Raiders Week 3 Preview vs. Steelers

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The Week 3 preview is here, and Raider Nation, it’s time for the home opener. The Pittsburgh Steelers will finally make the trip to play the Las Vegas Raiders at beautiful Allegiant Stadium. It’s sure to be a rocking crowd on Sunday night when the two old rivals collide in primetime.

Raiders Week 3 Preview vs. Steelers

It’s a rivalry stretching back to 1972 with the Immaculate Reception. These teams have met many times over the years and have had decades worth of titanic clashes. But let’s be honest with ourselves: football is better when the Raiders and Steelers are battling for the top spot in the AFC.

For what it’s worth, the Raiders in Oakland had a nice winning streak in home games against the Steelers. The Steelers haven’t won a road game against the Raiders since 1995. However, the Steelers came back to beat the Raiders 13-10 last season in what ended up being former long-time Raiders quarterback Derek Carr’s last-ever game with the Raiders.

This season, both teams sit at 1-1, each having won a close division game while losing in a blowout to a potential Super Bowl favorite. Both teams are hoping to be in the playoff hunt in the later weeks of the season, and the path to that will be easier if they get a win in week 3. It’s not a season killer, but the odds of making it to your desired postseason destination are significantly better if you start 2-1 rather than 1-2.

Let’s go through this Week 3 preview and look at some potential key matchups for Raider Nation to look out for.

Jimmy Garoppolo vs. Steelers Secondary

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Week 1 saw Jimmy G leading the Silver and Black to a comeback victory over their arch-rival, the Denver Broncos. Week 2 saw Jimmy G lead the Raiders into disaster in Buffalo. Looking into this Week 3 preview, the Raiders to have success, they’re going to need to have success in their passing attack.

Jimmy hasn’t done a very good job spreading around the football. The Raiders gave significant money to Hunter Renfrow and drafted tight end Michael Mayer in the second round. Both have combined for two catches on the young season. Upon reviewing the film, in most plays, Jimmy is guilty of staring down his first read or dropping the pass down to the running back. Renfrow, in particular had quite a few plays in Buffalo where he got open, but Jimmy either wasn’t looking in his direction or missed him.

The absence of Mayer from the Raiders passing attack is particularly disheartening because they spent a significant draft pick on him. He was a solid receiving tight end at Notre Dame, and due to Jimmy’s past success with George Kittle in San Francisco, it was expected the two might form a quick rapport. That hasn’t come yet, but hopefully moving forward, Mayer is able to become more of a force in the Raiders passing attack.

The Raiders are coming into this game averaging 13 points per contest, the worst in the league. Jimmy has three touchdowns and three interceptions. The Raiders need more from him. They need to see him elevate his game to a level above average, otherwise, the offense is going to continue to be stuck in the mud.

A lot of fans want to see Jimmy throw the ball deep down the field. That’s simply not his game, and not what fans should expect from him, especially against a team with a great edge rusher in T.J. Watt. If he keeps passing the ball short-intermediate like he’s best at but spreads it around more than he has been, that could open things up for the rest of the Raiders offense. Teams are always going to double and triple cover Davantae Adams, so it’s important to get the other guys going in order to open things up for Adams.

Josh Jacobs vs. Steelers Run Defense

Looking at the Week 3 preview, this is the most important matchup for the Raiders this week. It can’t be understated just how important it is when going through the Week 3 preview and breaking down every potential matchup just how important Josh Jacobs is to the Raiders offense.

All around the city of Las Vegas, there have to be signs looking for Josh Jacobs. The 2022 leading rusher has been lost all season long whenever he’s been handed the football. He hasn’t fumbled yet, but his longest rushing attempt of the season has been a meager 7 yards. Last week in Buffalo, he was held to -2 yards for the entire game. That’s the first time since the NFL-AFL Merger in 1970 that the previous season’s leading rusher has been held to negative yards for an entire game.

You can’t put all of the blame on Jacobs. The Raiders’ run blocking has been near the league bottom by every metric available while ironically being near the top in every pass-blocking metric possible. Their Week 2 matchup with Buffalo literally opened with Bills defensive tackle Ed Oliver throwing Raiders right guard Greg Van Rotten into Jacobs for a loss. A big reason why the Raiders are averaging 13 points per game is Jacobs hasn’t been able to get going.

Jacobs, for his detriment, has appeared a step or two too slow. Last season, nobody made more defenders miss than Jacobs. This season, that has simply not been the case. He hasn’t been hitting the running lanes with the speed and power that football fans are accustomed to. He missed training camp and the entire preseason with a contract squabble that ended in the franchise tag.

The Steelers’ run defense has been gashed the first two weeks of the regular season. Christian McCaffery ran wild on them in week 1, and the Browns had success on the ground with both Nick Chubb(prior to his injury) and Jerome Ford going off. The running game is a point of weakness for the Steelers defense that the Raiders can exploit.

If the Raiders are going to win on Sunday night, they need to get Jacobs going. He needs to be the dominant force he was in 2022. Otherwise, the Raiders are going to continue to be one-dimensional on offense, and that spells disaster for Raider Nation.

Kenny Pickett vs. Raiders Defense

Last season, the Raiders defense ranked 32nd in the league. This season, to be blunt, they haven’t looked much better, if at all. Tyree Wilson and Jaqorian Bennett are both rookies who have gotten starts and significant playing time and have struggled up to this point. Week 2 was an especially tough week for both players.

On Monday night, Pickett had a performance comparable to what Jimmy G put up in week 1 in Denver. The highlight was a 70-yard touchdown to outstanding wide receiver George Pickens.

When the Raiders came to icy Pittsburgh last December, it was Pickett who threw the game-winning touchdown to ice the Raiders. That loss has definitely stuck with the players and coaches since it ended any slim playoff hopes the Raiders had, and there has to be a sense of payback on the mind of the team.

Looking at this Week 3 preview, if the Raiders are going to beat the Steelers, they’re going to have to force Pickett to hold onto the ball longer than he may like to and take away his passing lanes underneath. Pickett doesn’t have the arm of somebody like Josh Allen. He has solid mobility and can be a threat to run, so the pass rush is going to need to get home.

This has been a major issue for the Raiders, as it has been for a while. Tyree Wilson needs to finally get going, having only recorded one quarterback pressure in 2 games to go along with 0 sacks and 0 quarterback hits. Maxx Crosby can’t do it all by himself, though I expect him to have a big game against the Steelers’ offensive line.

When it comes to the Raiders secondary, they’re lucky. Dionte Johnson, the Steelers’ first-string wide receiver, is out on IR, so that eliminates a major target for Pickett to throw to. That leaves George Pickens and Pat Fruiermuth, their tight end, as their best passing options. As we’ve seen over the years with Travis Kelce and even last week in Buffalo, the Raiders tend to struggle guarding tight ends.

If the Raiders can put together a solid game defensively and play aggressively, it could result in a win. They’ve been playing soft zone coverage for the majority of the first two games, and the defense needs a bounce-back game.

Looking at this Week 3 preview, look for the Raiders’ defense to try to create pressure on the pocket by blitzing Pickett to get him out of his comfort zone. If he’s allowed to dice them up underneath and tear up the soft zone coverage they’ve been playing so far, I don’t think the Raiders will have a good chance on Sunday night.

Prediction

Looking at this Week 3 preview, I expect the Raiders to step it up. Despite the fact the Raiders haven’t had a solid home-field advantage in Vegas, they’ve done well in home openers thus far since relocating in 2020.

This is going to be a slugfest between two heavily struggling offenses. The two lowest-scoring offenses in the league in fact. I don’t expect a whole bunch of fireworks in this game, and I expect to see a lot of angry discourse amongst other fanbases online for having to put up with having this game on in primetime.

Call it cautious optimism, but after looking through this Week 3 preview, I like this matchup for the Raiders. I think, across the board, they match up well with the Steelers. I think they know the adjustments they’ve got to make in order to have the best chance to win. I think the Raiders will take home a hard-fought victory in a close one with the Steelers and avenge their loss from last December.

I expect Jimmy G to be on his game, actively looking to get other guys like Hunter Renfrow involved in the offense. Josh Jacobs finally rises from the depths for his first big game of the season. I can’t predict too much from the defense, but I hope to see Tyree Wilson shine under the bright lights to give the Raiders pass rush the 1-2 punch with Maxx Crosby that they’ve been missing desperately for a long time.

Final Score: Raiders 17, Steelers 14.