Making a long trip to take on the Las Vegas Raiders, the Pittsburgh Steelers handled business in impressive fashion, rolling to a 32-13 win over the Raiders, getting contributions from all three phases of the game to pick up a key win, moving to 4-2 on the season.
The Steelers’ defense forced three turnovers, special teams blocked a punt, and the Steelers’ offense churned out a season-high 183 yards rushing, leading to the blowout win.
The Steelers played well on defense, shaking off a rough first drive to lock up the Raiders entirely. In the process, they tackled rather well and made plays that were there. In the tackling department, the Steelers bounced back from a rough showing in Week 5 against the Dallas Cowboys to have a respectable road showing against the Raiders.
It’s time for this week’s missed tackles report.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES AT RAIDERS — 7
Patrick Queen – 2
Donte Jackson – 2
Keeanu Benton – 1
Joey Porter Jr. – 1
Payton Wilson – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH SIX WEEKS (6 GAMES) — 39 (6.4 PER GAME)
Patrick Queen – 9 (43 tackles on 52 total attempts, 17.3% miss rate)
Donte Jackson — 5 (18 tackles on 23 total attempts, 21.7% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 5 (21 tackles on 26 total attempts, 19.2% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 4 (25 tackles on 29 total attempts, 13.8% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 4 (17 tackles on 21 total attempts, 19% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 3 (12 tackles on 15 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Beanie Bishop Jr. — 3 (14 tackles on 17 total attempts, 17.6% miss rate)
Payton Wilson — 3 (one on special teams) (26 tackles on 29 total attempts, 10.3% miss rate)
Nick Herbig — 2 (missed sack) (eight tackles on 10 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith — 1 (missed sack) (11 tackles on 12 total attempts, 8.3% miss rate)
Montravius Adams — 1 (eight tackles on nine total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Though Patrick Queen played a very strong game, recording 13 tackles in the win over the Raiders, he still missed two tackles and has increased his team lead to nine misses on the season with a 17.3% missed tackles rate.
That’s a bit concerning. However, I keep coming back to this: Queen has the range, instincts and athleticism to get to the ball often, which is something the Steelers haven’t had at the linebacker position in quite some time. He’s going to have some misses when he’s around the ball that much and flying around.
He just needs to clean things up.
His first miss came at the goal line on the Ameer Abdullah run for the Raiders. Queen came in home free for a clean shot at Abdullah, but he took a bad angle and was left attempting an arm tackle that didn’t work. Fortunately for Queen, he slowed down Abdullah enough for T.J. Watt to come in and punch the ball out, leading to DeShon Elliott’s recovery.
Later in the game with the score well out of hand, Queen missed on a quick throw from Raiders QB Aidan O’Connell to WR Alex Bachman.
Queen was in between coverage on tight end Brock Bowers and trying to guard the slant to Bachman and lamented missing the play after the game.
The miss doesn’t matter in the end there on Bachman, but it’s just another one on his ledger in an area he needs to clean up.
Earlier in the game, cornerback Donte Jackson missed a tackle coming downhill to try and stop Raiders running back Alexander Mattison on a short pass in the flat.
Jackson has been good a good tackler in space all season, but he missed here. Fortunately, Queen was there to clean it up. Later on, Jackson missed another tackle by trying to punch the football out, rather than going for the tackle in space. It was understandable that Jackson was trying to punch the ball out, especially after the success that Watt had doing it, but if he’s going to do it, he has to make sure he’s going to make the tackle, too.
While the Steelers missed just seven tackles against the Raiders, they dominated in the forced missed tackles department. On the day, the Steelers forced 11 missed tackles by Las Vegas, meaning they won the all-important tackle battle within the game by a mark of +4, moving their season record in that department to 5-1.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES AT RAIDERS — 11
Najee Harris – 7
Justin Fields – 3
Jonathan Ward – 1
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH SIX WEEKS (6 GAMES) — 68 (11.33 PER GAME)
Najee Harris – 27
Justin Fields – 12
Calvin Austin III – 8 (seven on special teams)
Cordarrelle Patterson — 5
Pat Freiermuth — 4
Darnell Washington — 2
Scotty Miller — 2
Jaylen Warren – 2
Van Jefferson — 2
George Pickens – 2
Aaron Shampklin — 2 (one on special teams)
Jonathan Ward — 1
Steelers running back Najee Harris was remarkable in the game. He was a force right from the start and really impressed on his way to 106 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. He had a 36-yard touchdown run and an impressive 26-yard run as well and found himself with plenty of room throughout the game.
He should win another Angry Runs scepter from Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt, too.
That run right there, which gained 15 yards, personified exactly who Najee Harris is. He’s a battering ram, one who will move the pile, refuses to go down and fights for every single blade of grass. He’s a true Steelers running back and should be appreciated way more than he is.
Later in the game as Harris heated up, he proceeded to snatch the soul of Raiders cornerback Jack Jones, sending him to the shadow realm.
Harris gets criticized a lot for apparently not being all that elusive, but time and time again in these missed tackles reports Harris shows up.
This was a remarkable run from Harris, especially being able to bend it back to the cutback lane and then shaking Jones in the hole the way that he did on the way to a 26-yard run. Great day for Harris.
He topped it off with the 36-yard touchdown, breaking a couple of tackles and then getting down the sideline for the score.
Making Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane miss in the backfield on the toss play was impressive in its own right. But after that, Harris just did what many saw out of him at Alabama. He hasn’t shown it regularly in the NFL, but what a moment from the running back.
Heck of a game, and he quieted a lot of the noise around him.
