The home opener began with festivities, with the family of Ken Stabler receiving his Hall of Fame Ring of Excellence during pregame. And the game started with some defense on both sides that was reminiscent of those 70s rivalries.
The Steelers were stopped for a three-and-out on their first two possessions and the Raiders were stopped for a three-and-out in between.
Then the Raiders offense put on a nice-looking drive that would have made Stabler and Company proud to go up 7-0 on their old rival Steelers.
But the Steelers answered quickly on a play in which Calvin Austin III looked like Cliff Branch, going 72 yards for the touchdown.
From there, it was a whole lot of Steelers and not enough Raiders. Even still, we will start, as we often do, with the Ballers.
Ballers
WR Davante Adams
Adams was open a lot in this game and even when he wasn’t, Jimmy Garoppolo was looking for him. The result was 13 catches for 172 yards and both of the Raiders’ touchdowns.
The first pass of the game went to Adams for five yards. Then he began the next drive with catches for nine and 19 yards and finished it off with a 32-yard touchdown catch.
Four times in the second and third quarter, Adams made catches to convert on third and and get the Raiders Pittsburgh territory. The first two drives ended in an interception, while the third ended with a turnover on downs.
Finally, in the fourth quarter, his efforts paid off. He started the drive with a 26-yard catch and finished it with a touchdown on third and goal from the one.
Adams had a 12-yard catch on the Raiders’ last drive, but when the chips were down and he should’ve been given a shot to catch the potential game-tying score, the Raiders settled for a field goal instead.
DE Maxx Crosby
The two Super Stars on this team shined as bright as ever Sunday night. You just kind of wish they didn’t have to so often do it on their own. Crosby ended three of the Steelers’ six first-half possessions, first with a pressure to force an incompletion, then by getting the sack, and then with a run stop and another pressure to force an incompletion.
Unfortunately, the Steelers also scored on three of those six possessions, including one thanks in part to Crosby not keeping his cool and drawing a personal foul penalty for pulling a player off the pile.
Crosby did his best to wreck the Steelers’ first drive of the third quarter with a QB hit resulting in an incompletion, a run stuff, and forcing Kenny Pickett to throw the ball away on third down. They would still manage to add three points on a 57-yard field goal, though.
Not surprisingly, Crosby would lead the team with two QB hits and had the Raiders’ only sack in the game.
CB Nate Hobbs
Hobbs led the team with two pass breakups and tied for third in tackles. Both of his pass breakups came on third down. The first held the Steelers to a field goal early in the second quarter and the second came after the Raiders pulled the game to within eight to force a three-and-out when the Raiders desperately needed it.