That helped set the Steelers up for a 43-yard field goal from Chris Boswell with 8:33 remaining in the second quarter and a 10-7 lead for the Steelers.
The Steelers forced a three-and-out on Las Vegas’ next possession and drove to the Raiders’ 24 on their next possession before stalling out and settling for another Boswell field goal, this one from 42 yards, for a 13-7 lead with 1:56 remaining in the first half.
The Raiders got the ball back and moved to midfield, but T.J. Watt got his second sack of the game on third down, forcing another Las Vegas punt to end the half.
Garoppolo had not been sacked in the Raiders’ first two games. The Steelers got to him four times in this game. Watt’s six sacks are the most by a Steelers player through three games in team history.
The Steelers forced a three-and-out by the Raiders on the opening possession of the second half, but Las Vegas punter A.J. Cole hit a booming punt that went out of bounds at the Pittsburgh 9 to flip the field.
It didn’t matter, however, as Pickett connected with Pickens for a 32-yard gain on third-and-5 to get the ball out to midfield and set up a 57-yard field goal by Boswell that pushed the Steelers’ lead to 16-7 early in the third quarter.
Watt again struck on Las Vegas’ next possession, as he forced an errant pass by Garoppolo as he closed in. Garoppolo tried to lob the ball downfield to Jakobi Meyers, but Patrick Peterson beat him to the ball, intercepting it before going out of bounds at the Pittsburgh 19.
The Steelers drove 81 yards from there, getting chunk plays of 17 yards by Pickens, 16 yards on a screen by Jaylen Warren and a 17-yard run by Najee Harris before Pickett threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Freiermuth for a 23-7 lead with 3:56 remaining in the third quarter.
The Raiders went to a hurry-up offense the remainder 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 with 5:41 remaining. Adams caught 15 passes for 172 yards and two scores on 19 targets.
Garoppolo connected on a two-point conversion pass to Meyers to cut the Steelers’ lead to 23-15. The Steelers tried to run more time off the clock, but Pickett’s third-down pass deep down the middle to Freiermuth was broken up by Nate Hobbs and the Raiders got the ball back at their own 48.
The Raiders were stopped on fourth down and had Carlson 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 remaining in the game.
“You’ve just got to hold them. That was the mindset,” said linebacker Alex Highsmith “We knew we were probably going to go out again. But we needed to hold them. We weren’t perfect by any means, but we took steps.”
But the Steelers picked up one first down and forced the Raiders to use all three timeouts before punting the ball back to Las Vegas with 12 seconds remaining in the game before Wallace intercepted Garoppolo a second time to end it.
“That’s our job to take the ball away and set the offense up to score points,” said Wallace. “We want to put them on short fields as much as we can. When we’re able to do that, it’s good.”
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