Sunday saw the Raiders win another thrilling game in which all three phases showed up. They are 2-0 to start the season and they did it by beating two AFC playoff teams. The Steelers they beat in their own house, winning by a two-score margin. It is wins like this that could have people taking this Raiders team very seriously.
Plenty of accolades to hand out, so let’s get to it.
Ballers
QB Derek Carr
His late-game heroics continued in this one. Early stumbles by the offenses still yielded scoring drives and come the second half, Carr really caught fire.
The second drive of the third quarter began with an 18-yard hookup with Bryan Edwards. A sack threatened to upend the drive, but on the next play, Carr found Hunter Renfrow for a 23-yard strike over the middle. Two plays later he found Henry Ruggs III on a crossing route for 30 yards. Next play he lofted a perfect ball gently in the arms of Foster Moreau for the score and a 16-7 lead.
The Steelers would pull it back to 16-14 with a touchdown of their own, but Carr answered with a quick scoring drive, capped by a gorgeous 61-yard bomb to Ruggs to give the Raiders a two-score lead again.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Steelers added a field goal to make it a one-score game at 23-17. So, Carr and the offense took the field to milk the clock and try to get in scoring range again.
On the second play of the drive, Carr found Darren Waller with a back-shoulder throw for 25 yards. A few runs later and the Raiders had run the clock down to 20 seconds and put the game away with a field goal.
Carr finished with an impressive 28 of 37 for 382 yards and two touchdowns. He had two fumbles in a row in the first half, but the ball was never turned over. The Raiders still managed to score on that drive and shook them off to put together his outstanding second half.
DE Maxx Crosby
While he didn’t have a sack, he was once again a force to be reckoned with. A constant thorn in Ben Roethlisberger’s side. And sometimes a painful thorn too.
While the offense took a while to get out of its own way, Crosby and the defense allowed them time to do that. Crosby had a tackle for loss on the first drive and then smacked Roethlisberger to force an incompletion on third down. That was the first of five (!!!) quarterback hits for Crosby in the game.
He got another QB hit on third down to end the second drive, this one led to an interception by Trayvon Mullen. He got his third QB hit on fourth down when he and Quinton Jefferson put a huge hit right in Big Ben’s chest and force another incompletion.
His other two QB hits came in the second half. The first led to an incompletion, the second had Roethlisberger struggle to shove the ball to his running back who was then stopped for no gain. Crosby currently leads the NFL in both pressures (16) and QB hits (10).
CB Casey Hayward
Despite suffering from cramps throughout this game, Hayward played 52 snaps (93%). And he didn’t allow a single catch in his coverage. He was also credited with two pass breakups.
The first pass breakup started the second drive for the Steelers. He came flying over from midfield to slap away a pass along the right sideline intended for Chase Claypool.
The next one came on the following drive on third down and he stayed step-for-step with Claypool to disrupt the catch deep downfield. The Steelers would go for it on fourth down and fail. He wasn’t tested again after that. The mark of a great game for a cornerback.
DT Solomon Thomas
For the first time in his career, Thomas put up multiple sacks in a single game as he did Sunday when he sacked Roethlisberger twice. Only once in his career did he even have more than two sacks in an entire season. That was his rookie season when he had three. So, basically, he was a man possessed in this game.
He blew into the backfield twice on the Steelers’ second drive. Both were runs. The first time the back ran by him. The second time, Thomas laid a hit on him that led to a tackle for loss. The drive ended two plays later.
The next drive he got his first sack. It was an ankle tackle, but it went for no gain, so it counts. His second one, Roethlisberger stepped up in the pocket and held onto the ball a bit too long. Thomas kept pursuit and took him down for a three-yard loss. That drive ended on the next play.
His final play was a pretty big one, actually. He got his hand into Roethlisberger’s throwing lane to bat the ball at the line. It was big because on the play, Johnathan Abram hit his receiver early and would have been flagged for pass interference and an automatic first down.
But since the ball was deflected, there was no flag and the drive ended on the next play. The Steelers settled for a long field goal. With the time still on the clock, the Raiders drove for a field goal of their own to put it away.
WR Hunter Renfrow
Renfrow led the Raiders in receiving at the half with four catches for 34 yards. That may not seem like a lot, but it was important. His 17-yard catch early in the second quarter set the Raiders up for their second field goal to take a 6-0 lead. Then he had a ten-yard catch and a five-yard catch on third and four that put the Raiders at the 17-yard-line and they added a third field goal to take a 9-7 lead at the half.
Renfrow’s final catch of the game came in the third quarter. On third and nine, he made a leaping 23-yard grab to put the Raiders in Pittsburgh territory. Three plays later, they scored their first touchdown.
WR Henry Ruggs
Ruggs had a lot to do with the Raiders scoring their first touchdown. Two plays after that 23-yard Renfrow catch, Ruggs made his first big grab of the game. He made the catch on a cross from right to left, broke a tackle and went for 30 yards to set the team up in first and goal from the nine-yard line. They scored on the next play on a touchdown pass to Moreau.
At the half, Ruggs had just one catch for 13 yards. He finished with a team-leading five catches for 113 yards and a touchdown. His first big catch set up the Raiders’ first touchdown. Most of his yards came on his 61-yard touchdown grab. He went on a post pattern and blew past the cornerback and the safety, hauled in the catch and finished it off for the score.
PK Daniel Carlson
Carlson is becoming Mr. Dependable. He made another four field goals in the game and had more points (14) than the rest of the team combined (12). His three field goals were the only points the Raiders had in the first half. Among his field goals were a 46-yarder and a 45-yarder, the latter being the game-clinching score.
LB Denzel Perryman
Perryman led the team in solo (6) and combined tackles (12). Among them was a tackle for loss on the first drive, a stop on third down on the first drive of the third quarter, and a stop at the line on a shovel pass on the Steelers’ final drive.
CB Trayvon Mullen
The second drive of the game ended with Mullen picking off a deep pass from Ben Roethlisberger which he returned to the Pittsburgh 39-yard-line. That would ultimately lead to the Raiders’ first points.
Mullen would give some points back in the second quarter when he gave up a 41-yard catch that set up the Steelers’ first touchdown. But that was his one big mistake and his interception more than outweighs that.
He had two coverage incompletions in the second half, one in the end zone. In the fourth quarter, he made a tackle short of the sticks on third down to force a three-and-out to retain the Raiders’ two-score lead.
Honorable mention
TE Foster Moreau — Had a big 25-yard catch as well as a touchdown catch. Though his blocking was not as good as he gave up a sack and a run stuff for a loss.
CB Nate Hobbs — Tied for third on the team in tackles (6) including a nice open-field tackle.
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