Turnovers by Steelers equate to a Broncos win in Week 12
On Sunday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Steelers entered Mile High to face the Denver Broncos with a lot of momentum in their favor. Riding a six-game win streak and an undefeated road record in 2018, Pittsburgh did not want to leave anything to chance against a Denver team that has, at times, haunted them in the past. In the end, the Steelers left too many plays on the field and allowed too many turnovers to be able to walk away with a win. The Broncos get the unexpected “W” on the day, 24-17.
The opening half was a back-and-forth affair. While Joe Haden was key in stopping the Broncos’ opening drive, the Steelers marched down the field and were forced to rely on a Chris Boswell field goal after several players dropped passes from Ben Roethlisberger. The Broncos blocked the attempt to get the ball back. Case Keenum, pressured by Pittsburgh’s defense, was able to get his team down the field and give Brandon McManus his own field goal try; it was good and Denver went up 3-0. That was it for the first quarter.
Things heated up in the second quarter. After a long Pittsburgh drive, tight end Xavier Grimble caught a pass that looked like it would be a touchdown but fumbled the ball out of the back of the end zone. The result of the play was a touchback and the Broncos got the ball back. Boswell tied the game up on the next drive with a field goal, but poor coverage by Terrell Edmunds and the Steelers defense on the next drive resulted in the Broncos getting into the end zone and going ahead, 10-3.
It looked like Pittsburgh may just go into the locker room at the half settling for another field goal. Instead, the Steelers called on Boswell to fake the field goal. The placekicker threw a great pass to left tackle Alejandro Villanueva that gave the Steelers a tie game (after the successful PAT) at the half – and really got fans fired up for the second half of the game.
What worked relatively well in the first half – spreading the ball out to as many teammates as possible – did not equate to points or second-half success for Big Ben and the Steelers offense. James Washington had a couple opportunities for big plays and could not bring in the catch. Roethlisberger was able to hit JuJu Smith-Schuster on an incredible 97-yard toss-and-catch for a touchdown to tie the game up at 17-all. With Denver dialing up the pressure, Roethlisberger was sacked and, on the day, threw two errant passes right to the Broncos.
The story of the game, despite sacks from Vince Williams, Javon Hargrave and Cameron Heyward, was that the Steelers left too many plays on the field and the turnover deficit translated into points on the scoreboard by the Broncos. James Conner looked like he might turn a screen pass into a potential touchdown, but he lost the ball and the Broncos were able to fall on it.
While Pittsburgh had an opportunity to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, or even win with a successful two-point attempt, it was a play that never got going that resulted in Roethlisberger’s second interception on the day – and sealed the Steelers’ fate when the Broncos were able to then take the victory formation to run out the clock. It was a heartbreaker for Pittsburgh.
