The Pittsburgh Steelers are gearing up for the 2024 regular season, and with it being the team’s sixth game fans’ hopes remain high heading into the second quarter of the season. The hope is there is a winning performance on the horizon on Sunday in Week 6 when the team travels to play the Las Vegas Raiders in Nevada.

What exactly do the Steelers need to do to on offense to claim their fourth victory of 2024? Let’s break it down…

Offense

Expose a glaring weakness?

The past two weeks the Steelers have faced an opponent who has a glaring weakness. It just so happens both the Colts and Cowboys had the same weakness, they couldn’t stop the run. Here we are heading into Week 6 and it’s the same song and dance with the Raiders. The Raiders are giving up 131.8 yards per game on the ground, but does it matter if the Steelers can’t exploit the weakness? It would be a welcome sight to see the Steelers be able to actually exploit the weakness of an opponent.

Provide Time

The Raiders don’t do much well on defense, but getting after the quarterback is one of those things. The Raiders have 11 sacks this season, and the Steelers have surrendered 13 sacks so far this season. Those two typically don’t add up to success in today’s NFL. Regardless of who is under center for the Steelers, which we know will be Justin Fields in Week 6, the offensive line needs to provide them time to operate. I do feel it is appropriate to suggest the offensive line having the same unit for two weeks in a row might have something to do with the protection issues, but seeing some progress will be welcome.

Keep it Clean

The Raiders are not a defense which has been taking the ball away this season. In fact, the Raiders only have two takeaways through five games this year. On top of that, the Steelers have only surrendered turnovers four times this season, one of them being the end-of-the-game chaos vs. the Cowboys which goes down as a fumble. But it isn’t as if the Steelers haven’t had plenty of turnover worthy plays this season. The best way to lose this game is to turn the ball over. The Steeles will have to keep it clean.

Convert into Points

The Raiders are giving up 26.2 points per game this year, which ranks 28th in the league, but their 3rd down defense is a Top 5 unit. The Raiders are giving up 3rd down conversions only 30% of the time, which ranks 4th in the league. If the Steelers can convert and move the ball into the red-zone, their red-zone defense ranks 21st in red-zone touchdown conversions, surrendering scores 61.1% of trips to the red-zone. These numbers are weird, but if the Steelers can convert, they can turn those trips into points and hopefully put away an opponent…for once.

I talk about this, and MUCH more on the “Let’s Ride”, and you can hear that podcast in the player below this article. In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the team as they gear up for game time!