by Bo Marchionte
Pittsburgh – Al Davis smiled today, hopefully from above, as he watched his beloved Raiders, defeat a franchise he detested in the Pittsburgh Steelers. Las Vegas defeated Pittsburgh 26-17 to remain perfect on the young season, as the Steelers took their first defeat at home.
Davis despised the Steelers at least from the narrative of the documentary (Al Davis vs. The NFL), that had several takes from Davis on his displeasure with the Pittsburgh organization. The Raiders are 6-2 against the Steelers over their last eights games, that leaves Pittsburgh looking for an offensive identity after two games.
“I think we are still working through it,” said Ben Roethlisberger after the loss, explaining the struggles the offense has endured over the first two weeks of the season. “I think that’s the good news, if you will, is that its still early and we still have time to figure it out.”
Roethlisberger always the professional put the blame on himself, although that is far from the reason the offense is not up to par so early in the season. A new offensive coordinator (Matt Canada), along with new faces across the offensive line and a rookie running back, leaves plenty of things to figure out with Cincinnati Bengals headed to Heinz Field next week.
“I didn’t think we had enough detail or enough playmaking on possession downs,” said Mike Tomlin. “A lot of that had to do with our inability to make plays in spots when attrition set in but is the nature of this thing. It was obvious in those wading moments, particularly in the second half possession downs and things of that nature, we didn’t play with enough detail. We didn’t adjust well enough and so that’s just the nature of this thing.”
Against Buffalo, the Steelers did not score their first points until the second half. Today they managed a touchdown in the second quarter that leaves them with seven total first half points after two games, not exactly playoff caliber football regardless of their opponents. Pittsburgh has managed 40 total points in their first two games, leaving them nearly a touchdown below last years average.
Averaging 20-points per game, they are six points lower than their average last season.
“The best way to figure out and identity is for the quarterback to play better,” said Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger deflected any deficiencies of team of himself are words of a true veteran. Good he of made some better plays here or there, no doubt, but he always made plenty of plays and stood in the pocket and took a bit of a beat down against the Raiders front this afternoon.
His 83.9 passers rating is well below his career average of 94%, ranks him 14th all-time in NFL history, in front of Hall of Fame quarterbacks Joe Montana and Kurt Warner.
Time to gel, but gel quickly is going to be a must for a offense that has lost its mojo since it sort of plummeted from their 11-0 start last season. Pittsburgh scored 29.6 points per game over their first 10 games last year and ended the final six with 19.6 per game and opening up this season with 20-points per game, shows that things just aren’t clicking.
“I’ll work on me,” said Roethlisberger.
Making better reads. Better throws and try to put us in a situation to win a football game.”
Tomlin touched on the subject as well saying “we go to grow” and that will now count on the defensive side that was missing star players. Devin Bush and Joe Haden were late scratches before kickoff. T.J. Watt and Tyson Alualu both left the game and did not return, and sources say Alualu will miss the rest of the season with and ankle injury.
GAME NOTES
JuJu Smith-Schuster scored his first rushing touchdown in the NFL. He did not rush for any touchdowns at USC either, so the next question is – When or if he has any rushing touchdowns in high school?
Najee Harris scored the Steelers first receiving touchdown by a running back since James Conner caught a touchdown pass, in their 14th game of the season, in 2019.
Late addition to the roster linebacker Joe Schobert is tied for the team lead in tackles (16) with safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Schobert is showing he makes plays regardless of his destination after playing for both the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Photo Credit Frank Hyatt