4 burning questions the Steelers must answer vs. Raiders

Can Steelers offense find some big plays?

The Steelers offense was far from perfect in Week 1 despite their second-half surge, and one of their primary focuses heading into Week 2 has to be making this group more dynamic.

While the team moved the ball well enough, it lacked any explosiveness and big-play ability against the Buffalo Bills. This was prevalent in both the rushing and passing offense, as both areas struggled to find a huge impact player.

The running game has already been highlighted in this post, so I won’t dwell on that too much. That said, getting the rushing average up this week and getting a big run off or two would be beneficial for this offense.

In terms of the passing game, the team needs to push the ball more down the field. While the Raiders lack the pieces in the secondary the Bills have, their pass rush could still make throwing the ball deep an issue.

That doesn’t mean the Steelers can try and get the deep playoff, though.

While Diontae Johnson will continue to eat up the short and intermediate targets, the team has to get Chase Claypool going vertical. While Claypool can win elsewhere in the passing game, his rare combination of size and athleticism can lead to some big plays deep down the field. A couple of deep connections and a long run or two would be enough to get this offense going in the right direction.

They need some sort of big play to get this offense going in Week 2.

The Steelers and Raiders both enter Week 2 coming off of big wins. Each team has some work to do though if they want to leave the victors.

For Pittsburgh, these four questions will have to be answered during the game against Las Vegas.