The Sports Xchange
Nov 29, 2015
SEATTLE -- Quarterback Russell Wilson passed for a season-high 345 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Seattle Seahawks to a 39-30 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
Wilson's 80-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin, the Seattle receiver's third score of the day, with 2:01 remaining gave Seattle (6-5) a nine-point lead and essentially put the game away.
Baldwin caught six passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns, while teammate Jermaine Kearse added four receptions for 47 yards and a pair of scores. Seattle intercepted four passes and actually had a fifth -- cornerback Richard Sherman's second of the game -- that didn't count in the statistics because it came on a failed two-point conversion.
Three of the Seahawks' five touchdowns came after interceptions.
The Seahawks had to overcome 456 passing yards from Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who went 36 for 55 with a touchdown and also threw two interceptions. Backup Landry Jones, who took a shotgun snap on a play that started out of field-goal formation and took the field for the Steelers' final drive while Roethlisberger underwent concussion tests, threw two interceptions.
Pittsburgh (6-5) had 538 total yards of offense in the loss.
The Seahawks lost Pro Bowl tight end Jimmy Graham early in the fourth quarter, leaving his status for next week and beyond unclear. Graham appeared to twist his right ankle, and possibly his knee, while reaching back for a ball in the end zone. He was taken off the field on a cart with 13:36 remaining and did not return.
Three plays after that, the Seahawks took their first lead of the second half when Wilson hit Kearse for the receiver's second touchdown reception of the game, a 9-yarder that put Seattle up 26-21 with 12:17 remaining.
Thirty-seven seconds later, Roethlisberger connected with Markus Wheaton on a 69-yard touchdown pass as the Steelers regain the lead, 27-26.
Seattle came right back down the field to score on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Baldwin. The Seahawks failed on a two-point conversion try, their third missed conversion of the game, and led 32-27, with 8:12 remaining.
In a span of 4 minutes, 5 seconds, the two teams combined for three touchdowns in the fourth.
Pittsburgh cut the deficit to two points, at 32-30, on a Chris Boswell field goal with 3:00 remaining.
After the Steelers forced Seattle into a third-and-10 situation with just over two minutes remaining, Wilson hit Baldwin on a short crossing pattern at the Seahawks' 25-yard line. Baldwin broke an attempted tackle from Pittsburgh safety Mike Mitchell and sprinted down the sideline the rest of the way, putting the game out of reach.
A third-quarter interception by Seattle defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin set up a Thomas Rawls touchdown as the Seahawks cut the deficit to 21-20 with three minutes left in the third quarter, then Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward blocked the extra point to keep Pittsburgh in front.
Sherman, cornerback Jeremy Lane and safety Kam Chancellor also had interceptions for the Seahawks, who had just four interceptions on the season entering Sunday's game.
The Steelers used a 74-second touchdown drive near the end of the first half to take an 18-14 lead going into the halftime. DeAngelo Williams's 6-yard touchdown run with 50 seconds remaining capped off a wild second quarter that saw the two teams combine for 29 points while the lead changed four times.
After Pittsburgh's Boswell gave the Steelers a 3-0 lead for the only points of the first quarter, the Seahawks turned an interception into Baldwin's first touchdown to go ahead 7-3 with 12:18 remaining in the first half. Baldwin's touchdown came after Seattle cornerback Jeremy Lane intercepted a Landry Jones pass on a play that started in field-goal formation and returned it 54 yards to the Pittsburgh 24.
The Steelers came right back with a seven-play, 49-yard scoring drive that ended with receiver Antonio Brown scoring from 11 yards out on a reverse, giving Pittsburgh a 10-7 lead with 8:39 remaining.
Six-and-a-half minutes later, Wilson threw his second touchdown pass of the half on a 12-yard strike to Kearse as Seattle went back in front, 14-10, with 2:10 remaining.
Roethlisberger, who threw for 206 yards in the first half alone, engineered an eight-play, 80-yard drive that covered only 1 minute, 14 seconds, as Williams scored and Pittsburgh added a two-point conversion for an 18-14 halftime lead.
Seattle was flagged seven times for 61 yards in the first half.
NOTES: Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger left the field with two minutes remaining to undergo tests under the NFL's concussion protocol. ... Steelers LB Ryan Shazier came out of the game with a concussion midway through the second quarter. He did not return. ... Seahawks CB Cary Williams, who had played in 81 consecutive games, was not in uniform as a healthy scratch for the game. Williams was benched after starting the Seahawks' first 10 games this season. ... Seattle FB Will Tukuafu and DT Demarcus Dobbbs suffered first-half concussions and did not play in the second half.
