The Steelers had a difficult second half on offense, but they did enough to leave Denver with a 2-0 record.
Justin Fields threw a touchdown in the first half as the Steelers built a 10-point lead, and Chris Boswell made his eighth field goal of the season in the second half to extend the lead to 13 points. The Broncos were able to take a one-point lead just after the two-minute warning, but the Steelers held on and won 13-6.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton made a curious decision after Wil Lutz’s field goal that cut the Steelers’ lead to seven points. He opted to kick deep despite having only one timeout and only 18 seconds left on the clock after the Broncos forced a punt. It took Marvin Mims 10 seconds to return the punt to the 19-yard line, and the Broncos saw Bo Nix’s desperation throw intercepted by Damontae Kazee two plays later.
The chances of recovering an onside kick are slim, but they exist, and the Broncos should have forced a punt in both cases without recovering the ball. Payton will likely be asked if he wants to play it differently next time.
Payton will also be asked what he can do to reduce the number of penalties. The Broncos had nine of them on Sunday, including a long pass interference by Pat Surtain II that allowed Boswell’s second field goal, not to mention two equalizing penalty situations. They have committed 17 of them in the first two weeks of the season. The team is not good enough on either side of the ball to overcome those additional obstacles.
Nix completed 20 of 35 passes for 246, but threw one more pass into the end zone and has now been intercepted four times in two games. The 0-2 Broncos will head to Tampa to face the undefeated Buccaneers.
Fields scored a touchdown against tight end Darnell Washington and the Steelers moved the ball well on the ground in the first half, but had just three first downs and were forced to punt six times in the second half. In the next few days, we’ll have updates on Russell Wilson’s condition and the Steelers’ plans for the Chargers in a matchup of the 2-0 teams next week.
Their defense will almost certainly come out on top in this game and any quarterback will have to find a way to fuel an offense that has only scored 31 points in their two wins. One thing that would help would be cutting down on their own penalties. They had eight of them and a couple negated sizable gains that would have led to a more cohesive offense.
