Steelers to face Raiders without RB Conner
The worry for the Pittsburgh Steelers when Le’Veon Bell decided not to play this season was a significant injury to first-year starting running back James Conner. With Conner already declared out for this week’s game in Oakland, the Steelers will go with a running back by committee approach against the Raiders and perhaps longer.
Rookie Jaylen Samuels and veteran Stevan Ridley will get the bulk of the carries in place of Conner. The Steelers also signed Trey Edmunds to the 53-man roster after spending the first 13 weeks of the season on the practice squad.
“We have a great deal of confidence in Ridley and a great deal of confidence in Jaylen,” head coach Mike Tomlin said. “Jaylen, of late, has been on the rise.”
Conner will be difficult to replace. He is currently fifth in the NFL in rushing yards with 909 and has scored 12 touchdowns.
Samuels has 31 yards on 12 carries and Ridley has 56 yards on 18 carries. In recent weeks, Samuels has been the top backup and figures to get the first look against the Raiders. It was Samuels who entered the game against the Chargers when Conner was injured. He had two carries for five yards, but he caught three passes for 20 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown catch that tied the score late in the fourth quarter. It was his second touchdown of the season.
Ridley hasn’t touched the ball in the past three games. In his last appearance against Carolina a month ago, he had 26 yards on eight carries, with most of them coming late in the game after Conner entered the concussion protocol.
Conner’s injury comes at the most inopportune time. The Steelers are in the midst of a chase for the AFC North division title with the Ravens. The Steelers (7-4-1) hold a half-game lead over the Ravens (7-5) entering this weekend’s games.
The Ravens have won their past two games while the Steelers have lost two in a row to be in this predicament.
The Steelers have some things they have to clean up if they want to beat the Raiders, who played a highly competitive game against the Chiefs last week before falling, 40-33. The Steelers led the Chargers 23-7 at halftime before losing, 33-30.
The Steelers had a tough time defending Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, who threw for 299 yards and two touchdowns. Rivers continually found receiver Keenan Allen matched up on linebackers as the Steelers tried to piece together a pass defense without safety Morgan Burnett and cornerback Cameron Sutton.
“As the game wore on, I think he really got comfortable with what he was looking at and was able to do some things and get them in some situations to move the chains in possession downs,” Tomlin said. “As the game wore on, I think he got a sense of some of the things we were doing in some of our sub-packages. Playing without Morgan Burnett and Cameron Sutton really limited us in some of those things. I think as the game went on, he pushed Keenan Allen inside and took advantage of some of those opportunities.”
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is playing well and might be able to take advantage of the Steelers in the same way, Tomlin said. That’s why it’s important for the Steelers to get Burnett and/or Sutton back in the fold this week.
Tomlin had the opportunity to coach Carr in the Pro Bowl last winter and came away impressed with his makeup.
“I like his competitive spirit,” Tomlin said. “He’s a good communicator, a gym rat, an X’s and O’s type of a guy. He’s going to challenge us in the ways that Philip Rivers challenged us, particularly as the game wore on. We better be thoughtful about mixing our looks up to keep him from catching up with us and attacking us in some of the schematic ways we were attacked last week.”
The Raiders might be 2-10, but the Steelers know better than anyone they can’t be fooled by the Raiders’ record. In their past three trips to Oakland, they’ve lost to two teams that finished the season with 4-12 records and another that finished 2-14.
“You see what they did last week against one of the best teams in football, fought them all the way to the end,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “We can’t worry about records. I’ve never won there.”
SERIES HISTORY: 23rd regular season meeting. Raiders lead series, 12-10, and have won the past three games played in Oakland. The Steelers won the most recent meeting, 38-35, in 2015 at Heinz Field. The past three games have been decided by three points. These two teams have met in the playoffs on six occasions. The Raiders won the most recent playoff matchup in 1983 when they resided in Los Angeles.
