Winners and losers from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 23-18 win against the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday night.
Winners
T.J. Watt: Watt does what Watt does. No matter what you throw at him, no matter the opponent or circumstance, he just makes plays. Two first-half sacks with additional pressures. Las Vegas came into the game without allowing a sack this season, but Watt quickly ended that in the first quarter. His burst and bend off the edge is underrated and it’s how he got to QB Jimmy Garoppolo twice in the first half. He also had a pressure that led to Garoppolo’s first INT of the game.
Kenny Pickett: It wasn’t perfect, there’s definitely still work to do but Pickett played the best game of the season Sunday night. Not exactly a high bar but dealing with a ton of pressure and getting hit repeatedly, he hung tough and made plays. His accuracy over the middle was better, he used his legs a little more (something he was perhaps too hesitant to do the first two weeks) and put points on the board. He also threw a pair of touchdowns for the first time in his NFL career. A game to build off of. The biggest thing he has to work on is bailing on clean pockets that limit windows to throw to.
Pressley Harvin III: Back-to-back solid outings for Harvin, who helped flip the field and win the field position battle. In the first half, he averaged over 54 yards per punt on three boots, two of which landed inside the 20. More consistent and the coverage was good too.
He ended the game with a booming and A-plus punt to salt the game away.
Levi Wallace: It wasn’t always pretty but Wallace showed he was mentally tough and picked off a pair of passes. Jumped the crosser early and called game late. Also, some strong run defense. Kudos.
Cole Holcomb/Mark Robinson: Holcomb created some splash plays against the run and made a big hit on WR Davante Adams for a crucial breakup deep down the middle of the field. A textbook, legal play and one of the hardest clean hits seen all year. He’s made more splash this year than any Steelers’ inside linebackers did last season.
A good all-around day for Robinson. He was active and excellent on special teams with a big stop on Harvin’s first punt, creating a 54-yard net punt, an elite number. He got down the field on the second punt, too.
In a game against a downhill Raiders running attack, Robinson saw a handful of defensive snaps too. That signals, even with a clear three-man rotation in front of him, Pittsburgh is willing to give Robinson snaps in the right matchups.
Pat Freiermuth: He had to wait until Week Three to truly get involved in the offense, but the Steelers looked his way tonight. That included an end zone shot off play-action for his second score of the season. The volume wasn’t huge, but he was more active in the pass game, a big boost with WR Diontae Johnson still out.
Run Defense: After two weeks of getting crushed on the ground, the Steelers stepped up tonight. They won out against Vegas’ equally poor rushing attack, holding RB Josh Jacobs and the ground game in check. Las Vegas ended the game with just 69 yards rushing and under four yards per carry. Those numbers were boosted by a couple of carries into soft boxes in the second half and overall, they tackled Jacobs and didn’t give him much room.
Chris Boswell: Special teams continue to be a strength for this team as the offense tries to find itself. Boswell’s range was tested tonight but he was perfect from 57 yards in the second half. With room to spare. There’s been no one in the league better from 50-plus than Boswell over the last several years.
Calvin Austin III/George Pickens: Austin only had one first half catch but it was all he needed, a 72-yard breakout play for a touchdown. That’s the playmaking the Steelers were missing last year. Pickens was more consistent and worked well in the middle of the field, earning some tough yards and getting YAC in the process. The passing game clicked tonight. At least, more than it has.
Keeanu Benton: He picked up his first NFL sack with a nice swim move over center Andre James. Benton popped more in the second half with a couple of pressures, and he helped minimize the Raiders’ run game. Still want to see more power in his bull rush to be a more varied rusher but more progress tonight.
Losers
DeMarvin Leal: Come on. The one thing the Steelers had to avoid doing was getting a penalty on the Raiders’ fourth-down field goal attempt with three minutes left. Let them take the points, get the ball back, try to grind the clock out. But Leal was called for leveraging the long snapper, a personal foul that gave the Raiders yards and a fresh set of downs. The refs are always watching for that, and any sort of infraction will get flagged.
The good news is that the Raiders ended with the same result and actually just lost time in the process. But hindsight is 20/20 and that was the wrong move by Leal. Gotta know the situation.
Defending Middle Of The Field: The Raiders’ pass game made its mark over the middle of the field tonight. They won with digs and crossers that the Steelers had trouble defending. Levi Wallace did have a pick off a dig route, but Davante Adams made too much of an impact in this one. Perhaps the Steelers were playing some two-high and taking away the deep ball and it left that area open.
Defending Play-action: Fewer individual names and more conceptual. Pittsburgh didn’t handle play-action well in run situations tonight. They gave up a long touchdown to Davante Adams, a play where Patrick Peterson could not find the ball, and a two-point conversion to TE Michael Mayer with no one even close to him.
Offensive Line (Especially In Pass Protection): A blanket statement and those are tough to make after watching a game live. The All-22 will be more revealing, but the line had a bunch of issues tonight. Run blocking, in moments was better, though the Raiders jumped a bunch of plays to blow them up. James Daniels also had a bad whiff on a failed third and 1 on the opening possession.
But in pass pro, the line really struggled. Maxx Crosby had too much of an impact and the whole front struggled to pick up the Raiders’ stunts and twists. Pickett was under too much pressure throughout. He’s been hit a ton the first three weeks. The tackles, OT Dan Moore Jr. and especially RT Chukwuma Okorafor, really had their issues tonight.
Refs: The first inclusion of the zebras this year. Two missed hits to the helmet on Pickett in the first half followed by a highly questionable roughing the passer that negated a Minkah Fitzpatrick sack late in the fourth quarter. Even the NBC rules expert didn’t seem to agree with the call.
