Raiders’ quick slants: Steelers edition

Steelers shellack sinking Silver & Black in 32-13 victory in Las Vegas

Antonio Pierce waxed poetic about his Las Vegas Raiders focusing on the fundamentals during his media availability this week leading up to a Sunday afternoon home matchup against the incoming Pittsburgh Steelers.

After 60 minutes of football and a disconcerting 32-13 loss later, it’s apparent the Silver & Black didn’t heed their head coach’s beckon.

The Raiders were just fundamentally bad for a majority of the defeat.

What started out well enough after an impressive 10-play, 70-yard drive culminating in a three-yard touchdown plunge by running back Alexander Mattison to answer the Steelers opening drive field goal, Las Vegas stood tall with a 7-3 lead.

That was a display of the good the Raiders can produce: A determined and well-tackling defense holding the opposition to just three points while a focused offense mixing in the pass and run efficiently driving into the end zone for seven.

Unfortunately for Las Vegas, that was all the good the team mustered as mental mistakes, miscues, and butterfingers helped Pittsburgh rattle off 26 unanswered points and taking a commanding 29-7 lead in the fourth quarter. In all actuality, the Steelers took the Raider by the throat and squeezed after running back’s Najee Harris’ breakaway 36-yard touchdown run to make it 22-7 — a carry that saw the impressive tailback slice through Las Vegas defense like a hot knife through butter.

“Our record is what it shows, we’re 2-4. It’s not good enough. We’re not coaching well enough, we’re not playing well enough, and we’re not detailing well enough,” Pierce lamented in the post game press conference. “More importantly, when you turn the ball over, you don’t give yourself a chance. Again, minus three plus a blocked punt.”

Pierce watched his Raiders (2-4 overall) commit three turnovers — two fumbles (one by rookie tailback Dylan Laube, that the Steelers (4-2) turned into a touchdown on the ensuing drive for a 12-7 lead; the other a fumble by Ameer Abdullah at the one-yard line — both fumbles punched out by T.J. Watt, by the way; the third an interception on an Aidan O’Connell overthrow) — and the special teams unit getting bested as AJ Cole III’s punt attempt was blocked. Sunday’s defeat was a textbook example of bad Raiders football as all three aspects of the game — offense, defense, and special teams — engaged in a display of impotence.

Even when the struggling Steelers offense tried to out-Raider the Raiders with ineptitude of their own, Las Vegas couldn’t take advantage, as mental lapses haunted the Silver & Black (blame the refs all you’d like, but the home team did their best to scuttle their own ship) and the examples were aplenty.

The Steelers’ touchdown drive saw Raiders linebacker Divine Deablo intercept Justin Fields’ pass, but defensive tackle Matthew Butler was tagged with a roughing the passer call as his body weight landed on Pittsburgh quarterback. Four plays later, the Steelers signal caller out-ran the Raiders defense for a three-yard score.

Before Abdullah’s fumble, Mattison scored on a six-yard pass from O’Connell but an ineligible downfield penalty (on rookie left guard Jackson Powers-Johnson) wiped that out. That would’ve cut Pittsburgh’s advantage to 22-14 (potentially). Abdullah came up just short of a touchdown a play later and on 2nd-and-goal from the one-yard line, Abdullah coughed up the ball as Steelers safety DeShon Elliot recovering the loose ball.

On the next Raiders drive, O’Connell misfired badly with Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson intercepting the pass and on the next play, Fields ran for a seven-yard touchdown for the 29-7 advantage.

O’Connell did captain the Raiders offense to an end zone visit after Pittsburgh’s touchdown — the quarterback was in no huddle on the series and found wide receiver Kristian Wilkerson for a nine-yard touchdown to trim the deficit to 32-13.

Still, Las Vegas offense was rife with conservatism and ineffectiveness for much of the game.

“Yeah, there were some shots down the field. Obviously we didn’t take them,” Pierce said. “The quarterback early on was doing a good job of getting the ball out of his hands, especially early because that’s what we want to do, we want to get completions. You saw that the first drive.

“When you get shots down the field, a lot of things play into it. You want to get the look and sometimes you’ve just got to let it rip.”

Let’s hit the quick slants as the Raiders fell behind and couldn’t keep up with the Steelers:

—Deablo returned and was a bright spot on the Raiders defense with six total tackles, one sack, two tackles for loss, and an interception wiped out by penalty. The linebacker was out there playing like the impact and takeaway safety he was at Virginia Tech.

—Not surprisingly, rookie tight end Brock Bowers led the Raiders in targets (10) and receptions (nine) on Sunday. He tallied 71 yards with a long catch of 18 yards. Wide receiver DJ Turner hauled in the longest pass of the afternoon: A 30-yard strike that the wide out leapt for over two defenders.

—Surprisingly speeding wide receiver Tre Tucker was only targeted twice and didn’t haul in either target to get a big fat donut (zeroes) across his receiving stat line.

—O’Connell finished 27 of 40 for 227 yards with one touchdown and an interception. He was only sacked once but despite an accurate start to the game, the second-year signal caller was sailing passes and misfiring the rest of the way.

—His counterpart, Fields, was equally scattershot going 14 of 24 for 145 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions (officially) as he was sacked three times. But, he did have 11 carries for 59 yards and two touchdowns rushing.

—That tally from Fields on the ground was more than the Raiders ground game could muster as a whole as Las Vegas churned out 57 yards on 19 carries (with one touchdown). Mattison led the group with 14 carries for 33 yards while Abdullah pitched in four carries for 24 yards. Laube didn’t get another carry after his fumble and ended up with one carry for zero yards.

Quote of Note:

“As far as losing? It starts with discipline. We had four penalties, but they were at critical moments. The turnover thing is embarrassing. We don’t respect the ball enough, so we don’t even deserve a chance to put ourself into position to win. Details. Obviously adjustments as the game goes on. We talked about the first drive, hell of a job there. Then what does that lead up? I think defensively, I thought really good job in the first half tackling. Then as the game went on, you saw it be a little more leaky. Again, really it’s work. We’ve just got to go back and get to work. It’s very cliche, but it’s true.” —Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce on what needs to be done to stop the losing skid