Steelers, Raiders Week 14 Keys to the Game
The Steelers find themselves on a two-game slide and just a mere ½ game in front of the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC North division lead.
With the Ravens traveling to Kansas City this week, the Steelers need to take advantage of a good opportunity to gain some ground on them. One would think Baltimore will lose at Kansas City and the Steelers should win vs. Oakland, but as they say, any given Sunday.
With a win much needed, the Steelers will have to get over their troubles of winning in Oakland and come out with the ‘W’.
Here are the keys to victory.
The running game
Jaylen Samuels will start the game but Stevan Ridley will also get a decent amount of carries in the absence of James Conner. The ground game must be effective, amassing around 75 yards, at least, to help balance the offense, control the clock and open up the passing attack for Ben Roethlisberger and company. If these two backs can average
The creation of turnovers
The Steelers have made a living off of bad teams this year and Oakland is definitely a bad team, perhaps the worst in the league. Yet, the black and gold continue to lack the creation of turnovers. They have 12 on the year and have given the ball up 20 times. That ratio needs to change, starting this week. The one thing you can’t do when playing a bad team is give them life. Turnovers are a fast way to do that when you give them up but they work just as fast when you get them for your team, which the black and gold need to do, now!
Chris Boswell must make kicks
Chris Boswell has been bad this year. Flat out bad. 4 missed field goals and 5 missed extra points. These are unacceptable numbers and he cannot continue this trend. Boswell cannot put the Steelers in a position where he is leaving points on the field. The way both the offense and defense have been playing lately, they need points of Boswells’ toe whenever he attempts a kick, specifically extra points.
Ben Roethlisberger needs to eliminate red zone mistakes
Ben Roethlisberger is a phenomenal quarterback but he has been bad in the red zone in recent weeks. He continues to throw interceptions inside the opponents 20 and miss wide open guys. He also forces some ill-advised throws. As great as he is and as much as this team relies on him, he cannot make these mistakes any longer. If he does, the team will pay the price.
Conclusion
Despite the Steelers recent woes, I expect them to come out with a hard-fought, close victory on Sunday, 24-21. Roethlisberger has never won in Oakland, which is concerning but the pendulum must swing back at some point, right? I think it does this week. If not, the Steelers playoff hopes will be in trouble.
