Steelers rivalry revisited: What to watch Week 2 vs. Raiders

Even though the Raiders and Steelers participated in their first matchup back in 1970, the Immaculate Reception in the 1972 AFC Divisional Playoff set the foundation. For those that are diehard Steelers Nation and NFL fans since the inception, it was the most famous play that had occurred in the league and began the dynasties of the Steelers and Raiders. What will be the 50th anniversary coming up for the play, the Raiders and Steelers will revisit the rivalry. Since the last time these two met in 2018, rosters have changed, the mentality will not and as recent matchups have shown, there is no love lost between the two of them. Las Vegas currently has the lead in the series, but the Raiders have not won in Pittsburgh since the 2000s.

Both Pittsburgh and Las Vegas are coming off season-opening wins as the Steelers controlled the 2nd half against Buffalo and the Raiders survived in overtime against the Ravens. As far as today’s game is concerned, although it is Week 2, both of these teams still have plenty to prove to us writers as analysts, fans, and sports betters. However, there are 4 things to watch for if Pittsburgh wants to pursue it.

Play another Week 1 2nd Half
How Pittsburgh played perfectionally in the 2nd half against the Bills, it is as if they turned on the switch after the 1st half got nothing accomplished. It was the first game and first two quarters with the starting roster including a new running back in Najee and an entire new offensive line. Understandably so, a lot of kinks needed to work out so that plays can be flowed correctly. Pittsburgh kept having consecutive drives that ended in punts, just needed a huge play to get momentum into the Steelers direction. It took TJ Watt’s forced fumble to finally get things rolling and it went only good from there, including a blocked punt that turned into a touchdown. Pittsburgh just needs to repeat it now in the 1st half and who knows what could really happen as the season goes along, which we can figure out.

Najee’s Catches
One of those kinks I was talking about was the performance of Najee Harris. For his first professional game as a player, he was able to assist the Steelers in getting the win, but it wasn’t expected. The running game will take care of itself once the Offensive Line improves, but the passing game Najee needs to control by himself. Twice in last week’s game Najee should have been able to make the catches Ben threw to, but he over pursued his routes. Najee as a Rookie isn’t used to the speed of a NFL game and he will adjust to it as time goes on, but it is a little thing that could deter his demeanor and what he’s able to do.

Sacking Derek Carr
Every time Derek Carr suits up for the Raiders against the Steelers, he just seems to have the Defense in the palm of his hands and has never struggled in the matchups he has ever participated in, even though Pittsburgh’s Defensive package has always been good. Much like playing against Josh Allen last week, he’s a balanced scrambling quarterback that can find the open guys down the field or make a play of his own. It may sound familiar to Pittsburgh because we have had a quarterback for the last 18 seasons that is able to do both. One way to stop it is for the Defensive Line to blitz through the gaps and get to him quicker or coverage needs to be tightened up. Although this has been 7 years, which happened to be Derek’s second year in the league, I attended their matchup in 2015 and Derek was able to accurately pinpoint his targets. Bad thing for Pittsburgh is he can throw on the run so in the secondary, they need to be ready for the air attack all day. And it does lead to the #4 thing to watch for.

Backup RB for the Raiders
As of this past Friday, Las Vegas listed Josh Jacobs, their starting running back on the Injury Report as out for today’s game. The Raiders rely on their balanced attack much like Pittsburgh and if the Raiders play one-dimensional if they can’t get the running game going which we’re all hoping for, the secondary cannot be caught sleeping without paying attention to the receiver, especially in Man-to-Man coverage. What could stop Las Vegas is making mistakes of their own, which then Pittsburgh will have to take advantage of.