.

Pittsburgh's offense did just that, raking up 538 total yards on 75 plays (7.2 yards per play). However, the Steelers' offense stalled multiple times in the red zone, forcing Pittsburgh to settle for field goals. there also was a questionable choice to go for a field goal down five points with just three minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Ben Roethlisberger was very sharp in this one, continuing to throw terrific deep balls to Markus Wheaton and Martavis Bryant against the "Legion of Boom." Unfortunately, Antonio Brown struggled in his matchup with Richard Sherman, finishing with just six catches for 51 yards. Against Sherman, Brown caught just three passes for 24 yards, with Roethlisberger getting picked off once.

Wheaton appears to have woken up in this offense. Against Seattle, Wheaton showed the ability to settle into zones and show his numbers to Roethlisberger, while also continuing his routes and working his way open once Roethlisberger had to leave the pocket. He finished with nine catches for 201 yards and one score in the loss.

Moving forward, this loss hurts but doesn't crush the Steelers' playoff chances. With a return to Heinz Field to take on Matt Hasselback and the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night, Pittsburgh can get back on track and make some headway in the playoff picture.

Position Grades for Pittsburgh

Getty Images

Quarterback: B+

Roethlisberger was very good against Seattle, throwing for 456 yards and one score while completing 65 percent of his passes.

However, Roethlisberger was picked off on two fluky throws, which directly led to 12 points for Seattle. On the first interception to Ahtyba Rubin, it looked like Roethlisberger was attempting to hold onto the ball late. The ball fluttered out of his hand and hit Rubin in the shoulder, which he was able to corral for the interception.

On the second interception, Brown and Sherman got a little physical, which forced Brown to fall down on the route, leading to an easy pick for Sherman. Neither pick thrown by Roethlisberger was a huge mistake that was completely on him. Both seemed rather fluky. However, the interceptions marked the fifth straight game that he's thrown at least one interception. That has to be cleaned up moving forward.

With that said, the biggest concern moving forward is how Roethlisberger recovers from the concussion he suffered in the fourth quarter. He missed the final Steelers' drive and is reportedly in the concussion protocol, per ESPN.com's Jeremy Fowler.

Running Back: B

DeAngelo Williams once again looks like a great bargain for this Steelers offense.

Although he finished with just 29 yards and a score on eight carries (3.6 yards per carry), Williams added 88 yards on seven catches out of the backfield, doing his best Le'Veon Bell impression in the loss.

At 32 years old, Williams is showing burst, vision and wiggle that we haven't seen in quite some time from the former Carolina Panthers running back.

Wide Receivers: A-

Wheaton's performance alone merits an A+. The third-year receiver had a career day against Seattle thanks to the two-high-safety look that the Seahawks employed, which opened up the middle of the field.

Wheaton won battles vertically, made tough catches in the middle of the field and showed how much he's improved in the run-after-catch department.

Outside of Wheaton's performance, Bryant and Brown struggled in this one. Bryant dropped a few passes and seemed to lack focus on some routes, while Brown struggled to separate from the big, physical Sherman.

Tight Ends: B+

Before leaving with a rib injury, Heath Miller was gashing the Seahawks defense in the middle of the field. Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright simply weren't a match for Miller, who was able to get open and pick up chunks of yardage.

Once Miller went down, rookie Jesse James stepped in and played well, hauling in a two-point conversion. James went on to catch just one pass for eight yards.

Miller finished with five catches for 45 yards on six targets.

Offensive Line: B-

Against a very strong front seven of Seattle, the Steelers offensive line did a nice job of protecting Roethlisberger in the loss, despite him having to leave the game. 

Outside of one blown blocking assignment, Alejandro Villanueva held strong against the likes of Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett, while Marcus Gilbert did relatively well on the right side. 

Cody Wallace continues to emerge as a fearsome run-blocker, showing off his power and mean streak against Seattle. 

David DeCastro and Ramon Foster were mostly invisible in the loss.

Wheaton Has a Career Day

Associated Press

Thanks to his nine-catch, 201-yard performance, Wheaton recorded the second-most receiving yards in a game on the road, according to Steelers PR/Media Manager Dom Rinelli.

With the 201 yards, Wheaton established a career high and became the sixth Steelers receiver in franchise history with a 200-yard game. Along with that, Wheaton set a CenturyLink Field game high, regardless of team.

I put a lot of heat on Wheaton this past week, saying it was now or never for him to step up and establish some chemistry with Roethlisberger.

He blew away my expectations this week. Hats off to you, Markus.

Roethlisberger Making Franchise History

Associated Press

Wheaton wasn't the only Steelers offensive player to have a huge day.

Roethlisberger threw for 456 yards in the loss, marking the most yards allowed through the air by Seattle in franchise history.

Not only did Roethlisberger shatter that Seattle franchise mark, but he also tied Carson Palmer and Philip Rivers with eight career 400-yard passing games, according to Rinelli.

In the last four years or so, Roethlisberger has really established himself as one of the top three or four QBs in the game, thanks to his prolific passing attack.

Seattle's pass defense had been tough all season long in terms of statistics. Roethlisberger just toasted it on Sunday.

Heyward Says Third-Down Failures Led to Loss

USA Today Sports

Cam Heyward is easily the most refreshing Steelers player to listen to. He's very informative and is a straight shooter.

After Sunday's loss to Seattle, Heyward was once again very upfront to reporters about what did in the Steelers defense:

"

There were so many times we had them on 3rd & long and we didn't capitalize. We kept them on the field. That's disheartening because it means that we were doing our job on first and second, and not getting off on the critical down. We talked about it going into this game – that was one of our goals – and we didn't accomplish that.

"

In the NFL, if your defense can't get off the field on third down, you're going to lose the game almost every single time. That happened to Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Seattle was 7-of-13 on third downs, including 5-of-7 on 3rd-and-long, according to Alex Kozora of Steelers Depot.

Wheaton Explains Big Day

USA Today Sports

On film leading up to Sunday's game against Seattle, it was easy to see that the middle of the Seahawks defense would be open if the Steelers could just get someone to utilize the space.

Heath Miller did a good job of that before exiting with an injury. From there, Wheaton took over.

In his postgame press conference, he explained why he was able to have a big day: "They just ran a lot of two-high to take away the outsides. The middle was wide open."

Looking back at the film, Seattle too often asked K.J. Wright, Bobby Wagner and Kam Chancellor to drop into space and cover the fast, shifty Wheaton. By trying to take away Pittsburgh's big-play weapons in Brown and Bryant, they forgot all about Wheaton, who was able to gash them repeatedly. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, Wheaton's performance didn't add up to a win.