{"id":362716,"date":"2025-09-12T17:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/362716\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:57:10","slug":"analyst-seahawks-could-have-breakout-game-against-really-slow-steelers-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/362716\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst: Seahawks Could Have ‘Breakout Game’ Against ‘Really Slow’ Steelers’ Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

While they have a lot of talented players, the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 defense had a bad game to open<\/a> the 2025 season. They got dominated on the ground, letting the New York Jets rush for almost 200 yards. Justin Fields had a lot of success throwing the ball, too. With the Seattle Seahawks visiting Pittsburgh this weekend, the Steelers have an opportunity to prove that Week 1 was just a fluke. However, analyst Charles McDonald believes that the Seahawks\u2019 offense will actually be the unit that bounces back after scoring just 13 points last Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what was a little bit surprising for me with the Steelers\u2019 defense against the Jets was how soft they were up front,\u201d McDonald said recently on the Football 301 podcast.<\/a> \u201cThey got mashed a lot of times. I thought Keeanu Benton did not have a good game. Cameron Hayward looked a little old.<\/p>\n

\u201cT.J. Watt was chasing on the cheese on everything and letting Justin Fields get out the pocket. If you\u2019re that undisciplined, any offense can get you any week. I think this could be a big breakout game for Seahawks on offense just because I think the Steelers\u2019 defense looks really slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers weren\u2019t the only team this offseason that made significant changes. The Seahawks also shook up their roster, particularly on offense. Steelers fans are aware that they traded DK Metcalf, but the Seahawks also sent quarterback Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders. He had been their starter since 2022.<\/p>\n

To replace him, they signed Sam Darnold, who experienced a career resurgence last season after spending his several few years in the NFL looking like a bust. Darnold was great for Minnesota Vikings, throwing for 4,319 yards, 35 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.<\/p>\n

However, there are concerns that Darnold\u2019s success was mostly a byproduct of the Vikings\u2019 offense. His Seahawks debut didn\u2019t do much to dissuade those worries, either.<\/a> He only threw for 150 yards with zero touchdowns and a lost fumble.<\/p>\n

Almost all of Darnold\u2019s passing yards, 124 of them specifically, came from throwing to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The Seahawks didn\u2019t run the ball well, either. Their offensive struggles led to a close a loss to the San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n

While the Steelers\u2019 defense had an ugly first showing, players have talked extensively this week about how committed they are to not letting that happen again. They don\u2019t need to let Week 1 define them. The same goes for the Seahawks\u2019 offense, though. Both units have a lot to prove this week, and we\u2019ll see which one emerges victorious.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While they have a lot of talented players, the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 defense had a bad game to open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[271,7,34666,6,57,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-362716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-charles-mcdonald","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-football-301","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-seahawks","14":"tag-seattle","15":"tag-seattle-seahawks","16":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}