Featuring Silver & Black Pride’s Matt Holder
The Pittsburgh Steelers are looking to halt a two-game losing streak. This week they face off against the Las Vegas Raiders (2-3), who have been going through their own wide receiver drama. I spoke with Matt Holder of Silver & Black Pride to get a better idea of what to expect in this week’s matchup.
You can read my questions and his answers below:
1. Davante Adams has been in the headlines with his recent trade request after seemingly feuding with head coach Antonio Pierce. How confident are you that he has played his last snap for Vegas? And who becomes the Raiders’ top weapon if he leaves?
Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
At this point, I’d be more surprised if Adams stays with the Raiders than if he gets traded. So, I think he’s played his last snap for the team.
Rookie tight end Brock Bowers becomes the top target without Adams. Even with the star wide receiver in the lineup, Bowers was playing pretty well as he was second among tight ends in catches and yards. Last week, he had the best game of his young career with eight catches for 97 yards and a touchdown while having the most targets (12) on the team. That allowed him to pass Dallas Goedert, who was on a bye week, at the top of the list in those two metrics. Bowers became such a problem for the Broncos they eventually put Patrick Surtain II on him in the second half.
Wide receiver Jakobi Meyers will likely get more targets too. But he’s more of a high-end No. 2 wideout and the offense will run through the rookie moving forward.
2. The Raiders announced Aidan O’Connell will start on Sunday. What’s your evaluation of Minshew’s play thus far? Will a switch to O’Connell make any significant change to the Raiders’ offense?
Minshew wasn’t the offense’s only problem, but he wasn’t helping matters. He was missing way too many reads and opportunities to push the ball down the field, partially because he tries to play hero ball and starts scrambling when doesn’t need to. As a result, he’d often run into sacks, throw off-platform and have inaccurate passes to open receivers. At the end of the day, Minshew proved to be the journeyman backup quarterback everyone knew he was (except for the Raiders, apparently) heading into the season.
O’Connell can improve the offense by making quicker decisions and staying in the pocket. However, I can’t expect him to solve the offense’s issues, partially because the offensive line hasn’t played well this season and he is a statue in the pocket. Also, the running game has been terrible so far this season and I don’t think he’s good enough to force defenses to take an extra defender out of the box to help solve that problem.
Long story short, O’Connell can help Las Vegas move the ball more efficiently, but he’s not the game-changer who will make a dramatic difference. Hopefully, I end up eating those words, but I get the feeling the Raiders will be looking for a new quarterback in the draft this spring.
3. It’s been a rocky start to Antonio Pierce’s first full season as head coach. What have been his strengths and weaknesses so far?
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
While the recent fallout with Adams might suggest otherwise, Pierce is good at relating to players and being a motivator/leader. That’s what got him the job as he’s a “players coach” who managed to get buy-in from the locker room to help turn things around last season. We saw that when essentially the entire roster vouched for AP to get the full-time job and, ironically, Adams was one of the main proponents in his corner.
Game management is by far Pierce’s biggest weakness. He’s had a bunch of questionable fourth-down punts since taking over and took a lot of flak for punting on fourth and short in the Chargers’ territory late in the season opener while the Raiders were trailing. Also, his use of timeouts has been questionable during his tenure. Part of that comes with being a young head coach, but Pierce hasn’t shown much growth when it comes to game management and it’s frustrating because he has several former head coaches—Marvin Lewis, Joe Philbin and Tom Coughlin—in his ear giving him advice.
4. Everyone knows how good Maxx Crosby is. Who are some other notable players on defense for the Raiders?
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Former Steeler Robert Spillane has been a pretty good linebacker since signing with Las Vegas in 2023. Spillane is limited in coverage but very good against the run as he owns a top-5 PFF grade in that department. Especially with Christian Wilkins landing on injured reserve this week, the Raiders will be counting on defensive tackle Adam Butler to step up moving forward. Butler is traditionally more of an interior pass-rush specialist, but he’s really stepped up as a run defender this year and has been playing well so far this season. In the secondary, Nate Hobbs is a good nickel corner who can make open-field tackles to limit yards after the catch, takeaway short routes and come up and play the run.
5. Despite dropping two in a row, the Steelers are three-point favorites per FanDuel. How do you think this game plays out and what will be the final score?
This matchup doesn’t bode well for the Raiders. As mentioned above, their offensive line is a work in progress which is a bad problem to have when facing the Steelers’ defensive line. Defensively, Wilkins being out is a huge blow for Las Vegas as he was wreaking havoc for most of the season, even if some of his contributions didn’t show up on the box score. He missed the entire second half last week and there’s a reason why the Broncos were able to move the ball and put up 21 points in the third and fourth quarters.
I’ll go with 23-10 Pittsburgh for my final score prediction. As you can see, my optimism for the Silver and Black has diminished…