Kovacevic: Steelers' other issues all secondary

SEATTLE -- Oh, come on. The fake field goal was fine.

Yeah, I know, it's going to be all the buzz following the Steelers' 39-30 buzzkill of a loss to the Seahawks Sunday at CenturyLink Field, and I can see why. The only thing that comes off worse than asking a backup quarterback to throw to a starting left tackle on fourth down is when that pass gets picked, boomerangs back for big yardage and leads to a touchdown.

It's a lightning rod, low-hanging fruit for Bill from Blawnox, the first-time caller.

But it was bold, which is almost always good in football, and it was rationally conceived: Landry Jones has shown himself to be an adequate NFL quarterback this fall, and Alejandro Villanueva, who was to be Jones' failsafe only if Heath Miller was covered -- "They were all over Heath," Jones said -- was a tight end all through college. The coaches and players practiced the sequence for weeks and were confident they had it.

The throw carries a couple feet higher, and Mike Tomlin's brilliant, right?



I'm fine with that, and I'm fine, too, with Tomlin's very Tomlin-esque explanation: "We aren't going to live in our fears. We're going to live in our hopes."

Roll the eyes, but that stuff resonates with the Steelers' players. It's part of their personality, possibly the root of their resiliency.



The list of what I didn't like, naturally, is a lot longer.

I didn't like Richard Sherman being allowed to rip apart Antonio Brown all afternoon, as if his elite status in the NFL somehow afforded him the right do this:



AB didn't have much to offer on the topic after being held to six catches on 12 targets with no gain larger than 15 yards: "I don't know. I'll watch the tape."

So I'll say it: It stinks. And not just because of the single mugging.

I didn't like Lawrence Timmons being flagged for a personal foul for this two-hand touch of Russell Wilson with both of Wilson's feet plainly in bounds.

"Man," Timmons said, shaking his head while cutting me off before I could complete my question on the topic, "don't get me started on that."

I didn't like that Ryan Shazier, whose career is on a trajectory to become the most fragile player in franchise history, failed to finish another game.

I didn't like that a defense set up to sack Wilson did so only twice.

I didn't like, to say the very least, that Ben Roethlisberger was smashed helmet to helmet by Michael Bennett, a blow that almost surely was responsible for Roethlisberger leaving late with a possible concussion.



That's just wrong. Ben looked fine walking around the locker room afterward, but Bennett's wallet still needs to be made a whole lot lighter this week. What you couldn't see via cameras, but I could see here live: Bennett launched himself to the point he left his feet.

I also didn't like Tomlin eschewing a touchdown attempt on fourth-and-goal at the Seattle 3 in favor of a field goal. The Steelers were trailing by five, 32-27, with 3:02 left, and their best chance to win needed to be handed to their best players.

I asked Tomlin about that decision:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxFnze3ziWY

Ugh. Sorry, but no. Being bold in the first quarter then "living in our fears" in the fourth ... that's the worst kind of mixed message.

I also didn't like, this maybe less than any of the above, Keith Butler calling for a zone blitz on the Seahawks' ensuing third-and-10. You know, the one that comically turned into an 80-yard touchdown in part because, as Doug Baldwin, the receiver on the play, observed: "I looked up, and there weren't any linebackers. I couldn't wait to get the ball."

Indeed, away he went:



That's putting stock in a defense that didn't deserve it. Butler did it, and Tomlin did it, too, by having chosen to put the game in his defense's hands rather than the offense.

And that's the worst of all that took place here, with no close runner-up: This secondary was smoked all day long, Wilson completing 21 of 30 passes for 345 yards and five touchdowns with not one of those being touched, much less picked off.

Wait, I forgot: Nose tackle Steve McLendon had a pass defensed. That was it.

Every one else, with no one in the solar system of being an exception, was awful.

"We stunk," Will Allen said. "All those yards, all those points, all those splash plays ... we just stunk out there. And it sucks."

"Everything about it was bad," William Gay said. "Nothing went right."

Talk about beaten. Listen to Antwon Blake here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCGmAd0OGqo

What's most ominous, perhaps, about this performance by the secondary is that it could be closer to the norm than most might think: Nine interceptions and a few timely takeaways have mostly masked, if you ask me, that this secondary his been scorched at a rate of 286 passing yards per game, ranking 30th of the NFL's 32 teams in that essential category.

Mike Mitchell and Blake have made big hits, but both are giving up big plays, including the Baldwin touchdown. Allen might never have looked worse in his life. Even the venerable Gay was being targeted early -- and easily -- by Wilson for big plays.

And who is Ross Cockrell, anyway? Really, who is this guy?

For that matter, whatever happened to Brandon Boykin?

Remember when the Steelers gave up a fifth-round draft pick -- no small price in this league -- to get Boykin from the Eagles? And all their ambitious-sounding plans to have Boykin move from being a very good slot guy to an outside corner spot because of all his talent?

Well, here we are a dozen games deep in the season, and Boykin's still relegated to special teams, with the reason still mostly a mystery.

Do they really think a 25-year-old four-year NFL starter isn't as good as these guys currently chasing ghosts?

Did he scrape someone's car in the company lot?

Is he not 100 percent?

That latter question answered itself in this game with an outstanding burst he showed to make a second-half tackle on kick coverage, but the answers otherwise have been few and far between, which is stunning given Boykin's history of being highly outspoken.

I gave it a shot after this game, and it went like this:

Do you know why you're not playing?

"No, I don't. I just assume it's because that's how the coaches want it."

There's nothing wrong physically?

"You just saw that there isn't."

Are they upset with you over anything?

And that's where he cut it off, adding only that he'd prefer not to make any kind of waves in midseason. So I'll respect that, even if I've got no way of understanding it.

I do know this: If Tomlin, Butler and Carnell Lake are serious about turning the Steelers into contenders -- and 6-5 hardly cements that status -- they'll turn over every stone between now and next Sunday. Beginning with the one marked No. 25.

Either that, or they can just keep living in their hopes.