Cheat Sheet: Week 2 vs. Seahawks

SERIES HISTORY

The Steelers and Seahawks have only squared off 21 times and the series is split nearly evenly at 11-10 in Pittsburgh's favor. However, the most important of those 20 matchups, Super Bowl XL, went Pittsburgh's way. During the Seahawks long stint as an AFC team, Seattle and the Steelers never met in the playoffs. The 1976 season was Seattle's first in the NFL. This series began in 1977 with Pittsburgh winning that game as well as another the following season. The most recent matchup was in 2023, a game the Steelers won in Seattle. This has been a very back and forth series history with neither team (Super Bowl XL excluded) having won more than two in a row at any point since 1977. The Steelers are now on a two-game winning streak though against Seattle.

MATCHUP OVERVIEW

• The Seahawks were 7-1 last season, Mike Macdonald's first year as an NFL head coach, on the road.
• Since 2000, the Steelers are tied with New England with 20 seasons with a record above .500. Seattle is tied for third with 18 such seasons.
• Pittsburgh's 2024 +16 turnover differential was only behind the Bills, while Seattle's -6 was only better than seven teams.
• Seattle allowed 25.1 more rushing yards than they produced last season.
• The Seahawks time of possession (28:49) in 2024 was only better than four teams. Last week, Seattle only held the ball for 22:02.
• Only six teams took more penalties last year than Seattle. However, both the Steelers and Seahawks were only penalized four times last week, which ties them for second best in the league currently.
• Last week Aaron Rodgers tied Tom Brady with the most career 4+ touchdown games (28) without an interception. He also tied Peyton Manning for third all time in four touchdown games with 35. Rodgers is now only behind Brady and Drew Brees.
• Rodgers needs two passing touchdowns to pass Brett Favre for fourth place all time.
• The Steelers were outrushed by 129 yards in Week 1 while Seattle was outrushed by 46.
• The Seahawks are 19-4 in Sunday 1 pm road games since 2018 (best in the NFL).

WHEN PITTSBURGH HAS THE BALL

• The Steelers averaged 5.1 yards per play last season. Seattle allowed 5.3. Pittsburgh produced 5.0 yards per play in Week 1 while the Seahawks allowed 5.3.
• Only the Ravens and Bills scored more points than Pittsburgh in Week 1.
• Last year the Seahawks allowed a touchdown on 19.1% of opponent possessions, fifth in the league, and forced a three-and-out on 38.7% of possessions, second best.
• Seattle's defense only faced 12 Personnel on 16.7% of their snaps last season. Only three defenses faced 12 Personnel less. The Steelers utilized the highest percentage of 12 Personnel (53.7%) in the league in Week 1. Pittsburgh was in 11 Personnel on just 35% of their snaps, lowest in the league.
• Rodgers four touchdown passes were the most ever by a quarterback in his Steelers debut. He now has back-to-back games with four touchdown passes. Over his last 11 games, Rodgers has a touchdown/interception ratio of 22/4.
• Against the Jets, Rodgers attempted 10 play action passes, completing eight of them for 71 yards and three touchdowns. After not using play action no more than 27% of his dropbacks over the last four seasons, Rodgers used play action on 33.3% of his dropbacks on Sunday. His three touchdowns off play action were his most in a game in over a decade. On early downs, Rodgers' play action rate was at 39% and he went 17 of 23 for 8.6 yards per attempt with four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
• There were 65.6% of Rodgers' pass attempts that came short of the sticks and 70.1% of his yardage came after the catch. His average depth of target was 4.63 yards downfield. He threw eight passes behind the line of scrimmage for 43 yards and 10 passes between zero and five air yards for 78 yards. Rodgers attempted one pass over 20 yards downfield. A total of 20% of Rodgers pass attempts came from outside the pocket, his highest rate since at least 2020. Amongst all Week 1 quarterbacks, Rodgers had the third-highest explosive pass rate (23.5%) while throwing the most screens (30% of dropbacks). His 2.29 average time to throw was the quickest of all quarterbacks in Week 1.
• Out of a possible 56 snaps, DK Metcalf played 54, Calvin Austin III played 45 and no other wide receiver played more than 10 in Week 1.
• Last week, Metcalf averaged just 3.2 air yards per target, the lowest in a game in his career.
• Austin got a 20.7% target share against the Jets. That was the fifth time in his career he eclipsed 20%. Austin ran a route on 88% of Pittsburgh's dropbacks. Roman Wilson only ran seven routes.
• Seattle only allowed 7.4 yards per target to wide receivers (fourth) last season.
• Pittsburgh created 171 yards after the catch vs. the Jets, their second-most in the last 22 games. Seattle allowed 128 against the 49ers. The Steelers had the highest average yards after the catch per reception in the league in Week 1 (7.9).
• Amongst Pittsburgh's tight ends last week, Jonnu Smith had a 66% snap share compared to 50% for Pat Freiermuth, and 46% for Washington. In terms of target share, Smith was at 21.4%, Freiermuth at 10.7%, and Darnell Washington wasn't targeted. Smith and Freiermuth each ran 18 routes.
• Seattle allowed two touchdowns to tight ends against San Francisco.
• Kenneth Gainwell out-snapped Jaylen Warren 28 to 24 and received all the third down work in Week 1. Kaleb Johnson played two offensive snaps.
• Seattle conceded 211 all-purpose yards to 49ers running backs in Week 1.
• Pittsburgh's running backs failed to gain yardage on 31.6% of their rushing attempts last week, 29^th in the league.
• The Seahawks defense returns each of their top four pressure leaders from last year in Derick Hall (50), Leonard Williams (50), Boye Mafe (41), and Jarran Reed (40). They are just one of three teams along with the Rams and Broncos to return four players that generated 40+ pressures. Seattle finished Week 1 with the NFL's highest pressure rate, pressuring Brock Purdy on 60% of his dropbacks.
• Devon Witherspoon generated 13 pressures last season on just 42 pass rush snaps. He was tied for third-most pressures by a cornerback.

WHEN SEATTLE HAS THE BALL

• The Seahawks averaged 5.5 yards per play last season. Pittsburgh allowed 5.4. Seattle produced 4.6 in Week 1 while the Steelers gave up 6.4.
• The Steelers have allowed 27.6 points per game since Week 13 of the 2024 season.
• Last year, the Seahawks only ran the ball on 37.2% of their snaps. That was the fifth lowest percentage.
• In 2024, the Seahawks used 11 Personnel at the NFL's third highest rate (77.9%).
• Seattle only ran 60.6 plays per game in 2024, only seven offenses ran fewer.
• Last year in Minnesota, Darnold averaged 7.9 yards per pass attempt (sixth) and a 6.4% touchdown rate (fifth). But Darnold also had an 8.1% sack rate (28^th) with the Vikings and his turnover rate (3.7%) ranked 32^nd. Darnold recorded a league-high 46.7% completion percentage on deep passes (20+ yards) last year. He only threw for 150 yards in Week 1 with an average time to throw of 2.39 seconds. Darnold has zero wins and just one passing touchdowns in his last three games, including playoffs.
• Three of the Seahawks top four reception and yardage leaders from 2024 (Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Noah Fant) are no longer with the team.
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught 100 passes for 1,130 yards and six touchdowns last year. A midseason injury to Metcalf accelerated his breakout. Through seven weeks, Smith-Njigba averaged 5.3 receptions for 45.6 yards per game with just one touchdown and was only targeted on 19% of his routes. But from then on, Smith-Njigba averaged 6.3 receptions for 81.1 yards with five touchdowns and was targeted on 24.4% of his routes. He averaged 1.91 yards per route run out of the slot, but just 1.3 when aligned out wide. Smith-Njigba ran 82% of his 2024 routes out of the slot gaining a league-high 956 yards from an inside alignment. That was the most by any NFL receiver from the slot since Cooper Kupp (1,321) in 2021 with the Rams.
• Smith-Njigba caught nine passes for 124 yards last week. No other Seattle pass catcher accounted for more than 15 receiving yards. Smith-Njigba accounted for 91% of the Seahawks air yards, the sixth highest share in an NFL game since at least 2016. He was targeted 13 times on just 23 routes and finished with a 59.1% target share. His average depth of target was 13.6 yards downfield. He accounted for 82.7% of Seattle's passing yards in Week 1. Smith-Njigba aligned outside on 61.9% of his routes against San Francisco, highest of his career.
• In 2024 with the Rams, Cooper Kupp matched a career low with 10.6 yards per catch and his 59.2 yards per game was his lowest since his rookie season. In six of his past eight games, including playoffs, Kupp has posted 29 or fewer yards and three or fewer receptions. Kupp ran 65% of his routes from the slot last year and 54.5% in Week 1. Kupp was targeted on just 13.6% of his routes last week, his second lowest percentage since the start of 2020.
• Tory Horton was Seattle's third wide receiver, playing 54% of the Week 1 snaps. He was on the field for 70.8% of dropbacks, fifth amongst all rookie wide receivers. Horton was not targeted, however.
• AJ Barner was on the field last week for every snap in which Seattle had multiple tight ends on the field and for 77.8% of the snaps with a single tight end. Barner ran 19 routes compared to nine by Elijah Arroyo.
• In the passing game, Walker caught three passes last week compared to zero for Charbonnet, but Charbonnet ran 10 routes compared to nine by Walker.
• Seattle was last in the league in Week 1 in play action rate.
• Pittsburgh's defense is currently second best in pressure rate (4.3%).
• T.J. Watt, including playoffs, has not recorded a sack in his last five games, the longest streak of his career.
• The Steelers batted two passes last week, one by Cam Heyward. The Steelers lead the NFL with 24 batted passes in 2024 and Heyward led the league with 10.
• Kenneth Walker in 2024 averaged 5.3 yards per touch over his first five games but dropped to 3.7 afterwards. He averaged just 3.7 yards per carry, 40^th of 46 running backs with at least 100 carries. But Walker's .69 yards per rush before first contact ranked 44^th on that list. He did catch a career-high 46 passes in 2024 after catching 56 balls over his first two seasons combined.
• Walker ran for just 20 yards on 10 carries against San Francisco and Charbonnet got 12 carries for 47 rushing yards. Charbonnet out snapped Walker 30-21. Walker played 57% of the early down snaps.
• Seattle's running backs failed to gain yardage on 31.8% of their rushing attempts last week, 30^th in the league and Walker came in at 50% in this metric. Neither running back had a run longer eight yards.
• The Steelers had five tackles for loss on running plays in Week 1, two by TJ Watt. The Seahawks allowed four against San Francisco.
• Seattle was just three for 10 on third downs last week.
• Before leaving with a leg injury, Joey Porter Jr. aligned at left cornerback for 41 of 43 snaps in Week 1 while Darius Slay aligned at right cornerback for all 43 snaps. When Porter exited the game, Slay moved to left cornerback for the final 18 of 19 snaps and Jalen Ramsey playing outside on 14 of 19 snaps after not aligning there once while Porter was healthy.

SPECIAL TEAMS

• The Steelers caused a fumble on a kickoff return in Week 1 and Seattle blocked a field goal attempt while also benefiting from two San Francisco missed field goal attempts.
• Chris Boswell was perfect in New York, making kicks of 56 and 60 yards.
• Jason Myers made 26 of 30 field goal attempts in 2024, but three of his misses were from outside of 50 yards. He missed three of his 40 extra point attempts. Myers was two for two in Week 2.
• The Steelers leaders in Week 1 special teams snaps were Jack Sawyer (23), Ben Skowronek (21), Miles Killebrew (21), Conner Heyward (20), and Carson Bruener (20).

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT: February 5, 2006: Super Bowl XL: Steelers 21, Seahawks 10

Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers to the Super Bowl in just his second season in the NFL. This was Seattle's first ever Super Bowl appearance and they were quickly down on the scoreboard 14-3 after Willie Parker's 75-yard touchdown run. With 6:04 left in regulation, this was still a 14-10 game in Pittsburgh's favor. But at that moment, the Steelers called a trick play in which Antwaan Randle El (a former college quarterback turned wide receiver) threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward to put the game away. Ward was the MVP of Super Bowl XL after catching five passes for 123 yards including that key touchdown. Every one of Ward's receptions went for a first down. Probably the most memorable aspect of the Steelers fifth Super Bowl victory was this was Jerome Bettis' last game, and it took place in Bettis' hometown of Detroit. This was also the first time in NFL history when a sixth seed went on to win the Super Bowl.

KEY MATCHUPS

Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba vs. Steelers CB Jalen Ramsey-Smith-Njigba was basically the entire Seahawks passing game in Week 1. Over his career, Smith-Njigba does a lot of his work out of the slot, where he should see a lot of Ramsey, but also aligned outside much more than usual in Week 1. But no matter who is in coverage vs. Smith-Njigba, he must be the Steelers focus in slowing down Seattle's passing game.

Steelers WR DK Metcalf vs. Seahawks Secondary-The Seahawks excellent defense presents a lot of matchup problems, but how could we not feature Metcalf against his former team? Devon Witherspoon is one of Seattle's top defenders, but he does a high percentage of his work out of the slot when the Seahawks have five or more defensive backs on the field. It is uncertain exactly how the Seahawks will gameplan to defend Metcalf, but it is surely going to be a joint effort.