The Steelers dropped the home opener against an old nemesis. Here are three things we learned from Pittsburgh’s loss to the Raiders.
Well, the euphoria of beating the Buffalo Bills on the road to being the 2021 NFL season has been replaced with utter dejection at losing our home opener against our long-time nemesis, the Las Vegas/Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders. Frankly, no matter what city the Raiders call home, they always play us tough and this game was no exception.
Look, I am not going to overreact to one loss much like I would not overreact to one win; however, not only did we lose our home opener, we had to deal with injuries to some key members of the defense, which we will discuss later, but the point is this: Despite losing some key members on defense, we still had an opportunity to win the game.
So when I said I will not overreact to this loss, I don’t think we can underreact either. Here’s what I mean by that: The Steelers did not play well in the home opener. Yes, we were dealing with injuries and yes, we were playing a good team, but it was the home opener. To lose the first game at home is bad, but to lose in the manner in which we lost is worse.
While the loss against the Raiders cannot be blamed on one facet of the team, I think it’s fair to say that this particular loss was a total team effort, including the coaching staff. With that in mind, let’s see what we learned on the offensive side of the ball.