Steelers survive comeback, overtime after wild ending to sneak past Seahawks

After blowing a 14-point advantage, the Pittsburgh Steelers looked like they still had the game won on Sunday night at Heinz Field.

Trying to fend off a comeback in the final seconds, it appeared that the Steelers forced a fumble and didn’t leave enough time for the Seattle Seahawks to recover and spike the ball for a last-second, field-goal attempt.

Even after the clock on the Heinz Field scoreboards and on NBC’s broadcast hit zero, officials called a review on the play. That decision ended up adding time back to the clock, and eventually allowed Seahawks kicker Jason Myers to send the Sunday night game into overtime.

Though Mike Tomlin and Co. weren’t happy with the ruling — Tomlin was seen fuming on the sideline — it still worked out in the Steelers' favor in the end.

Defensive end T.J. Watt forced a huge fumble late in overtime and the recovery put Chris Boswell in position to sink a 37-yard field goal to give Pittsburgh a 23-20 win.

Seahawks nearly blow shot at overtime

Even after a brutal start, Seattle never went away.

The Seahawks, without Russell Wilson or Chris Carson, mustered only 65 total offensive yards in the first half while falling into a two-score hole. Though the Steelers didn’t look great either, they had the clear advantage early on.

The Seahawks opened up the second half with two touchdowns on their first two drives and jumped right back in the game.

Then, down three points with less than 90 seconds left, Smith had another shot to lead the Seahawks to a game-winning drive. Smith jumped in last week for Wilson, who injured his finger in a loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Smith put the Seahawks into Pittsburgh territory quickly, and then hit DK Metcalf on a 12-yard gain on the sideline with about 15 seconds left on the clock. Without any timeouts, Metcalf should have simply stepped out of bounds. Instead, he tried to gain a few extra yards, which resulted in him losing the ball and the clock still running.

As the Seahawks tried to spike it, the clocks ran out and the Steelers' sideline started to run onto the field to celebrate the win. That’s when officials called the review of the catch itself, something that seemed obvious in real time.

Tomlin wasn’t feeling any better about the call after the game, either.

When pressed, Tomlin didn’t want to elaborate much.

After officials determined it was a catch as initially called, Seattle was granted 3 more seconds on the clock, plenty of time for a spike and then a 43-yard Myers field goal.

After a few failed drives in overtime, Watt came in to save the day for the Steelers. On the biggest defensive play of the game, Smith tried to run it himself, Watt brought him down and forced a fumble in the process, which Devin Bush recovered in perfect position.

That, after everything, gave Boswell a straight shot at his winning field goal.

Smith ended the night throwing 23-of-32 for 209 yards with a touchdown, and Alex Collins ran for 101 yards and a score on 20 carries. Metcalf ended the night with 58 receiving yards on six receptions.

The Seahawks lost defensive end Darrell Taylor late in the fourth quarter after he suffered a scary head injury and had to be stabilized and carted off the field.

Seattle has lost four of its past five games, two in overtime. Without Wilson or Carson available for another two weeks, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has some work to do to keep his team afloat.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger went 29-of-40 for 229 yards and one touchdown. Though he led Pittsburgh to a much-needed win — they’ve now won two straight after winning just once in its first four contests of the season — he had one really bad fumble in which he appeared to stop his throw halfway through the process. Sunday night’s victory, though it is a win, wasn’t great by any means.