Raiders-Steelers recap: Las Vegas throttled again in loss

New quarterback, same old result.

Indeed, the switch from Gardner Minshew to Aidan O’Connell had little impact.

The Las Vegas Raiders were once again a sloppy flat product on both offense and on defense and were easily beaten at home by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday by a score of 32-13.

Let’s take a look at the key aspects of the game:

Team records: The Las Vegas Raiders are 2-4. The Pittsburgh Steelers are 4-2.

What the win/loss means for the Raiders:

The Raiders, in last place in the AFC West, is dangerously close to falling into a deep hole in the grand playoff scheme. The Raiders are now 2-1 against AFC North opponents with a Week 9 game at the Cincinnati Bengals remaining. Remarkably, the Raiders have trailed by double digits in all six of their games this season. The Raiders have trailed by 20 or more points three of the past four games including twice at home. Not a great look for coach Antonio Pierce and a roster that pushed for him to get hired. Pierce is 7-8 as the Raiders’ coach.

Turning point of the game:

The Steelers turned a Raiders’ turnover into a touchdown to take a 12-7 lead at halftime. Then, the Raiders had a punt blocked deep in their own territory on the first series of the second half that the Steelers turned into three points. Pittsburgh simply took over from that point.

Injury report:

Guard Dylan Parham hurt his foot in the first half. Jordan Meredith replaced him. Wide receiver D.J. Turner was injured in the third quarter.

What’s next for the Raiders:

The Raiders play at the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday at 1:05 p.m. PT. The Rams are 1-4 and had their bye this week. The Raiders will likely have many fans at SoFi Stadium. They are 1-5 there with five straight losses. Their only win there came in 2020 when there weren’t any fans in the stands.