The Raiders miss the chance for a record and a fresh start with a mistake-filled loss to the Steelers

LAS VEGAS – Raiders coach Antonio Pierce didn't hesitate when asked if his team was any good right now.

“Our record is what it shows. “We're 2-4 – that's not good enough,” Pierce said after Sunday's 32-13 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. “We don’t train well enough, we don’t play well enough and we don’t detail well enough.

“More importantly, we keep coming back to this: If you turn the ball over, you don’t give yourself a chance.”

Las Vegas had a chance to even its record and potentially make a fresh start. Meanwhile, the Steelers had fallen behind by two games with a 3-0 opening score, a quarterback controversy was brewing between Justin Fields and Russell Wilson, and they had one of the more inefficient offenses in the NFL.

But the Steelers were far superior to the Raiders.

Las Vegas' effort was littered with errors, including three turnovers, four penalties and a blocked punt that gave the Steelers the ball at the Raiders' 9-yard line in the third quarter.

“It starts with discipline,” Pierce said. “We got four penalties, but they were at critical moments. The turnover thing is embarrassing. We don’t respect the ball enough, so we don’t even deserve the chance to put ourselves in a position to win.”

Looking for a spark, Pierce turned the offense over to Aidan O'Connell, who backed up Gardner Minshew for the first five weeks.

O'Connell completed 27 of 40 passes for 227 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

A week after the Raiders racked up 330 yards of offense in Denver and turned the ball over three times, they totaled just 275 yards — just 57 on the ground. They only scored on 2 of 11 possessions.

“We can't put our defense in a place like this where we're not making plays and we're not on the field very long,” O'Connell said. “We're trying to sustain the attacks better, and of course we're not good at turning the ball over, starting with myself. Just frustrating, some self-inflicted wounds.”

On the other side of the ball, the Raiders allowed Pittsburgh, which ranked 23rd in offense, to gain 293 yards while scoring on seven of 10 possessions, not counting the final drive that ended in a putdown.

The Steelers scored on just 39.2% of their drives.

Last week, the Steelers' longest play against Dallas was a 21-yard pass from Fields to George Pickens. On Sunday, Najee Harris tore through Las Vegas' porous rushing defense for 106 yards on 14 carries (7.6 yards per carry), including a 36-yard touchdown run, while Fields was 14 of 24 for 145 yards and 59 yards rushing Finished with two touchdowns on the ground.

“I think defensively I found some really good tackling in the first half, and as the game went on you could tell it was getting a little leaky,” Pierce said. “So again, it’s really work. We have to go back and get to work. It’s very cliche, but it’s true.”