Following each game in the 2024 Steelers season I will once again be giving you my 10 takes. These aren’t going to be hot takes that are meant to shock the world. These will be instant reactions written while still in that period just following the game when the emotions are high, and the ideas are fresh. Included will be thoughts, observations, queries, and reasons that caused me to yell at the television.
Regular-Season Week 6 Vs. Las Vegas Raiders
1. Soft Opening – When restaurants or casinos have a soft opening, it usually is not the cleanest of executions. Kind of like this game. Early in the game you felt it, right? On the first Raiders’ drive when the Steelers gave up gains of eight, seven, 10, eight and 19 on first downs leading to a touchdown you thought, “Here we go.” And not the good here we go. It had the feeling of the team playing down to another team and staring at an ugly loss. The Raiders were banged up and the Steeler were able to take advantage of it. It wasn’t the prettiest win, but they rarely are.
2. Puncher’s Chance – Although Mike Tyson picked against the Steelers, he has to be impressed with T.J. Watt’s right jab. You can see why other teammates try to punch the ball out, mostly unsuccessfully, when you see Watt’s ability to make the game-changing plays that the team needed. The first punchout led to a touchdown and the second prevented one. Without those, it may have been a drastically different game. Watt once again provides the spark the team needed.
3. The Key to a Successful Drive – The offense has had it struggles. Many drives stalled due to negative plays, confusing play calls. Who would have guessed the best play to keep a drive moving is a questionable roughing-the-passer call. The first nullified what would have been a Raiders interception. That drive ended in touchdown. The second came on a third and 18. That drive also ended in a touchdown.
The funny thing is I thought there was a more worthy penalty that wasn’t called earlier in the game via a late shove by Maxx Crosby. I’ll take it. Whatever keeps the drive moving.
4. Keep Them Guessing – Mike Tomlin is required to do a couple of things each game to keep us guessing. Midway through the fourth quarter on third and seven the team took a delay of game call. It was a two-score game at that point with the ball almost at midfield. Thirty-one other teams would take a timeout there to keep it third and six to give them a better chance to get a first down. Mike T doesn’t care about that. He takes the penalty and punts one play later. Now it didn’t matter in the outcome, but the philosophy makes me wonder.
5. Bad Moon Rising – The next-man-up mentality is always present in the NFL. Jeremiah Moon was the next, next, next man up. We’ll have to watch the film to get a better look but defensively he seems to be okay and showed good effort throughout the game. His biggest play was the blocked punt which gave the team great field position. You love to see guys stepping in and stepping up to make plays when they get the chance.
6. Robbing the Raiders – The aforementioned second forced fumble came after the Raiders were denied a touchdown for an illegal man downfield. I didn’t see it. If guard Jackson Power-Johnson was downfield it was not by much. The NFL has a flag problem in that if one team is penalized often in the first half of the game, and the other team is not it will often reverse in the second half. It seemed the Raiders were a victim to that scenario today.
7. ‘Gee, He Looks Quicker – In this case, I hope what happened in Vegas does not stay in Vegas. I have complained about Najee Harris being a plodder and not being quick enough this season. I guess he showed me. He had maybe the best juke in his career for a big run to the right for 26 yards. He then finished the drive with a 36-yard run down the left sideline where he showed burst and acceleration that was, to be honest, a bit shocking. He looked sprier than he has in quite a while. Bottle it and bring it back to Pittsburgh.
8. Ace for Queen – I’m sure Patrick Queen has heard the chatter. He wasn’t playing up to expectations after signing with the Steelers in the offseason. There were signs last week that he was looking better. In this game, he finally broke out. He had a quick tackle for a loss early in the game to get it started. He was flying from sideline to sideline.
The physicality was there as well as the production, Queen racking up a baker’s dozen of stops. Thirteen tackles, thirteen cards in a suit. Must be a Vegas thing. Hopefully, this was a sign of his comfort in this defense.
9. Pierre and Edmunds – Notice we have stopped talking about the gunners and the punt coverage. There is a good reason for that. Since bringing back James Pierre, whom we knew was a good gunner, and Terrell Edmunds, the punt returns have stopped.
Over the last three games the Steelers have allowed a total of four yards on punt returns. That is on 11 punts over those three games. Despite the disagreement of some, I think we can agree that gunners are particularly important in punt coverage.
10. Work of Arthur – This game had a little bit of everything. Two toss plays that killed the first drive. Some pre-snap penalties. Broderick Jones run blocking no one on a pass play. A failed flea flicker. A failed two-point conversion. Unable to score a touchdown from the Raiders’ 9-yard line after a blocked punt. A deep pass late in the fourth quarter up 16 points. It was a roulette wheel of hits and misses. All that and the Steelers somehow scored 32 points.
Arthur Smith seemed to be more aggressive with a two-score lead. Why can’t we see that aggressiveness earlier? Perhaps on the first drive. Come on, Artie. Let it ride.
