Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Steelers handed the Las Vegas Raiders a rather brutal loss on Sunday. Pittsburgh won 32-13, and with the loss, the Raiders now drop to 2-4 on the season.
These three things are the biggest reasons behind Las Vegas' loss.
Turnovers
In our 'three keys to a victory' post before the game, one thing we stressed was a lack of turnovers. Unfortunately, the Raiders lost the turnover battle on Sunday, and they lost it bad.
Despite Antonio Pierce stressing the importance of ball security, both Dylan Laube and Ameer Abdullah fumbled the ball away Sunday. Aidan O'Connell threw an interception, and the Raiders even had a punt blocked. You just can't win football games when losing the turnover battle 3-0.
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce.
Ill-Timed Penalties
The only thing more costly than a turnover is an ill-timed penalty, and the Raiders had a ton of those in their loss. 'Roughing the passer' penalties were the biggest mishaps, with one of them extending a Steelers' drive that eventually ended in a touchdown, and another one canceling out a Raiders' interception.
However, Las Vegas also had a touchdown brought back from an 'illegal man downfield' penalty, and there were a couple big throws to Brock Bowers that were ruled out due to holding penalties. The Raiders didn't commit a ton of penalties on Sunday, but they came at the absolute worst times.
A Lack Of Offense
The same narrative we've heard all year came true once again this week. The Raiders just can't do anything on offense, even with a new quarterback at the helm.
Some garbage time stats made things seem better than they were, but there were only two drives in which the offense looked somewhat decent. One of those ended in a score, and the other ended in a fumble at the one-yard line.
To put it bluntly, the Raiders are not playing winning football right now.
