The Steelers had a rough second half offensively, 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 up a 10-point lead and Chris Boswell hit his eighth field goal of the season in the second half to extend the lead to 13 points. The Broncos would make it a one-score game just after the two minute warning, but the Steelers held on for a 13-6 win.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton made a curious choice after the Wil Lutz field goal that cut the Steelers lead to seven points. He chose to kick deep despite having just one timeout and there were just 18 seconds left on the clock after the Broncos forced a punt. Marvin Mims burned 10 seconds returning the punt to the 19-yard-line and the Broncos saw Bo Nix’s desperate heave two plays later get picked off by Damontae Kazee.
The odds of recovering an onside kick are low, but they exist and the Broncos would have had to force a punt without recovering the ball in either scenario. Payton will likely be asked if he’d like to play that differently next time.
Payton will also be asked what he can do to cut down on penalties. The Broncos had nine on Sunday, including a long pass interference on Pat Surtain II that set up Boswell’s second field goal and not including two offsetting penalty situations, and they have committed 17 over the first two weeks of the season. The team’s not good enough on either side of the ball to overcome those added obstacles.
Nix was 20-of-35 for 246, but threw another pick in the end zone and has now been intercepted four times in two games. The 0-2 Broncos will head to Tampa for a matchup with the undefeated Buccaneers.
Fields hit tight end Darnell Washington for a touchdown and the Steelers were able to move the ball well on the ground in the first half, but they had just three first downs while punting six times in the second half. The coming days will bring word on Russell Wilson’s condition and the Steelers’ plans for the Chargers in a matchup of 2-0 teams next week.
Their defense will almost certainly show up for that one and either quarterback will have to find a way to spark an offense that has produced just 31 points in their two wins. One thing that would help is cutting down on their own penalties. They had eight of them and a couple wiped out sizable gains that would have made for a more cohesive offensive effort.
The Steelers won on the road in Week One and they’re on their way to another road victory in Week Two.
Justin Fields threw a touchdown pass and Chris Boswell kicked a field goal on the final play of the first half to push Pittsburgh’s lead over the Broncos to 10-0.
The Broncos are fortunate that their deficit isn’t larger. A 51-yard pass to George Pickens was wiped out by a holding penalty on Broderick Jones and a touchdown pass to Pickens just before Boswell’s field goal came off the board due to an offensive pass interference penalty on wide receiver Van Jefferson. Jones was rotating with first-round pick Troy Fautanu at right tackle had two other penalties before being pulled back out of the game.
Fields is 10-of-12 for 101 yards and he’s run four times for 26 yards. Najee Harris has eight carries for 41 yards and Jaylen Warren has chipped in six carries for 28 yards as the Steelers have dominated time of possession thanks to their running game.
The Broncos punted three times while picking up one first down to open the game. Their fourth and final possession featured two first downs and got into Pittsburgh territory, but quarterback Bo Nix was incomplete on a fourth-and-7 to end the drive.
Denver lost defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to a concussion, linebacker Baron Browning has a foot injury and cornerback Riley Moss left with an injury just before halftime, so their comeback effort will have to come with a thinner defense than they’d like to have on the field.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert was able to finish Sunday’s win over the Panthers after taking a trip to the sideline medical tent, but there was enough concern about his condition to go for further tests after the game.
Herbert told reporters that he got “rolled up” after fumbling in the second half of the game and went for X-rays after the game. Kris Rhim of ESPN.com reports that Herbert was limping and the quarterback said he’ll know more in the coming days.
The Chargers will be in Pittsburgh next weekend and they’ll stay in Charlotte rather than travel back to Los Angeles between the two games.
Herbert was 14-of-20 for 130 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception on Sunday.
The Steelers won without scoring a touchdown last week, but that won’t be the case in Denver on Sunday.
Justin Fields capped the team’s second possession with a five-yard touchdown pass to tight end Darnell Washington. The team’s first touchdown of the season puts them up 7-0 on the Broncos with under two minutes to play in the first quarter.
It was a 12-play, 78-yard scoring drive for the Steelers that saw Fields hook up for good gains with wide receiver George Pickens and tight end Pat Freiermuth. He also scrambled for a 16-yard gain.
The Broncos have run six plays and gained eight yards over their first two drives, so they’ll need to find a spark to give themselves a chance to avoid an 0-2 start.
Quarterback Russell Wilson is out for the Steelers again this week.
Wilson made the trip to Denver with the team despite the calf injury that sidelined him in Week One and he is on the inactive list again this weekend. Wilson will be listed as the emergency quarterback, so he’ll be in uniform but won’t play unless Justin Fields and Kyle Allen are both knocked out of the game.
The Steelers also have wide receiver Roman Wilson, safety Jalen Elliott, safety Terrell Edmunds, guard Isaac Seumalo, and defensive lineman Dean Lowry on the inactive list.
Zach Wilson will be the emergency quarterback for Denver. Wide receiver Devaughn Vele, cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine, running back Blake Watson, tight end Lucas Krull, offensive lineman Frank Crum, and defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike are also out for the Broncos.
With Justin Fields set to start his second straight game for the Steelers, he’ll have a little additional depth at wide receiver with Ben Skowronek available.
The Steelers announced this morning that they have elevated Skowronek from the practice squad to the active roster for Sunday’s game against the Broncos.
Skowronek will revert back to the practice squad after the game, but given that he was also elevated for Week One, it’s likely that the Steelers will soon put him on the 53-player roster on a permanent basis.
Skowronek was a seventh-round draft pick of the Rams in 2021 who spent the last three years in Los Angeles. He was traded to the Texans in May but didn’t make Houston’s roster and then signed to the Steelers’ practice squad.
Last week Skowronek did not play on offense but got 11 snaps on special teams.
Russell Wilson is officially returning to Denver.
The Steelers quarterback, questionable for Sunday’s game against the Broncos with a calf injury, has made the trip to Colorado.
Often, players listed as questionable won’t make the trip for a road game, with the team instead downgrading the player to out.
Wilson also flew to Atlanta last week. He ultimately was the third quarterback on game day. Some who saw him in uniform asked a fairly obvious question. If he’s healthy enough to dress, how is he not healthy enough to play?
The Steelers might just be placating him, to an extent. Allowing him to go through the motions of preparing for a game. Allowing him to wear the uniform. Not allowing him to play.
Wilson surely thinks he can play through his aggravated calf strain. For the Steelers, the immediate question is whether Wilson at less than 100 percent provides a better option for victory than a healthy Justin Fields. The longer-term concern comes from the possibility that, while playing, Wilson will aggravate the calf again.
Through it all, the Steelers get a chance to develop and evaluate Fields. He’s clearly the better long-term option, since he’s significantly younger than Wilson. And if Fields struggles in the short term, he wouldn’t be benched, per se. Wilson would be declared to be healthy, and Fields would return to his official QB2 status.
If the Steelers win with Fields, that’s when it could get awkward. Wilson didn’t take the veteran minimum of $1.2 million from the Steelers to stand on the sidelines. At some point, he’ll get frustrated. At some point, someone close to Wilson might start leaking fuel for Sunday Splash! reports. Possibly with the goal of getting Wilson traded to a place where he’d have a chance to play.
That point could come sooner than later, especially as he goes back to see the Broncos. Especially when that team will pay him nearly $37 million this year, simply to go away.
When the Steelers visit the Broncos on Sunday, Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin will get another crack at a rookie quarterback. It’ll be Tomlin’s 31st career game against a first-year signal-caller.
The victim this time around will be Bo Nix, the 12th overall pick in the 2024 draft.
Tomlin’s record is 24-6 against rookie QBs. Earlier this week, Myles Simmons and I tried to guess the six that beat Tomlin based only on the years of the losses.
As the attached clip indicates, our effort was not too good.
If you’d like to try it for yourself, here are the years when Tomlin lost to a rookie quarterback: 2023 twice, 2016 twice, 2012, and 2007.
Here’s a paragraph of filler, so that your eyes won’t stray to the answers.
And here’s another.
It happened twice last year. The Steelers were overpowered in Week 4 by C.J. Stroud and the Texans, 30-6. Then, they lost to the Browns and Dorian Thompson-Robinson(!) in Week 11, 13-10.
In 2016, there were two more losses to rookie quarterbacks. Carson Wentz and the Eagles dismantled the Steelers in Week 3, 34-3. In Week 10, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh, 35-30.
Four years earlier, it was Brandon Weeden(!) and the Browns, Week 12 at Cleveland, 20-14. Five years before that, it was Troy Smith(!) and the Ravens in Week 17, 27-21.
Half of the losses came against quarterbacks for the new Browns/old Browns. And the quarterbacks in question didn’t exactly go on to have Hall of Fame careers. (DTR still could. Theoretically.)
Tomorrow, Nix will get a chance to drop Tomlin’s success rate against rookie quarterbacks below 80 percent. Based on how the Pittsburgh defense played in Atlanta, good luck with that.
The Steelers list Russell Wilson as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Broncos, but coach Mike Tomlin announced that the team is preparing for Justin Fields to start.
Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the Steelers also plan to have Fields start the home opener Sept. 22 against the Chargers before reassessing Wilson’s injured calf.
Wilson originally injured his calf pushing a sled during the team’s conditioning test the day before training camp. He thought the injury was fully healed after he missed 10 practices while rehabbing during training camp.
Wilson played six series in the preseason and was on track to start the season opener until Sept. 5 when he felt tightness in the calf during practice. The Steelers will be cautious in his return considering it’s a recurrence of a soft-tissue injury for a player who turns 36 in November.
Tomlin would not answer whether Wilson will be the starter when healthy.
Fields still is listed as the backup to Wilson on the team’s depth chart.
“I’m not going to soothe you with hypothetical scenarios,” Tomlin said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “It is my general practice to not. . . . So why start today? Because it’s the quarterback position or because it’s a national story? I am unmoved by some of those narratives, to be quite honest with you.
“When people are somewhat limited, I say we’ll push through our work week. We’ll let their participation be our guide in terms of whether we include ‘em and then the quality of that participation. This scenario is no different for me. . . . Our energies and attention are on those that are available and are scheduled to play. They’re deserving of that. When those that are not are healthy, we’ll ponder it at that time.”
It sounds like Justin Fields will make his second consecutive start for Pittsburgh to open the season.
Head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters on Friday that Russell Wilson will be listed as questionable for Sunday’s matchup against the Broncos. But as has been the case all week, the team is still preparing to start Fields.
"[O]bviously if [Wilson’s] availability is questionable, then starting is less so,” Tomlin said, via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. But we’ve been in that mindset all week, man. Like I’ve said, we’ve been focused on getting Justin ready to play and we’ll continue in that mindset as we push forward toward game time.”
With that, multiple reporters on the Steelers beat noted that Fields is likely to start with Kyle Allen as the team’s backup and Wilson as the emergency No. 3, much like last week.
Fields finished the season opener 17-of-23 passing for 156 yards with 57 yards rushing on 14 attempts.
Pittsburgh’s full injury report with game statuses will be released later on Friday.