Pittsburgh Steelers Earns High Marks In Win Over Oakland Raiders
A week after looking like chumps against the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers bounced back like champions against a hot Oakland Raiders team.
The Steelers shut down Darren McFadden, who had averaged a league-leading 108 yards per game, and forced three turnovers en route to a dominating 35-3 victory.
James Harrison led the way on defense with two sacks and two forced turnovers that both led to Pittsburgh touchdowns. He also picked up yet another roughing-the-quarterback penalty.
The personal foul was one of six on the day for the Steelers, four of which were questionable at best.
Besides Harrison’s penalty, LaMarr Woodley was called for lightly shoving Jason Campbell, and Ryan Clark for tackling a wide receiver. It was not just the defense getting called either. Trai Essex was called for a late hit after a Matt Spaeth fumble. Essex appeared to have fallen over and nothing more.
Personal fouls accounted for only six of Pittsburgh’s 14 penalties that totaled a team-record 163 yards.
There were a number of other bad calls. including several holding penalties and an awful pass interference penalty against Ike Taylor when the wide receiver ran out of bounds.
Pittsburgh was able to overcome the penalties and took it to the Raiders behind the stellar play of the defense and Ben Roethlisberger’s four touchdowns to remain in a tie atop the AFC North.
Quarterback: A
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After being embarrassed by the Patriots last week, Roethlisberger took control of his team and carried the Steelers to a victory Sunday.
Roethlisberger beat the Raiders not only with his arm, but also with his legs as he threw for three touchdowns and ran for another.
In what was easily his best game since returning to the lineup, Roethlisberger finished 18-of-29 passing for 275 yards and added another 55 yards on the ground.
The Steelers passing game showed its potential Sunday as Roethlisberger connected with eight receivers. He was effective with short, medium and long passes on his way to a quarterback rating of 127.8.
The touchdowns were the key, though. Roethlisberger was able to capitalize on the Raiders turnovers and helped the Steelers finish with their best red-zone performance in quite awhile, going 3-for-3 inside the 20.
Season GPA: 2.35
Running Backs: B-
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Rashard Mendenhall did not have his best game and was shut down for much of the second half, but it did not matter as Roethlisberger more than made up for the struggling ground game.
Mendenhall only had 59 yards on 23 carries but did pick up his career-best eighth touchdown of the season. He also fumbled late in the game.
The Steelers used Isaac Redman to close the game and he did a fine job with five carries for 27 yards and put an exclamation point on the game with a 16-yard touchdown reception.
As a team, Pittsburgh had 162 yards on 33 carries; however, Roethlisberger accounted for 55 of those yards on three scrambles.
Season GPA: 3.00
Wide Receivers: A-
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Mike Tomlin did some shuffling with his wide receivers, promoting Emmanuel Sanders to the third-receiver role and dressing Antonio Brown.
The move was the right decision.
Sanders had two receptions for 35 yards and a touchdown, though he did let a long pass go right through his arms. Brown had one catch for 21 yards.
Hines Ward and Mike Wallace each added three receptions for 28 and 116 yards, respectively.
While Wallace had a drop, he also caught his eighth touchdown of the season on a short reception that he stretched out for a 52-yard score.
Wallace added 19 yards on the ground with a reverse.
Season GPA: 3.07
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Tight Ends: B+
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Heath Miller had three receptions and Matt Spaeth added two more as the Steelers tight ends once again only had a minimal impact on the offensive attack.
Though they have not been featured, Miller and Spaeth made the most of their opportunities, picking up valuable yards for the offense.
While it would be nice to see Miller more involved with the offense, no one can argue with the results this week.
Season GPA: 3.10
Offensive Line: B-
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Another week, another long list of injuries for the offensive line.
Chris Kemoeatu and Jonathan Scott both missed part of the game with injuries, and Maurkice Pouncey left and did not return.
It seems as though injuries follow offensive line coach Sean Kugler.
At one point, the Steelers played with all backups along the line, including Flozell Adams at right tackle for Willie Colon.
Even with the injuries, Pittsburgh was able to put up 35 points and held the Raiders to two sacks, with at least one of them a result of Roethlisberger holding onto the ball too long.
The push for the run game could improve, though the coaches still called too many long developing run plays.
At this point, the most important thing will be for Pouncey to get healthy.
Season GPA: 2.15
Defensive Line: A
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Ziggy Hood took a lot of heat this past week for being a non-factor yet again last week.
Not so today. Hood had probably the best game of his career, leading all defensive linemen with three tackles and was actively pressuring the Raiders quarterbacks and occupying multiple blockers.
As a unit, the Steelers defensive line dominated the Raiders front and completely shut down one of the league’s best running attacks.
Oakland only had 61 yards on 16 carries, with 33 of those yards coming from Michael Bush in garbage time.
By taking away the Raiders ground game, Dick LeBeau’s defense was able to force Jason Campbell to the air, where he was completely ineffective and eventually bench in favor of Bruce Gradkowski.
Season GPA: 3.11
Linebackers: A
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James Harrison had his best game since threatening retirement, finishing with two sacks, a forced fumble, an interception and two tackles for a loss.
James Farrior also had one of his best games of the season, leading the team with eight tackles, two for a loss and a sack. He showed speed when defending against the pass and was very physical against McFadden.
Lawrence Timmons was relatively quiet, but did have a fumble recovery while LaMarr Woodley had a sack, as did Jason Worilds.
Worilds, who received playing time at the end of the game for Harrison, used his speed to beat the offensive tackle for a shoe-string sack of Gradkowski.
The five sacks by Pittsburgh’s linebackers was just what they needed and was a big part of the defense performing as they did in the early part of the season. LeBeau brought back “Blitzburgh.”
What was even more impressive about the linebackers’ performance was that the Raiders consistently brought in an extra offensive lineman on passing downs to help slow the pass rush.
Season GPA: 3.06
Defensive Backs: A
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For at least one week, Pittsburgh’s defensive backs played at a high level.
William Gay and Bryant McFadden were much more successful this week, particularly McFadden. He had five tackles, including one for a loss, and a sack.
Ike Taylor had a solid game and was the victim of two bad penalties. He had an interception for a touchdown called back because of a roughing-the-passer call and also was called for a weak pass interference penalty. He atoned for it forcing a fumble that was recovered by Timmons.
Ryan Clark made his presence felt, delivering two big hits while both times injuring himself. The first hit also was called for a helmet-to-helmet personal foul penalty that was another terrible call by the officials.
With by far his best game since Tennessee, Troy Polamalu was simply outstanding, flying around the field as we are used to seeing.
Polamalu had six tackles, including one for a loss, and two passes defended. He also made a game-changing interception that he returned for 38 yards. For the first time in weeks, Polamalu was playing near the line and it made all the difference in the Steelers overall defensive performance.
Season GPA: 2.07
Special Teams: A
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Antonio Brown had a punt return for a touchdown called back because of two penalties, but his presence showed that Mike Tomlin wanted something more than the fair catches that Antwaan Randle El had been giving them.
Brown had 66 yards on seven punt returns for a 9.8-yard average and a long of 20 yards.
Daniel Sepulveda put four of his seven punts inside the 20-yard line and could have easily had a fifth if Keenan Lewis was able to down the ball. Even more impressive was his 45-yard average while the team only allowed 17 punt return yards.
The coverage units were once again outstanding with key stops made by Worilds, Keyaron Fox, Stevenson Sylvester and Anthony Madison.
Newly signed kicker Shaun Suisham made all five of his extra points but showed no improvement over Jeff Reed on kickoffs. He had no field goal attempts.
Season GPA: 2.87
Coaching: A
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Typically when a team has 14 penalties, it can be directly contributed to the coaching staff.
Mike Tomlin is off the hook on this one as Sunday’s officiating was downright dreadful, prompting the nearly 65,000 Steelers fans in attendance to rain a chorus of “Refs you suck” onto the field.
What Tomlin and his staff did was keep the team focused as they overcame the penalties that gave the Raiders five of their 17 first downs, and dominate their opponent.
LeBeau’s defense was once again dominant, shutting down one of the best running games in the league and rediscovered their pass rush, which produced six sacks. It was also the first time in weeks that the Steelers pass defense was not shredded.
Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians also called one of his best games of the season, putting Roethlisberger into position to make plays and calling enough runs to keep Oakland off-balance.
Arians also used Randle El on several trick plays, though all were not successful. Regardless it gives Pittsburgh’s future opponents something to think about.
The way Tomlin had his team come out and dominate was exactly what the Steelers needed following last week.
The roster moves that called for the dressing of both Sanders and Brown, promoting Sanders over Randle El and starting Ramon Foster at right guard over Essex were good decisions by Tomlin.
Season GPA: 2.59
Study Up: What Must Improve
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Last week the Steelers had to improve every aspect of their game. This week...nothing? Not quite, but nearly.
Pittsburgh will need to get better running the ball and getting healthy along the offensive line will go a long way to achieving this goal.
While the officiating was terrible, Pittsburgh will need to be more disciplined knowing what happened this week.
The Steelers cannot afford to make mental errors against a Buffalo Bills team that has been competitive every week.
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