The Pittsburgh Steelers came away with a much needed 38-35 win against the Oakland Raiders Sunday at Heinz Field, but for the second time this season paid a very steep price in a win as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will miss at least the next couple of weeks with a sprained foot.
There was a lot to like about the Steelers performance on Sunday, especially the play of Antonio Brown.
And there was a ton not to like.
I take a look at how the Steelers performed in my latest edition of my Steelers Report Card.
Quarterback-Roethlisberger was very good and took advantage of Oakland’s man coverage all afternoon, completing 24-of-44 pass attempts for 334 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His numbers would have been even better if his receiving core didn’t let him down on more than one occasion. Landry Jones came in and led the team on the game-winning drive. Grade: A
Running Backs-DeAngelo Williams was fantastic, both running the football and catching it. Filling in for Le’Veon Bell, Williams did his best impersonation of Bell by rushing for a career-high 170 yards on 27 carries with two touchdowns and also catching two passes for 55 yards. Grade: A+
Wide Receivers- Brown was simply amazing, setting Steelers’ franchise records with 17 catches and 284 yards, including a 57-yard catch with 0:45 remaining to set up the winning field goal. He gets an A+, but the rest of the receivers weren’t very good. That includes Martavis Bryant who had a couple big drops that could have proven costly. Bryant did make up for it with a touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Grade: B+
Offensive Line- Roethlisberger was sacked only once and was hurt on the play as Alejandro Villanueva was beaten. Otherwise it was a solid day for the guys up front. Against a very good rush defense, the Steelers rushed for 195 yards and averaged 6.5 yards per carry. It’s hard to complain much about their performance. Grade: A-
Defensive Line- Needless to say it was not a very good performance by the defense. The Steelers did not record a sack and the Raiders gashed them with the run. Latavius Murray had 96 yards rushing before leaving with an injury and the Raiders two fullbacks had an easy time running the ball as well. Grade: D
Linebackers- No big plays, not much pressure and the linebackers struggled in pass coverage. Although to their defense they shouldn’t be matched up on wide receivers very often. Grade: D
Secondary-The secondary gave up 301 yards passing to Derek Carr and allowed four touchdown passes. But they made several big plays as well to keep the Steelers in the game. Ross Cockrell had a big interception in the end zone. Mike Mitchell forced a fumble and both Will Allen and Antwon Blake had decent afternoons. Grade: C+
Special Teams- Chris Boswell knocked down the game-winning field goal and even though he missed for the first time as a Steeler, he was solid overall. However a kickoff out of bounds early in the game didn’t help. Punter Jordan Berry had an average day and Jacoby Jones made Dri Archer look competent as a returner. However they did make one big play when Roosevelt Nix forced a fumble on the kickoff after the Steelers took the lead, which proved huge. Grade: C
Coaching- Superb game plan from Todd Haley and the Steelers executed it perfectly. Not so much for the defense and the Raiders took advantage of plenty of mismatch situations. Mike Tomlin’s gambles worked out this week, but passing on field goal attempts isn’t always wise and will bite him in the butt more often than not. Grade: C+
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
