Last week, the Pittsburgh Steelers got a key road win. Pittsburgh traveled west to take on the Las Vegas Raiders for the second time in as many years, in front of a large crowd of Steelers fans. While it was a close, hard-fought win in 2023, things were much easier for the Steelers this time around.
Pittsburgh did still have to work for it though, as it was a two-score game early in the fourth quarter. However, Pittsburgh broke the game wide open at that point, easily grabbing their fourth win of the season. There are a couple of factors behind the win. The defense played very well, and the offense started to develop some consistency on the ground for the first time in a while.
However, there was one more thing the Steelers had going for them: the crowd. Despite being about a five-hour flight away from Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium was swarmed with terrible towels:
That was something that the players on the field didn’t take lightly. Appearing on The DVE Morning Show on Friday, Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson talked about how impressive the Steelers’ fans were last week.
“I had heard about it a lot from my teammates,” Jackson said of the Steelers’ road crowd presence. “Throughout OTA’s, throughout camp like ‘man, Jack you ain’t never seen nothing like this, it’s gonna be awesome’ and stuff like that… Being a part of that and seeing those fans coming out, it was awesome. It was like a movie for real.”
As one of the more iconic franchises in the NFL, the Steelers have quite a large fanbase. Throughout the years, Steelers fans have traveled very well, with Jackson claiming his teammates had told him about how the fans typically show out, even during road games.
At this point, the Steelers have had sizable crowds during most of their road games. During the season-opener against the Atlanta Falcons, Steelers fans took over Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a similar way.
It’s something the fan base has become known for, and it’s been a massive help to the team over the years. Playing on the road in intimidating atmospheres is always difficult. Fortunately, the Steelers have had to do that far less often than most teams, thanks to the passionate fan base.
