The Pittsburgh Steelers traveled to Las Vegas and roughed up the Raiders 32 to 13 as Steelers Nation yet again took over another opposing team’s venue.
The win snapped the Steelers two-game losing streak and allowed them to keep pace with the resurgent Baltimore Ravens in the race for the AFC North. The reasons why the Steelers reversed their fortunes against the Raiders are simple:
- They swarmed to the ball
- The Raiders made many mistakes, and Pittsburgh capitalized on every one of them
- The Steelers created their own opportunities
Let’s provide some depth to each of the above.
T.J. Watt forces a Ameer Abdullah at the goal line. Photo Credit: Karl Roser, Steelers.com
Swarming to the Ball
Throughout the 80’s and 90’s longtime Washington, DC sports radio journalist Ken Beatrice repeatedly reminded listeners “Most NFL teams lose games, very few teams win them.”
Beatrice’s wisdom has aged well and the Steelers last two games exemplify it.
Yet, Dallas came precariously close to losing the game to Pittsburgh. At the goal line with time expiring, Elandon Roberts launched himself at Rico Dowdle knocking the loose. If the Steelers can cover that ball, they head into the locker room with a W. Alas, Dak Prescott converted and lived to throw the winning touchdown pass with time expiring.
The conventional wisdom is that recovering fumbles is a 50-50 proposition at best – a lot depends on where the ball bounces. But a lot is not everything. Against the Cowboys network commentators detailed how the Steelers emphasis recovering fumbles in practice.
- Methinks that Mike Tomlin hath reinforced that lesson during practice last week.
With the Steelers down to their 5th string outside linebacker, the Raiders were able to limit T.J. Watt as a pass rusher. But T.J. Watt is anything but a one dimensional player.
- Las Vegas learned that lesson. Twice.
Justin Fields rushes for a touchdown in the 2nd quarter. Photo Credit: AP via Tribune-Review
With just over 4 minutes left, the Raiders were looking to add to a 1 point lead. After a nice 17 yard catch that saw Minkah Fitzpatrick leave the game, the Raider ran right with Dylan Laube. T.J. Watt punched the ball loose, with Keeanu Benton recovering.
- Six plays later Justin Fields pranced into the end zone to give the Steelers the lead.
Late in the third quarter T.J. Watt struck again. The Raiders had just responded to a Steelers touchdown with a 9 play 69 yard drive. Ameer Abdullah had just plowed his way for 10 yards with DeShone Elliott barely stopping him at the one.
- The score was 22-7 and a Raiders touchdown would put the right back in the game.
Abdullah had been very close. Las Vegas could have put points on the board by rolling the dice with a replay challenge.
Instead, the Raiders went back to the same well, and they went to the well one too many times, as T.J. Watt forced another fumble, with Elliott scooping up the ball and returning it 10 yards.
The Steelers couldn’t convert that turnover into points, but they did move far enough downfield to pin Las Vegas deep into their territory.
Capitalizing on Mistakes
Those forced fumbles by T.J. Watt and the recoveries by Benton and Elliott didn’t happen in a vacuum. After Watt’s first forced fumble, Justin Fields tried to hit George Pickens and threw what would have been an ugly interception.
But a roughing the passer penalty nullified the turnover. Four plays later Fields scored his first touchdown. Prior to Watt’s second forced fumble, the Raiders scored a touchdown, only to nullify it with an illegal man downfield. Watt and Elliott make sure Las Vegas didn’t get a second chance.
- This was very much the story for the Las Vegas Raiders this afternoon.
Earlier in the third quarter Justin Fields had hit Jaylen Warren for a 6 yard gain on third an 17. Yet the Raiders K’Lavon Chaisson slammed into Fields after the throw, committing a roughing the passer penalty and gifting the Steelers with another first down in the process.
Two plays later one of those dreaded pitches to Najee Harris finally worked, as Harris ran down the sidelines for a 36 yard touchdown with a critical block by Pat Freiermuth paving the way.
Many of the Raiders wounds were self-inflicted, by the Steelers took advantage of every one of those.
Creating Their Own Opportunities
If the Steelers had only taken advantage of Raider errors, one could argue that Las Vegas simply lost this game. Instead, the Steelers can claim that they won it because they created their own opportunities.
Jeremiah Moon, who was in at outside linebacker for DeMarvin Leal, who was in for Nick Herbig, who in turn was in for Alex Highsmith, posted a rather spare stat sheet this week with 2 total tackles.
- Yet he arguably made most statement-worthy play for the Steelers by blocking the Raiders punt.
Yes, the Steelers had to settle for a Chris Boswell field goal, but it did put the Pittsburgh up by 2 scores effectively allowing the Steelers to dictate the tempo the rest of the game.
With the Steelers up 22-7 and the game already in hand with 9 minutes left in the 4th quarter, Corliss Waitman pinned Las Vegas down at their 13. Cam Heyward sacked Aidan O’Connell, pinning them down at their 3. Heyward helped scuttle his next attempt, and on third down Donte Jackson picked him off, setting up Justin Fields second touchdown of the game.
- Fields second touchdown is a perfect example of the Steelers creating their own opportunities.
The Steelers passing attack remains a work that’s very much in progress. Yet the Steelers committed to the run, averaging just over 4 yards a carry and relied on Fields’ leg for 2 touchdowns and several first downs.
- On the flip side the Steelers run defense has been wanting in the last two week.
Pittsburgh not only limited Las Vegas to 57 yards on the ground, but Steelers defenders dropped 7 Raiders rushers behind the line of scrimmage. When all is said and done, the Las Vegas Raiders look like a team are a lot more likely to contend for a top-ten draft pick than a berth in a conference championship. But as Mike Tomlin explained:
Winning is our business. Football is our game. Winning is our business. We hadn’t been handling business. And so, it was just good to get back to taking care of business. This is a normal state for us. It needs to be.
And at 4-2, it has been the normal state for the Steelers twice as often as it has not.
