Steelers offense shows signs of life in win over Broncos

The Pittsburgh Steelers held on to defeat the Denver Broncos. Here’s how the offense did its part in Week 5. 

Prior to Week 5, the Pittsburgh Steelers hadn’t scored more than 17 offensive points in a contest dating back to the end of the 2020 season. Thankfully, that finally changed against the Denver Broncos this week. Despite playing a 3-1 opponent with a quality defense, Ben Roethlisberger and the offense really showed signs of life for the first time this season.

The Steelers got off to a terrific start in this contest. In Week 4 against the Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh finally broke the curse of not scoring an opening-drive touchdown dating back to mid-season of 2020. This week, they got off to another impressive start with a 50-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Diontae Johnson.

Though the offense wasn’t quite as hot from that point on, Pittsburgh was still able to methodically move the ball down the field and get in scoring range for an impressive 17-first half points.

Defensively in the first half, this team looked much like the one we saw against the Buffalo Bills in Week 1. Though Pittsburgh did allow a 49-yard run on a blown assignment, they were rock-solid defending both the run and pass. In the first half of the game, Keith Butler’s unit surrendered just 56 passing yards and 6 points — three of which came from great field position off a Ben Roethlisberger lost fumble.

After an excellent first three quarters of action, the tides really started to shift in quarter number four. Late in the contest, the Steelers let up 13 straight points to allow the Broncos to get within just 5. Fortunately, a clutch field goal by Chris Boswell made it an 8-point game.

With time expiring, Broncos QB Teddy Bridgewater threw an interception in the endzone to seal their fate. Mike Tomlin’s team held on to win 27-19, as the Steelers advanced to 2-3 on the season.

Steelers offense pulled their weight vs Broncos

Just when we were about to write off Big Ben and the Steelers offense this year, they finally gave us their first respectable performance of the season. Granted, this offense yet again fell short of the 30-point mark against a very banged-up Broncos team… but it’s a start.

Remarkably, Ben Roethlisberger averaged over 10 yards per attempt in this contest — well over his season average. While he wasn’t perfect, his willingness to take shots down the field certainly helped.

It also helped that Ben was only required to pass the ball 25 times in this contest. In addition to getting very good protection from his young offensive line, he was aided by the best rushing performance of the season that saw rookie Najee Harris burst out for 122 yards on 23 carries (5.3 yards per attempt) and a touchdown.

While I don’t want to jump the gun in believing that the Steelers are a legitimate threat after this game, they are certainly trending in the right direction. If they continue to execute on offense, they will be competitive in just about every game this season.