Busters
QB Derek Carr
It was the coldest game (14 degrees) Derek Carr has ever played in. And for the QB who has never won a game below 37 degrees, that was clearly a real problem.
The first drive looked like he might shake the cold weather game monkey off his back. Then that monkey hopped right back on and rode it out to the end.
Time and time again, Carr threw errant passes. Often overthrowing his receivers, but really just all over the place. And it was more than that too.
The Raiders’ second drive ended with him staring down Mack Hollins, allowing his pass to be batted down at the line. The next drive he took off on third and 14 and slid down at six yards. Making you wonder why he even bothered as it was obvious the scramble had no chance of picking up the first down.
Their second scoring drive featured Carr overthrowing Renfrow and Adams on consecutive passes. The big play happened on the next play and required Waller make a great adjustment on Carr’s pass that was over his left shoulder with Waller running the other direction. An on-target pass may have gone for a score. Waller helped get the 34 yards to put the Raiders in scoring range at the 27. Then Carr kept it right there with another set of consecutive overthrows to Adams and Waller.
The Raiders got a break to start the third quarter with the Perryman interception setting them up in Pittsburgh territory. On one play the offense gave it right back. Carr’s threw for Foster Moreau, who wasn’t ready for it and it bounced off his hands and intercepted.
The next Raiders possession Carr threw behind Renfrow in short range and was again intercepted off the deflection.
Late in the fourth quarter, with the Raiders still up 10-6, the offense went three-and-out. On third down, Adams went on a go route and the safety came over to help. Adams seemed to think that meant the ball wasn’t coming his way and just ran it out. Carr didn’t look anywhere else to pick up the requisite five yards, seeming to just hope Adams would come back for it. The ball simply went to no one and the Raiders punted.
With just over two minutes on the clock, the Steelers casually drove for the go-ahead touchdown.
With 43 second left and all their timeouts left, the Raiders had time to try and drive for at least a game-tying field goal. Instead, on the second play, Carr threw a horrible pass to a wide open Hunter Renfrow and was picked off for a third time. Renfrow got a step and had field in front of him on a slant. Carr threw it high and behind him, where a trailing Cam Sutton had a better shot at it and intercepted it.
Carr finished with a 42.2 passer rating. The second worst of his career. Also his second worst in the past three weeks. The worst was his 36.9 rating against the Rams two weeks ago. That’s right, he’s had the two worst passer ratings of his career in the past three weeks.
TE Foster Moreau
The second Raiders possession was a four-and-out, mainly because on the second play Moreau was driven into the backfield to cut off the running lane for Josh Jacobs, leading to a tackle for a loss of three.
Moreau shares the blame for the interception on the ball thrown to him. Sure, he had just turned toward the quarterback and the ball was right on him. But the pass was on target and he couldn’t handle it. No doubt the cold made it more difficult, but that’s what he’s paid to do.
The next series, the Raiders lined up in second and 12 because on first down, Moreau jumped early and was called for a false start. The series after that, Josh Jacobs found the left edge to run for 25 yards. But the block Moreau was supposed to make to open that edge required that he yank on the defender’s face mask and the run was called back. The 15-yard penalty was too much for the offense to overcome.
LG Dylan Parham
Cam Heyward gave Parham his welcome to the NFL moment. The All Pro defensive lineman was destroying Parham all game. It didn’t even seem fair at times.
On the opening drive, Heyward simply bull rushed Parham right into Derek Carr and got the sack for an eight-yard loss. It was only due to the usual ‘give up third-and-Abdullah dump’ actually working this time that the Raiders were able to overcome it and go for the touchdown.
Parham gave up another sack in the third quarter, this one where he didn’t pick up the stunt to give up a free run at Derek Carr. And this time on third down to force a punt. And he gave up a third sack on the next drive, a second one to Heyward.
On the final Raiders possession that went for a three-and-out, Parham gave up a run stuff for no gain.
CB Nate Hobbs, CB Amik Robertson, S Duron Harmon
Robertson gave up the first three catches of the game, including an 11-yard catch on third and four and a 16-yard catch and run in which he thought he might have a pick six and sold out to get it, but didn’t.
Hobbs followed that up by giving up a 13-yard catch that put the Steelers in field goal range. They were bailed out by Chris Boswell missing the 43-yard attempt.
The first scoring drive for the Steelers started with Hobbs being blocked on an eight-yard screen. The next play Harmon gave up a ten-yard run.
The Steelers got into scoring range to start the third quarter because of Hobbs giving up a 25-yard catch. He would also give up an eight yard catch after each team turned the ball over. Once again, he was bailed out when Boswell missed a 52-yard field goal attempt.
The second scoring drive by Steelers, Hobbs got posterized by Najee Harris who literally hurdled him to go for 17 yards off the catch. The next play, Robertson gave up an 11-yard catch. They finished that drive with a 40-yard field goal to make it a 10-6 game.
The late touchdown drive got into scoring range when Harmon missed the tackle on a 19-yard catch and run. The next series saw George Pickens get open on a 14-yard post route with Hobbs in coverage. Hobbs seemed to think he had help from Harmon over the top, but he was late getting over and Pickens made the late go-ahead touchdown catch.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqby7y715wxzbczy player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]