The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their sixth game of the 2024 regular season on Sunday afternoon on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders. They’ll enter that contest listed as a slight favorite once again. Below are five key things that I believe the Steelers will need to do in that road game on Sunday afternoon to come away with their fourth win of the 2024 season.
Cover More Ground On First Downs – On offense, the Steelers must get better on first downs. Through their first five games that unit has averaged just 4.4 yards per play on first downs with exactly 10 yards to go. That ranks them 31st in the NFL in that stat entering Week 6 with only the Cleveland Browns being worse at 3.5 yards. On rushing plays on first down and exactly 10 yards to go, the Steelers offense ranks dead last in the NFL with 3.3 yards gained per play.
On Sunday in Las Vegas, the Steelers will face one of the NFL’s better defenses when it comes to limiting first down plays with 10 yards to go in the Raiders. Even so, the Raiders defense has allowed an average of 4.9 yards per play in those situations so far this season, which is obviously greater than what the Steelers offense has average. The better the Steelers offenses can be on first down and 10 plays against the Raiders, the more likely the team leaves Las Vegas with their fourth win of the 2024 regular season.
No Maxx Game-Wrecking From Crosby – While the Steelers defense has a game wrecker on the edge in T.J. Watt, the Raiders have one on their defense as well in DE Maxx Crosby. He already has five sacks for the season and seven quarterback hits, and he even missed one of the first five games with an ankle injury.
Crosby will move around on the Las Vegas defensive front as he can not only rush from either side effectively, but also inside the guards as well. The Raiders use him much in the same way that the Cleveland Browns use their top edge rusher in Myles Garrett. Steelers RT Broderick Jones has had issues so far this season as both a run blocker and a pass protector. He’ll likely see a lot of Crosby on Sunday as well. The Steelers’ coaches would be wise to provide Jones with a lot of help when it comes to Crosby in the form of a chipping and helping tight end or running back.
No Flowers For Bowers – The Raiders have themselves a find on offense in rookie TE Brock Bowers. Their 2024 first round selection out of Georgia already has 28 receptions for 313 yards and a touchdown through his first five NFL games played. He also has one rushing attempt for the season and even that touch went for 12 yards. With the Raiders’ offense once again not having WR Davante Adams available, Bowers is sure to be a main distribution point for QB Aidan O’Connell, who will be making his first start of the 2024 regular season on Sunday against the Steelers.
Limiting Bowers on Sunday won’t be an easy task for the Steelers defense as he moves around so much in the formations. He’ll even likely line up at fullback a few times on Sunday. Bowers is likely to see several targets on Sunday and while he’s almost sure to not be held catch-less throughout the contest, his explosive and meaningful plays can be limited. 161 of Bowers 313 receiving yards for the season have come after the catch, an impressive 5.75 yards per average. If the Steelers defense can merely and severely limit Bowers’ total YAC on Sunday, that might be more than enough to help secure a Sunday road win.
By George, Make Pickens Happy – It’s been quite an interesting week for Steelers WR George Pickens as he has received quite a bit of attention stemming from his actions last Sunday night in the team’s home loss to the Dallas Cowboys. The last time he had this level of negative attention coming out of a game was late last season and following the loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Pickens, however, did respond that following game with four receptions for 195 yards and two touchdowns, albeit with QB Mason Rudolph taking over as the starter. Can he rebound like that again on Sunday in Las Vegas? It’s quite possible.
Steelers OC Arthur Smith, along with QB Justin Fields, would both be wise to get Pickens involved in Sunday’s game early with a few easy targets and particularly the kind that might allow him to gain yards after the catch. Pickens’ first target last season against the Cincinnati Bengals, which was the game that followed the loss to the Colts, was a quick slant that resulted in the wide receiver going 86 yards for his first of two touchdowns in that contest. A similar start on Sunday against the Raiders would be just what the proverbial doctor ordered. In short, the offense needs to have a focus of making Pickens happy early in Sunday’s road game.
Third Of A Way To Winning – In the Steelers first three games of the 2024 regular season their defense was great on third downs. In total, the defense allowed just seven of 32 third down plays to be converted against them. That’s just a 21.9-percent conversion rate if you’re scoring at home and fantastic at that. The Steelers won all three of those games as well. In their last two games, both losses, the team’s defense has allowed 17 of 30 third down plays to be converted against them. A pitiful 56.7-percent was that conversion rate.
Getting back on track on third downs on Sunday in Las Vegas against an offense that has had its problems so far this season in that statistical category is imperative. Through five games, the Raiders offense has converted just 23 of their 64 total opportunities, or 35.9-percent. On third downs when six or more yards were needed, the Raiders offense converted just 18.5 percent of those through their first five games, just five of 27 total opportunities. If the Steelers defense can get back to playing on third downs the way they did in their first three games of the season, the team should have a great chance of coming home from Las Vegas with their fourth victory of 2024.
