That helped set the Steelers up for a 43-yard field goal by Chris Boswell with 8:33 left in the second quarter, giving the Steelers a 10-7 lead.
The Steelers forced a three-and-out on Las Vegas’ next possession and drove to the Raiders’ 24 on their next possession before pulling away and settling for another Boswell field goal, this one from 42 yards to take the lead 13:7. There are still 1:56 minutes left in the first half.
The Raiders got the ball back and advanced to midfield, but TJ Watt got his second sack of the game on third down, forcing another Las Vegas punt at the end of the half.
Garoppolo had not been sacked in the Raiders’ first two games. The Steelers caught him four times in this game. Watt’s six sacks are the most by a Steelers player in three games in team history.
The Steelers forced a three-and-out from the Raiders on their first possession of the second half, but Las Vegas punter AJ Cole hit a booming punt that went out of bounds at the Pittsburgh 9, turning the field over.
That didn’t matter, however, as Pickens scored on a 32-yard gain on third-and-5 to advance the ball to midfield, setting up a 57-yard field goal by Boswell that extended the Steelers’ lead expanded to 16-7 early in the third quarter.
Watt struck again on Las Vegas’ next possession, forcing a bad pass from Garoppolo as he approached. Garoppolo tried to throw the ball downfield to Jakobi Meyers, but Patrick Peterson beat him to it and intercepted it before it went out of bounds at the Pittsburgh 19.
The Steelers drove 81 yards from there, getting chunk plays of 17 yards from Pickens, 16 yards on a screen from Jaylen Warren and a 17-yard run from Najee Harris before Pickett threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Freiermuth to make it 23-7 with 3:56 left in the third quarter.
The Raiders shifted to a rush-up offense for the rest of the game, but turned the ball over on downs early in the fourth quarter before driving 80 yards for a 2-yard touchdown pass from Garoppolo to Adams 5:41 played before the end. Adams caught 15 passes for 172 yards and scored twice on 19 scores.
Garoppolo hit Meyers with a two-point conversion pass, cutting the Steelers’ lead to 23-15. The Steelers tried to get more playing time, but Pickett’s third-down pass deep up the middle to Freiermuth was deflected by Nate Hobbs and the Raiders got the ball back at their own 48 line.
The Raiders were stopped on fourth down and allowed Carlson to kick a field goal, but DeMarvin Leal was penalized for a personal foul on the kick, giving the Raiders new life at the Pittsburgh 14. But the Raiders again failed to convert from there and kicked another field goal, this one from 26 yards, to cut the lead to 23-18 with 2:22 to play.
“You just have to hold on to them. That was the attitude,” linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “We knew we would probably be eliminated again. But we had to hold on to her. We were by no means perfect, but we took steps.”
But the Steelers picked up a first down and forced the Raiders to use all three timeouts before sending the ball back to Las Vegas with 12 seconds to play before Wallace Garoppolo intercepted a second time, ending the game.
“Our job is to take the ball away and set up the offense to score points,” Wallace said. “We want to use them on short fields as often as possible. If we can do that, it’s good.”