Aidan O’Connell’s first start of the season would begin with some bad news — both the Raiders’ top receivers would not be playing.
With Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers both missing with injuries, he set out to get the Raiders offense moving with the weapons he did have at his disposal.
That apparently meant a heavy dose of tight ends and running backs. And when I say “heavy dose,” I mean he used ONLY his tight ends and running backs.
Through five drives, no wide receiver had touched the ball.
It worked at first, with the Raiders driving for a touchdown on their opening drive with O’Connell going 4 for 4 for 45 yards. But it ultimately wasn’t sustainable.
First everything stalled, with consecutive three-and-outs. Then things began to unravel. Starting with rookie running back Dylan Laube fumbling the ball away on his first career carry.
The Steelers got the ball and for an instant it looked like the Raiders might take it right back. Divine Deablo intercepted it on a pass over the middle, but newly signed former practice squad defensive tackle Matthew Butler was flagged for roughing the passer, wiping it away. The Steelers kept the ball and scored the touchdown.
A failed two-point conversion would send the two teams into the locker room with a 12-7 Steelers lead.
The unraveling continued in the third quarter, when an AJ Cole punt was blocked, giving the Steelers the ball in first and goal at the nine. The Steelers added a field goal to go up 15-7.
Steelers offense got the ball back quickly due to the Raiders’ offensive ineptness and started driving again. A K’Lavon Chaisson sack set the Steelers back, but a Maxx Crosby roughing the passer penalty on the next play gave them the first down at the Vegas 41.
Two plays later, Najee Harris took the handoff, found the left edge and was gone 36 yards to paydirt. It put Harris over 100 yards on the day (102) with an average of 8.5 yards per carry. And it put the Steelers up 22-7 over the Raiders with over three minutes left in the third quarter.
A long drive at the end of the third quarter looked for a moment to end in a touchdown pass to Alexander Mattison, but Andre James was flagged for ineligible man downfield to wipe it away.
Next play, Ameer Abdullah broke a tackle and ran it to the one-yard-line. He was given the ball on the next play and had it punched out and the Steelers recovered. Brutal.
It wasn’t long before the proverbial nail in the coffin. Aidan O’Connell was throwing from his own end zone, dropped back and overthrew Brock Bowers. The pass was picked off by Donte Jackson and returned to the eight-yard line. Next play, Justin Fields runs a naked boot for a touchdown to give the Steelers a 29-7 lead with just over eight minutes left in the game.
The Raiders second touchdown was brought to you by garbage time with O’Connell finding Kristian Wilkerson for the touchdown and a failed two-point conversion. The final score of 32-13 came after the Steelers recovered an onsides kick and then drove inside the 20 to add a field goal.
Coming into the game, the Steelers were averaging just 3.7 yards per carry which was 29th in the league and Najee Harris averaging a paltry 3.3 yards per carry. In this game their running backs were averaged 5.9 yards per carry in this game with Harris more averaging 7.6 yards per carry.
O’Connell finished 27 of 40 for 227 yards, one TD and one INT.
Justin Fields finished with 206 total yards including 61 yards on nine carries with two touchdowns.
Brock Bowers led the way for the Raiders with nine catches for 71 yards.
