First Call: Bills coordinator takes blame for bad call versus Steelers; Raiders get banged up before trip to Heinz Field

Tuesday’s “First Call” puts the debut of Steelers rookie Najee Harris into context. Ex-Steelers punter Jordan Berry makes a strong impression with his new team. The Las Vegas Raiders had a wild “Monday Night Football” game and lots of injuries in advance of their visit to Heinz Field Sunday.

And one of the Bills coaches knows he made a mistake during his team’s loss to the Steelers Sunday.

No rest for Najee

Much was made of Najee Harris playing every snap for the Steelers offense (55) in his NFL debut Sunday in Buffalo.

The NFL NextGen Stats Twitter feed illustrated exactly how rare of an achievement that is.

Najee Harris played on all 55 of the #Steelers offensive snaps today against the Bills. It's just the sixth time a running back played 100% of snaps in a single game since the beginning of last season.

David Montgomery has accounted for 4 of the other 5.#PITvsBUF | #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/llecnAaGGO

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 12, 2021

For all of Harris’ presence on the field, it didn’t lead to much in terms of production during the Steelers’ 23-16 victory. The rookie out of Alabama ended up with just 45 yards on 16 carries. In the pass game, Harris managed only one catch, for four yards, on three targets.

My bad

Brian Daboll knows he screwed up.

The Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator faced lots of criticism from the team’s fans for a play call during the Steelers win in Orchard Park Sunday.

On the third snap of the fourth quarter the Bills faced a fourth-and-1 from the Steelers’ 41-yard line. They were winning 10-6 at the time. And Josh Allen mysteriously decided to throw the ball backward seven yards to Matt Breida to execute a complex run play instead of just plowing forward three feet.

The play backfired as Steelers defensive back Cameron Sutton blew it up in the backfield and the Steelers took over on downs.

On Monday, Daboll admitted that he got too tricky.

Brian Daboll: “I’ll take responsibility for that call,” on the Bills 4th and 1 Sunday against the Steelers.

“It’s a call obviously I wish I had back. We were being fairly aggressive at that point...

“When you run gadgets, and they don’t work, no bueno.” @WGRZ

— Julianne Pelusi (@JuliannePelusi) September 13, 2021

No bueno, indeed.

Bombs away from Berry

Steelers special teams coach Danny Smith said that keeping rookie Pressley Harvin III instead of Jordan Berry as the punter was a hard decision because Berry punted as well as he ever had during training camp and the preseason.

But the Steelers decided to cut Berry anyway and go with the younger, cheaper punter in Harvin III, who is believed to have lots of upside.

Berry quickly latched on with the Minnesota Vikings. And one week in, it looks like a good fit. He was excellent in a Week 1 loss against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Was doing a little punter research this morning and came across Jordan Berry's stats with the Vikings from yesterday.

In eight punts, he averaged 50.3 yards per punt -- and had one that went 63 (!!) IN OT. Danny Smith wasn't kidding when he said Berry had his best camp this year

— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) September 13, 2021

Meanwhile, Harvin III was up and down. He had punts of 51 and 46 yards. But he also had a shank of just 30 yards. Harvin’s average was 41.4 yards. He had two of five punts downed inside the 20-yard line.

Battered by Baltimore

After a few wild twists and turns in overtime, the Las Vegas Raiders had a dramatic win against the Baltimore Ravens on “Monday Night Football.”

Are you not entertained?!?@zayjones11 and @derekcarrqb called game. Blouses. (via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/3xitL23HKN

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) September 14, 2021

So now they are coming into Heinz Field Sunday on an emotional high to be the Steelers opponent in Week 2.

But Vegas is also coming in really banged up. Defensive end Yannick Ngakoue and right guard Denzelle Good left the game and did not return. Josh Jacobs played the game through an illness and a toe injury. Defensive lineman Gerald McCoy suffered a knee injury and was carted off the field. And Jon Gruden said Kenyan Drake was dealing with a pulled hamstring.