3 takeaways from Raiders’ ugly loss to Steelers

1. Another step back

The Raiders faced several obstacles going against the Steelers’ ferocious defense without key players on offense.

But the Raiders also got in their own way on several occasions, as they fell to 2-4 and often looked lost.

Penalties were committed in crucial situations. So were turnovers.

This version of the Raiders has to play clean football to win games, and they were anything but on Sunday.

A quarterback switch from Gardner Minshew to Aidan O’Connell failed to produce positive results, as the offense struggled to overcome the absences of receivers Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers.

The defense allowed 183 yards rushing, much of it after contact, despite playing against a fairly one-dimensional offense with Pittsburgh quarterback Justin Fields failing to find rhythm in the passing game.

There were coaching errors and mental lapses throughout the game.

Punter AJ Cole even had the first blocked punt of his career.

The Raiders don’t appear to be a team headed in the right direction.

As for positives, Brock Bowers caught nine passes for 71 yards, and linebacker Divine Deablo made several big plays in his return from injury.

That’s about it.

2. Seeing yellow

The Raiders were plagued by the color yellow even beyond all the Terrible Towels waving throughout Allegiant Stadium.

While the inordinate amount of road fans did make an impact, several key penalties played a much bigger factor in the outcome.

The Raiders weren’t penalized often, but the flags that were thrown came at the most inopportune times.

After nearly playing a penalty-free first half, the Raiders had a Deablo interception wiped out by a roughing-the-passer penalty on Matthew Butler.

While the contact wasn’t excessive, it was an automatic flag because he brought his body weight down on Fields.

Pittsburgh went on to score a touchdown.

Bowers picked up a big gain on the opening drive of the second half and tried to fire up the crowd before looking back to see Andre James had been called for holding. The Raiders had to punt three plays later, and it was blocked.

Two possessions later for the Steelers, the Raiders came up with a stop on third-and-18 only to have K’Lavon Chaisson flagged for a somewhat questionable roughing-the-passer call. The Steelers went from being forced to punt to scoring a touchdown two plays later.

The Raiders took the ball and went right down the field on the ensuing drive for an Alexander Mattison touchdown reception on the final play of the third quarter.

It was wiped out by an ineligible man downfield call on Jackson Powers-Johnson.

Ameer Abdullah came up just short of the goal line on the next play, and the Raiders elected not to challenge to see if he crossed the goal line.

Abdullah lost a fumble on the next play.

3. Great start fades quickly

The Raiders came out looking like a whole new offense in O’Connell’s first start of the season.

O’Connell went 4-for-4 for 45 yards, and Mattison added 25 yards rushing, including a touchdown run from 3 yards to cap a 10-play drive that covered 70 yards in 5:55.

The Raiders led 7-3, and optimism was flowing. But they couldn’t recapture that success the rest of the day.

The Raiders didn’t score again until garbage time through a multitude of errors from penalties to turnovers to general ineptness.

They didn’t even get another first down until late in the second quarter.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.