Ben Roethlisberger threw for 311 yards and two touchdowns. James Conner had 106 yards rushing and a score. The defense had seven sacks and the team recorded a safety.
Must have been a pretty good day for the Steelers, right?
Not so much.
The Steelers were sloppy in their 26-21 victory over the Broncos in their home opener Sunday at Heinz Field, committing 10 penalties -- including four for pass interference -- and allowing Denver to hang around much longer that it should have.
"Got to give a lot of credit to the Denver Broncos. They were a resilient bunch," Mike Tomlin said. "They fought us the whole way. We helped them some. We got a lot of growth ahead of us, but it's good to grow while you win. Today, I just thought we were loose with the ball some. We turned the ball over particularly at a significant period in the game, and we were highly penalized. So we'll look at the penalties and work to play cleaner, but it was an Achilles' heel for us today. It extended drives. It allowed those guys to remain in the game. We made the necessary plays, we bowed up when we had to on offense and defense and special teams, and so we are thankful for that."
The result is a 2-0 start for the Steelers, who host the Texans here next Sunday, their first such start since 2017.
But it certainly wasn't as easy as anyone would think looking at the final statistics.
The Steelers had 410 yards of offense. But they were just 2 of 12 on third down conversions.
They knocked Broncos starting quarterback Drew Lock out of the game with a right shoulder injury in the first quarter, then sacked backup Jeff Driskel six times -- recording seven total in the game -- and intercepted him once, but kept six Denver drives alive with penalties.
When push came to shove, however, the Steelers got off the field at the end when they needed to do so, getting a sack from a blitzing Terrell Edmunds on fourth-and-2 at the Pittsburgh 15.
That largely sealed the deal for the Steelers, who had allowed the Broncos (0-2) to go from their own 18 with just over 6 minutes remaining to the Pittsburgh 18 at the two-minute warning.
Holding a 26-21 lead, the Steelers were intent on allowing the Broncos to eat up clock, knowing they couldn't kick a field goal to tie or win the game. And they trusted themselves to get a stop once in the red zone. But this was cutting things close.
Driskel, who 18 of 34 for 256 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, threw incomplete to DaeSean Hamilton on third-and-2 on the first play after the two-minute warning with Devin Bush in coverage. Then, on fourth down, Edmunds came in untouched, dropping Driskel for a loss.
"We were all like, ‘We love this. Let’s go out and make the play.'" Edmunds said. "I was the open guy to make the play. That’s how it came."
It was a little nerve-wracking for the Steelers, who had taken a 26-14 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 28-yard touchdown pass to Diontae Johnson with 11:34 remaining, following that up with a safety on Denver's next possession when fullback Derek Watt tackled Sam Martin in the end zone when the Broncos' punter bobbled the snap.
But Benny Snell, who had been so good last week against the Giants, fumbled the first play from scrimmage after Johnson returned the free kick to the Denver 48 and the Broncos recovered at their own 46.
That field position allowed the Broncos to score on an 18-yard pass to running back Melvin Gordon with Vince Williams in coverage to trim the lead to 26-21. And after a 12-yard pass to Johnson, who had 8 catches for 92 yard and a score, the Steelers couldn't get another first down to run out the clock, setting the stage for Edmunds to have to save the day.
"We gave up a lot more plays than we intended to. But when we got down in the red zone, that’s where the swing is," cornerback Joe Haden said. "We give up three points or no points if they go for it on fourth down, it’s a swing of 7 points. We do that all the time. We practice it every day with 7 shots. We feel very comfortable down there. We have to stand up and make the plays."
It didn't appear early the Steelers would have to concern themselves with such heroics, especially not after Bud Dupree knocked Lock out of the game on this first quarter play, forcing a fumble recovered by Mike Hilton.
The Steelers turned that turnover into a 2-yard Conner touchdown run and a 7-0 lead.
But the Broncos took advantage of their only sack of Roethlisberger on Pittsburgh's next possession to set up good field position when Dustin Colquitt's punt out of his own end zone only went for 36 yards.
That set Denver up for a 49-yard Brandon McManus field goal.
The teams traded punts after that before Roethlisberger took a deep shot to rookie receiver Chase Claypool that looked like it might break the game wide open.
Roethlisberger's deep pass only traveled about 30 yards, and Claypool did the rest, racing 84 yards for a touchdown that gave the Steelers a 14-3 lead.
And with the Steelers storming the castle consistently against Driskel, that looked like it might be enough. The Steelers sacked Lock once and Driskel four times in the first two quarters. Haden intercepted him just before the two-minute warning and returned the ball to the Denver 11, but Conner was stopped for a 1-yard loss on third-and-1 and the Steelers tacked on a short Chris Boswell field goal for a 17-3 halftime lead.
Having won the opening coin toss, the Steelers opened the second half with possession, but their overall sloppiness reared its head, as Roethlisberger forced a pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster that was intercepted by Denver safety Justin Simmons and returned 40 yards to the Pittsburgh 28. A penalty pushed the ball back to the 41, but gave the Broncos great starting field position.
Roethlisberger had Johnson down the other sideline, but didn't let it rip, instead lobbing a pass to Smith-Schuster.
"The interception never should have happened. Diontae ran a perfect route. I need to trust it and throw it," Roethlisberger said. He was there and open. So as I stepped up and even tried to throw it to JuJu (Smith-Schuster) to let him to make a play, it wasn't even a good throw one-on-one ball. It made JuJu have to adjust too much. A lot of the throws that I missed tonight are just me needing to trust myself and trust that the guys are in the right spots because we are in the right places. So hopefully it will come."
That set up another McManus field goal that made it 17-6. Then, after the Steelers failed to convert on a fourth-and-2 from the Denver 35, the Broncos used a pair of penalties -- pass interference on Minkah Fitzpatrick and a roughing the passer call on Hilton -- to go 65 yards for a score on a 20-yard pass from Driskel to tight end Noah Fant.
He went back to Fant on a two-point conversion -- both with Devin Bush in coverage -- to trim the Steelers' lead to 17-14.
It was an ugly game all around for the Steelers despite some of their statistical dominance.
Roethlisberger, who finished 29 of 41 for 311 yards, shouldered the blame.
"I think it was just I just didn't play well enough," Roethlisberger said. "I'll have better answers when I can look at the film. I just got to trust myself and trust my guys. They're in the spots they are supposed to be. Sometimes you have to make an anticipatory throw and I didn't do that well enough today. I didn't connect with guys when they were open. I just didn't play well enough."
But the Steelers made the plays when they needed to do so.
"I'm not going to be make any excuses," Tomlin said. "We were far from perfect today. So we got to get better. We're thankful to win today despite of it. We understand there's going to be some growth at the early stages of this thing, and we better make enough plays to win along the way, and we were able to do that today."