Nov 29, 2015 4 min read

SEATTLE – When you play with fire, sooner or later you’re going to get burned.

The Steelers were doing that all season, allowing a large amount of passing yards each week. But they also made big stops at the right time, keeping opponents out of the end zone at a rate that didn’t match the yardage totals.

Their luck ran out Sunday in a 39-30 loss to the Seahawks.

Russell Wilson became the latest quarterback to pick apart the Steelers’ makeshift secondary, throwing for 345 yards. And unlike some previous opponents, he burned the Steelers for touchdowns, throwing five, three to Doug Baldwin and two to Jermaine Kearse.

Baldwin and Kearse aren’t going to be confused with Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant anytime soon, but they certainly looked every bit like those All-Pro players against Pittsburgh’s secondary, which had issues in coverage and tackling.

“Anytime you give up points, you feel like you have to shoulder the blame,” said cornerback Antwon Blake. “We didn’t make enough plays. They made more plays than us. That’s how the game went.”

Again and again.

Some fans will point to an ill-fated fake field goal attempt in the second quarter as the reason the Steelers lost this game. But that’s simply not the case.

It certainly contributed, since the pass from backup Landry Jones was intercepted – one of four the Steelers threw in the game. The real culprit in this loss was a pass defense that lived down to the expectations everyone had for it coming into this season.

Most troubling was that eight times in the game, the Steelers had Seattle in third-and-six or longer situations and allowed the Seahawks to convert six of them, including two that went for touchdowns.

That’s not just bad defense, it’s terrible.

“There were so many times when we had them third and long that we didn’t capitalize,” said defensive end Cameron Heyward. “It’s disheartening because it means we’re doing our job on first and second and then not getting off on critical downs.”

None of those third down conversions was more critical than an 80-yard catch-and-run by Baldwin with 2:14 remaining in the game.

Trailing 32-30 after a 22-yard Chris Boswell field goal, the Steelers had the Seahawks facing third-and-10 and on the verge of a punt from their own 20.

Baldwin ran a crossing route from left to right and beat Blake across the field. Once he caught the ball, it was a race to the end zone for a score that put the game out of reach for the Steelers.

“They ran a good concept for the coverage we were in,” said Blake. “The bottom line is that we’ve got to get an incomplete pass or make the tackle there.”

They did neither and paid the price.

Can this defense bounce back and be better? Sure. It’s played well in spurts. But consistency from game to game or even play to play is lacking.

They had masked some of the poor performances by getting timely turnovers. Without those, it’s a very bad pass defense.

Blake and nickel corner Ross Cockrell are nice complementary players but are being overexposed in coverage.

“We gave up a lot of passing yardage and didn’t have any turnovers,” said safety Will Allen. “We can’t have that to be a dominant defense. We strive to be a dominant defense. We need turnovers.”

And at this point, there aren’t a lot of fixes. Brandon Boykin, acquired in a preseason trade from Philadelphia, remains firmly attached to the bench because he can’t beat out William Gay as the nickel corner.

And Gay hasn’t been the problem.

Short of moving Gay out of the slot or putting Boykin on the outside, where it’s obvious the coaching staff doesn’t trust him, there aren’t a lot of options.

And that leaky secondary will likely be the Steelers’ undoing this season.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.