Here's the missed TD opportunity Thl talked about earlier. This is the kind of thing that's the difference in a game like this. It's 3rd down and 6 and Hoyer looks for the first down, not the touchdown.
Here, we're just going to run 2 deep crossers with a short in route. Hoyer's thinking that Seattle will play a soft 3 zone and he'll have Taylor open on the in. We have Goodwin in the slot up top and Kittle down below inside Garcon.
Seattle is in cover 3 "mable" on this play to the bottom. That means it's cover 3 zone with one side being in man -coverage on the outside corner, in this case, Sherman.
In "Mable" coverage the hook/curl defenders will often times carry the vertical route - on the trips side especially. When Breida motions out, Wagners motions for this call. So, Chancellor will look to carry the vertical route and Wagner will carry the out breaking route wherever it goes.
Here you see Wagner carrying the RB and Chancellor is eyeing and carrying the vertical TE route. Sherman is in man-coverage on Garcon. This allows the weakside hook/curl defender to watch for an in-breaking route.
What Hoyer needs to recognize is the Seattle is in "mable". So, he should know Chancellor is going to carry Kittle up the field and Sherman will cut off on Garcon's out route. This will open up a big hole in the coverage, he just has to anticipate it and climb the pocket.
Here, you see the 3 middle defenders are focused on the TE crosser and Goodwin is about to break free. Hoyer should be stepping up into a throw right here. Instead, he's locked on to a 1st down route and is looking for Taylor.
The ball should be coming out here and on it's way. Goodwin has gotten open and he'd walk in for a TD or Hoyer could've put air under it and led him into the endzone.
This is what the pocket looked like when Goodwin was just about to break free. If he steps up and makes that throw, it's a different ball game. Instead, it's a 4 yard sack credited against Staley.