In all his years playing football, cornerback David Amerson has never seen a performance like Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown delivered last Sunday at Heinz Field – that doesn't mean he's okay with it though.
"I've never seen that," said Amerson. "He got a lot of balls, man. He got a lot of balls. Like I said, I don't want to take anything away from him [Brown], he's a great player, but we definitely gave him a lot – I know I did. For instance, on deep balls I was expecting something else. Third and six, I'm trying to jump inside routes, he's going vertical. They got the best of us that game."
Brown got the best of the Silver and Black, to a historic tune of 284 yards on 17 catches, en route to a 38-35 win for the Steelers, and while that type of performance stung the Raiders secondary, Amerson believes that getting knocked down like that can serve as a unifying-type moment for the Silver and Black.
"You learn from your mistakes, whenever you watch the film you own up to what you did, what happened and you learn from it and you have to move on, Amerson said. "You can't just sit back and just think about Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, because we have another game coming up. It's a week-to-week league."
"We just have to get better," added cornerback DJ Hayden. "Learn from it and get on the next game."
The Raiders next game comes Sunday at O.co Coliseum as they return home to face the surprise 6-2 Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings are led by second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, but make no mistake, most everything they do offensively goes through running back Adrian Peterson.
"It definitely starts with Adrian Peterson and the offensive line," Amerson said. "They have some pretty up and coming receivers that have been making some noise the past couple of weeks. They're talented guys."
One of those talented guys Amerson spoke of is rookie wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who in just five games for the Vikings has already tallied 461 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns, and Amari Cooper aside, has been one of the more impressive rookie wide outs in the NFL in this season.
Diggs undoubtedly presents a challenge to the Raiders defense, the secondary in particular, but lucky for them safety Nate Allen is expected to play in Sunday's game after missing the past seven contests due to injury.
"This was the timeline I was expecting and I'm just excited to get back," Allen said Friday. "It feels like a really long time. Like you said, weeks feel like months when you're out like that, but yeah, I'm just excited. I feel good and ready to get back rolling."
"It's good, because Nate's a great player," Hayden said when talking about Allen's return. "For him to come back is a key component in our defense. I'm excited for him and he's eager to get back there."
The game against the Steelers left a sour taste in the collective mouth of the Silver and Black defense, but they've put it squarely behind them and are looking forward to getting back on the field to clash with the Minnesota Vikings.
"[We're] definitely excited to go back out there and get a win after getting a loss last week," Hayden said. "We have to go out there and focus in and do our job."
