Raiders rally to down Steelers, 34-31
OAKLAND, Calif. — Recent Steelers history is littered with bad losses to bad Oakland Raiders teams. This one could end up being one of the worst of the worst.
Ben Roethlisberger was 36 of 49 for 384 yards and four touchdowns — the kind of numbers that are supposed to win games on the road. Especially against supposedly going-nowhere teams coming off a 35-13 loss to the Dolphins.
But the numbers often don't add up for the Steelers against the Raiders, who seem to play their best against the Steelers no matter the season or circumstances. And nothing about the Steelers' 34-31 loss to the Raiders on Sunday at O.co Coliseum seemed to make much sense, much less the final score.
“We expect more and better from ourselves,” coach Mike Tomlin said shortly after Sebastian Janikowski boomed a 43-yard field goal as time expired to rally the Raiders, who trailed 24-14 and again 31-21.
The Steelers' 20-13 loss to a two-win Raiders team in 2006 was tough to explain. So was a 27-24 defeat at Heinz Field in 2009 that ended up costing the Steelers the playoffs.
This one was littered with plenty of inexplicable, too.
Darren McFadden, averaging barely 2 yards per carry, peeled off a 64-yard TD run in the first quarter that nearly equaled Oakland's rushing total for the season. He ended with 113 yards after getting 54 combined in his first two games.
Carson Palmer, the longtime Pittsburgh antagonist who beat them for the fifth time in his career, passed for only 30 yards in the first half. Yet he couldn't be stopped during a 13-point fourth quarter in which he lit up the Troy Polamalu-less secondary as adeptly as Marcus Allen did the memorial flame that honors the late Al Davis.
“They got in a rhythm, Carson started being able to find guys, and there were situations of blowing coverages and they made plays,” said Ryan Clark, whose interception on the game's first play led to Roethlisberger's first TD pass.
Palmer went 24 of 34 for 209 yards, with nine receivers making at least one catch.
And playing in the lone NFL stadium that's still used for baseball, the Steelers kept putting the ball on a turf that was part dirt, part grass and all trouble for the visitors. Jonathan Dwyer's fumble led to Palmer's 3-yard TD pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey 1:54 before halftime, and Antonio Brown fumbled twice.
Heyward-Bey was knocked out by a Ryan Mundy hit in the fourth quarter but regained consciousness before leaving on a stretcher. He was diagnosed with a concussion and was being hospitalized overnight following a helmet-to-helmet hit in which some Raiders accused Mundy of launching himself.
Brown (seven catches, 87 yards) managed to recovery his own fumble in the end zone late in the fourth quarter to complete Roethlisberger's fourth TD pass — two were to Heath Miller, the other to Mike Wallace. But he put the ball on the turf again as the Steelers were clinging to a 31-28 lead following Palmer's 6-yard TD pass to Denarius Moore. The Raiders' Philip Wheeler recovered, and Janikowski later powered through a 32-yarder to tie it with 6:34 remaining.
“Key drive, key situation, made a play, (and I) could have got down,” Brown said. “It determined the outcome.”
Tomlin showed his faith in an offense that piled up 433 yards despite rushing for only 54 — Rashard Mendenhall can't get healthy soon enough — by going for it on a fourth-and-1 from his own 29 after Janikowski tied it.
Such calls can define a team's season and, in some cities, a coach's job tenure.
“We hadn't stopped them enough in second half,” Tomlin said. “We were inside 1 (yard), and if can't get an inside-the-1, you deserve to lose games.”
Isaac Redman gained 6 yards but the Steelers still had to punt. The Raiders (1-2) got the ball back with 1:43 to go, plenty of time for Palmer to set up Janikowski's winner.
Oakland scored on its final five drives.
“You can't let teams in this league hang around, hang around, hang around,” Miller said.
Especially against the Raiders, who seem to hang one on the Steelers just when they least expect it.
Alan Robinson is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at arobinson@tribweb.com.
