The Pittsburgh Steelers escaped a late comeback from the Las Vegas Raiders in a 23-18 win in Week 3, where a decision by head coach Josh McDaniels significantly reduced his team’s chances of victory.
You can find the remaining games from Week 3 here!
Steelers @ Raiders: At a glance
- The Steelers won the turnover battle 3-0 and thus also the game, as they managed three interceptions against Garoppolo and then scored twice. Meanwhile, the third pick ended the game.
- Josh McDaniels’ decision in the end caused some astonishment, when he was eight points behind, to kick a field goal twice – once canceled by a penalty – instead of using the fourth attempt and continuing to march towards the end zone. The mistake most likely cost the home side the game.
- Patrick Peterson and TJ Watt both reached statistical milestones in the NFL.
Steelers @ Raiders: The Recap
After three fruitless drives, the home team put the first exclamation mark: Jimmy Garoppolo threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams to give the Raiders an early lead. The joy didn’t last too long, however, because the Steelers responded promptly: After three plays, Kenny Pickett found Calvin Austin for a 72-yard touchdown to tie the game.
Things then got a little tougher for both sides, so the Steelers were content with a total of three field goals by the third quarter, including one from 57 yards by Chris Boswell after the break. The first of these followed an interception by Garoppolo on Levi Wallace. The Steelers made the preliminary decision with a touchdown catch by Pat Freiermuth, which linebacker Divine Deablo let escape on a simple corner route, leaving him completely open in the end zone for a 13-yard pass.
This was preceded by Garoppolo’s second interception of the evening. Despite having Adams open on a slant route over the middle, he preferred to throw seemingly blindly to the outside into double coverage and Patrick Peterson said thank you.
Another promising Raiders attack ended on the edge of the red zone after a failed fourth-down attempt when Wallace broke off a pass to Jakobi Meyers. But because the Steelers didn’t do anything with the ball after that and a little later the referees made a roughing-the-passer penalty out of a notable sack by Minkah Fitzpatrick, thus pushing the Raiders in front of the end zone, things got exciting again around five minutes before the end . Garoppolo found Adams for a one-yard touchdown pass, then the two-point conversion to tight end Michael Mayer made it 23:15 with 5:41 minutes to play.
The Raiders then got the ball back again and attempted a 48-yard field goal at 4th&5 with over four minutes to play. However, DeMarvin Leal was penalized for leverage and the Raiders got a new 1st down. With 2:22 minutes on the clock they were stopped again at the 8, kicked again at 4th&4 and this time hit the field goal. They cut the lead to 18:23, but still needed a touchdown to win. A strange decision from head coach Josh McDaniels.
The Raiders got the ball back after a punt with twelve seconds left to play, but on the first play Garoppolo threw an interception, again to Wallace, and the game was over.
Pittsburgh Steelers (2-1) – Las Vegas Raiders (1-2)
Result: 23:18 (7:7, 6:0, 10:0, 0:11) BOXSCORE
Steelers @ Raiders: Key stats
- His interception was Peterson’s 35th in the NFL. He left his former teammate Vikings safety Harrison Smith (34) behind for the most interceptions among all active players in the league.
- TJ Watt (2 sacks) is the first player with at least six sacks and a defensive touchdown in a team’s first three games in a season since sack statistics were introduced in 1982.
- According to the “ESPN” model, McDaniels’ field goal decision gave him a 5.6 percent chance of winning compared to playing the fourth attempt. A big mistake!
The star of the game: Levi Wallace (cornerback, Steelers)
Wallace caught an interception against Garoppolo early in the second quarter, ending a potentially game-changing drive for the home team. The Steelers then scored a field goal. At the start of the fourth quarter, he broke up a pass on a likely 1st down on a fourth-down attempt deep in his own half, ending a drive that was probably Las Vegas’ last hope of getting back into the game. With his third interception at the very end he finally put the lid on it.
The flop of the game: Jimmy Garoppolo (quarterback, Raiders)
The former Niners quarterback didn’t have a particularly good performance. He threw three interceptions, the second one in particular being bad and completely unnecessary. He also threw very risky passes into traffic more than once. In one of them, Adams took a hard hit that could have been prevented as a QB. And he too often overlooked open receivers in promising positions. Also questionable: McDaniels’ field goal decision – twice – shortly before the end of the game.
The highlight of the game
Garoppolo’s third interception and Wallace’s second interception sealed the Steelers’ road win in Vegas.