The Steelers held on to emerge victorious in the home opener against the Denver Broncos. Here’s what we learned from the win.
The Steelers are ‘two-up and zero down’ on the young campaign that is the 2020 NFL season. I don’t know about you, but why does it seem like we make some games much closer than they need to be? For a team that scored 26 points, had 7 sacks, one fumble recovery, and one INT, you would have thought the Steelers would have rolled the Broncos. That was not the case.
Despite the aforementioned statistics, the Steelers home opener went ‘down to the wire’, but, honestly, it did not have to. There were some miscues on both sides of the ball that allowed the Denver Broncos to hang with us until late in the 4th quarter. The fact that we blew double-digit leads and were penalized at inopportune moments almost spelled disaster.
So what do we learn from the Steelers win against the Broncos? Let’s take a look.
What we learned on the offensive side of the ball
The Steelers offense gained 410 yards against the Broncos. We ran the ball for 109 yards and our franchise QB, Ben Roethlisberger, threw for 301 net yards. ‘Big Ben’ was sacked one time for a loss of 10 yards, thus the 310 net yards passing. He also threw one INT, but we did score 26 points and it’s a good thing we did because the Steelers needed every one of those points to defeat the Broncos.
I think what we learned is that we are efficient, to an extent, on offense but we still cannot seem to convert third downs. A 16% third-down conversion rate is downright awful and cause for concern, quite frankly. The reality is this: the Steelers must be better on third down if we want to maintain the current winning streak in which we find ourselves.
I do not want to sound like an alarmist, but a poor third-down conversion rate generally does not lend itself to winning many games, but the Steelers won and that’s all that matters. I think the other thing we learned on offense is something that I have witnessed since 1978, which is this: if the Steelers get the running game going, we are tough to beat.
What we learned on the defensive side of the ball
The Steelers defense was able to generate 7 sacks, one fumble recovery, and one INT. While I do not think it would be realistic to expect that level of productivity every game, we needed every bit of that productivity against the Broncos.
As has been the ‘modus operandi’ for the last few seasons, particularly last season and so far this season, we seem to come up with the ‘big play’ when we need to (come up with the ‘big play’). I think what we learned is this: when the Steelers ‘D’ plays up to our potential, we generally come out the winning end. I think the defensive performance against the Broncos was truly a team effort.
The other thing we learned on defense is this: we still have lapses in coverage and we still seem to be penalized at the worst times. Look, I realize that players are going to blow coverage assignments from time to time. It’s one thing to blow an assignment, but it’s quite another thing to blow an assignment and give up a TD in the process.
The bottom line is this: the Steelers are a flawed team, yet an undefeated team nonetheless. It’s better to have those ‘problems’ when you’re 2-0 as opposed to 0-2. Bring on the Houston Texans.