The Steelers contained Wilson's legs, but not his arm in loss to Seattle

The Steelers’ defensive game plan for the visiting Seahawks on Sunday revolved around keeping Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson in the pocket. He is one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks because he is dangerous in both the passing game and the running game.

Steeler linebacker Mark Barron expanded on that after the game. He had six tackles, a half-sack, a quarterback-hurry, and a fumble recovery.

"That was kind of what we wanted to do with [Wilson],” Barron said. “We wanted to keep him in the pocket. That was part of our game plan.”

The Steelers scored a touchdown late to pull to within 28-26 with five minutes left in the game. Then the Seahawks attempted one last drive to ice the game. That’s when Wilson shifted gears from his arm to his legs.

For the most part, the Steelers’ defense succeeded in keeping Wilson buttoned up. They sacked him four times and held him to two rushes for the entire game…until the last series. And that proved to be decisive

On second and nine from near midfield with 3:24 left, Wilson scrambled for ten yards and a first down. The Seahawks were facing third and 16 from the Pittsburgh 48 yard line three plays later. Wilson ran for 15 yards to set up a fourth and one. They went for it on the next play and gained two yards and a first down to seal the win.

“Obviously we did a good job [stopping Wilson from scrambling] until those last two plays that he had,” Barron said. “Somebody may have gotten a little too wide and he saw a gap and took off.”

Defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt felt that it is almost impossible to keep Wilson in check the entire game because he is too good of a quarterback.

“Russell Wilson is one of the top quarterbacks in the league. He’s a super bowl winner,” Tuitt said. “On film, we saw him scramble a lot. Our whole goal was to try to stop him from scrambling.”

Tuitt had four tackles, two solo sacks and an assisted sack, and three quarterback-hurries.

“We stopped him from scrambling for most of the game,” Tuitt said. “Eventually he was going to make plays, and he made them at the right time.”

Defensive lineman Cam Heyward felt the defensive line broke down on the last series and Wilson took advantage of it.

“We knew in the fourth quarter that Russ [Wilson] likes to take it over and keep the ball in his hands,” Heyward said. “That’s on our rush. Simple as that.”

Wilson credited the Steelers’ pressure in being good throughout the game.

“The [Steelers’] rush was really good. There one of the top rush teams in the league,” Wilson said. “I wasn’t looking to run there, I tried to find some outs but [the run] opened up.”