The Steelers enter week three coming off a needed win but with a lot of questions still on the horizon. While the Raiders pose an easier threat on paper than either of their two previous opponents, this will be the first road game of the season. They also are set to head to the West Coast on a short week, so that could certainly factor into things.
That doesn’t take into account the fact that Pittsburgh is playing poorly right now still. There are a lot of questions swirling around this franchise, and this game won’t be an easy one to predict because of it. Here are four pivotal questions the Steelers must answer against the Raiders.
Can the Steelers tight ends get involved?
A lot has been said about this Steelers offense in recent weeks, and frankly, they have the majority of the bold questions at hand here. Despite showing a lot of promise in the offseason, this team has come out flat on offense through the first two weeks.
A relatively surprise lackluster group has been the tight end room. Arguably one of the deeper positions on the roster, the expectation was for a lot of heavier personnel to build out the run game. While the team has utilized multiple tight-end sets, it hasn’t been a fruitful start to the season for them.
Pat Freiermuth has only registered two catches and is currently being outpaced by Connor Heyward in terms of yards. The passing game as a whole has been lackluster, so this isn’t the entire fault of the group, but if this offense wants to turn things around, they should try to get their tight ends more involved this week.