Recapping Pittsburgh Steelers 26-21 win against Denver Broncos

The Pittsburgh Steelers took care of business in their first home game. Here’s what went right for them in their second win of the 2020 season.

The Steelers claimed their second victory in as many performances this season, but it certainly wasn’t pretty. The Denver Broncos were one of the most banged-up teams in the league heading into Week 2, but somehow they managed to keep this game close until the very end.

Pittsburgh’s defense was off to a good start early on – allowing just 3 points in the first half of the game. However, Denver’s offense flipped a switch in the second half.

Despite Broncos starting quarterback, Drew Lock, leaving the game early, it didn’t seem to matter. Somehow, the Steelers always seem to end up playing against Jeff Driskel every year, and he manages to keep things close.

Though the Steelers entered halftime with a 17-3 lead, this game finished much closer than it needed to be.

The Broncos scored 11 unanswered points in the third quarter to bring the game to deficit down to just three points. Benny Snell had a fourth-quarter fumble with the Steelers up two scores that allowed Denver another chance to jump back into the game. Eventually, the Steelers would prove to hold onto their lead and claim a 26-21 victory.

What went right and wrong for the Steelers

Defensively, there weren’t a lot of complaints in this contest. T.J. Watt bullied Denver’s offense line from start to finish and Pittsburgh took the ball away twice. However, the Steelers were far from flawless on offense.

Ben Roethlisberger continued to develop chemistry with his young receivers – hitting Diontae Johnson for 8 times for 92 yards and a score and connecting with Chase Claypool on an 84-yard touchdown. Unfortunately, there were some key mistakes in this contest.

Roethlisberger threw a lame-duck intended for JuJu Smith-Schuster that was intercepted, and he had another pass in the endzone intended for Johnson that was nearly picked off. In addition, Snell continues to show ball security issues in the early going as he coughed it up for the second time in his first 22 carries of the season. Luckily, these mistakes didn’t end up costing Pittsburgh the game.

The officiating was also questionable, to say the least, in this contest. The Steelers had a whopping 10 penalties for 89 yards – penalties that too often came at costly moments of the game. There were some pass interference calls that could have been left alone. On the other hand, Denver had just 4 penalties for 30 yards in the entire game.

The Steelers have some work to do as they go back to the drawing board. For now, we can be thankful that they came away with a close win. But let’s hope they fix some of these issues moving forward.