Raiders report: LB plays with passion, joy in return from injury
It was easy to notice the enthusiasm that Raiders linebacker Divine Deablo was playing with early in Sunday’s 32-13 loss to the Steelers at Allegiant Stadium.
Deablo had been forced to watch his teammates play the past three games as he tried to work his way back from an oblique injury.
“I’ve been waiting for three weeks just trying to get healthy, so to finally feel good enough to be out there with my guys, I was just really happy,” he said.
His teammates felt it, too.
“It was awesome,” star defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “He was flying around out there balling. He had big a smile on his face, even hit a couple dances. I missed my guy.”
Deablo wasn’t just celebrating being out on the field. He was having a major impact, starting with the opening drive when he crashed through the line and tackled running back Jaylen Warren for a 3-yard loss on a screen pass that helped to limit the Steelers to a long field goal.
The Steelers had crossed midfield in the second quarter and were looking for a home run with a double reverse pitch back to quarterback Justin Fields, who was looking to take a shot at the end zone.
Fields never got that shot because Deablo hit him almost immediately after he got the ball back for a sack that resulted in a 13-yard loss.
Later, he broke up a pass in the end zone on a 2-point conversion attempt.
Perhaps his biggest play of the day didn’t count, however.
Deablo intercepted a Fields pass over the middle late in the second quarter with the Raiders leading 7-6, but it was wiped out by a roughing the passer penalty.
Instead of taking a lead into halftime, the Raiders trailed because the Steelers took advantage of the second chance by scoring a touchdown four plays later.
It was one of just four penalties called on the Raiders in the game, but each was costly.
“It’s very frustrating and something we need to fix as a team,” said Deablo, who finished with six tackles. “We have to stop beating ourselves. Turnovers, penalties, We’re beating ourselves at the end of the day. It was a good game at halftime. We just have to finish strong, and that’s what we didn’t do.”
Taking accountability
Running back Ameer Abdullah thought he had crossed the goal line as he stretched the ball inside the 1-yard line on the first play of the fourth quarter.
But that doesn’t change his evaluation of what happened next.
“It has to be next-play mentality,” Abdullah said.
Instead, he got the ball punched out by Steelers star T.J. Watt, and Pittsburgh recovered the fumble, preventing the Raiders from scoring in what was a two-possession game.
“I have to be better protecting the ball in the backfield,” Abdullah said. “I take a lot of pride in that. I didn’t come up for my team in that situation. I’m not too concerned about the play before. They called it how they called it. I have to be better on the next play.”
Scouting the refs
Defensive end K’Lavon Chaisson was called for a costly roughing the passer penalty in the third quarter that helped turn a would-be Pittsburgh punt into a pivotal touchdown.
Chaisson pulled down Fields late but not with much force.
He said he should have known better than to tempt fate because the team had been prepared for this officiating crew’s propensity for making that call.
“I didn’t think it was much, but we get an overview of the refs when the week starts to get to know what kind of penalties they tend to lean toward, and that was something they had mentioned to us in the team meeting,” Chaisson said.
Chaisson also was disappointed in the run defense. The Steelers rushed for 183 yards.
“It was nothing different,” he said of what the Steelers did schematically. “Nothing we haven’t seen or game-planned for. We just didn’t play Raider ball. We weren’t physical. We didn’t wrap up. We didn’t tackle. We didn’t stop the ball carrier.”
Saving best for third
The Raiders continue to do well getting off the field on third down, limiting Pittsburgh to 4 of 13.
It’s the ninth consecutive game they have held their opponent under 50 percent on third down, tied for the second-longest active streak in the NFL.
Opponents are converting just 30.1 percent on third downs this season, the third-best rate in the league and the best percentage through the first six games of the season for the Raiders since 2001.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.