PITTSBURGH — Without Phillip Lindsay, without Courtland Sutton, without Drew Lock, the Broncos moved the ball Sunday.
They moved the ball with a backup quarterback who was a tip-drill interception away from having perhaps the best game of his professional life, although it was marred by the six sacks he absorbed.
They marched down the field in a way that no team had done against the Steelers in the previous nine games. With Jeff Driskel at quarterback for most of the game, the Broncos had more first downs (23) and more total yards (319) than anyone has had against Pittsburgh since Week 9 of last year. The 21 points put up by the Broncos were also the most amassed against the Steelers in that span, matching the 21 posted by the Browns in Week 11 of that season.
It wasn’t enough for the win, of course; Pittsburgh emerged with a 26-21 triumph, and the Broncos were left at 0-2 for the second consecutive season. That sort of start has always been a harbinger of doom for the Broncos; each of their previous eight 0-2 openings resulted in losing seasons.
The 17-3 halftime hole the Broncos dug for themselves Sunday was too much to overcome. The Steelers were able to keep the Broncos at arm’s length in the second half thanks to a timely touchdown drive and a dropped punt snap by Sam Martin that gave them a gift safety 4:59 into the fourth quarter.
So, to see the bright skies on the horizon, you must squint through the smoke of an 0-2 start, another late letdown in the clutch and a pile of accumulating injuries and a pre-camp opt-out by Ja’Wuan James. All this left the Broncos playing without six intended starters — including their quarterback, a Pro Bowl receiver, a Pro Bowl running back and a future Hall of Fame edge rusher, among others.
Nevertheless, the shorthanded Broncos were at their best in the second half. Four of their five possessions after halftime reached at least the Pittsburgh 15-yard line. And without the two points conceded on the safety, the Broncos might have been driving for a game-tying field goal rather than a touchdown in the final moments.
“We’ve got guys that are going to fight,” tight end Noah Fant said. “They’re going to fight to the end. It sucks that those guys are out. We obviously don’t want those guys hurt. They would help us a lot right now. But we’ve just got to keep pressing forward.”
If the injuries to Lock and Sutton prove to be long-term ones, you will have to be farsighted and look to the future. That is because the present could be yet another punch to the groin in a year filled with so many shots to sensitive areas, we might have all lost the ability to feel pain by now.
THAT SAID …
The short-term outlook appears grim for the Broncos in the wake of Bud Dupree’s crushing hit on Lock just over seven minute into Sunday’s game. The hit is expected to sideline the second-year quarterback for multiple weeks with a shoulder injury.
Driskel’s performance in place of Lock offers cause for optimism, although the six sacks he absorbed at the hands of Pittsburgh’s ferocious pass rush tempers that a bit — along with his performance in past fill-in stints with the Bengals and Lions. In four of his previous eight starts, he didn’t reach the benchmark 60-percent completion rate. Only three of those starts saw him have more touchdowns than interceptions.
The Buccaneers next week and other teams that will follow will be able to prepare for Driskel. He will not have the element of surprise at his disposal in future weeks.
But Driskel also has a better array of weapons at his disposal than he did in Cincinnati and Detroit.
Fant, Jerry Jeudy, K.J. Hamler and Melvin Gordon forced the Steelers into pick-your-poison mode. Each of them had between 57 and 84 yards from scrimmage. All but Hamler had at least one gain of at least 20 yards. Fant now has two touchdowns in two weeks; if the Broncos could get him the football more consistently, his production would push him to the elite class at his position. Gordon was a matchup nightmare in space, and Hamler’s speed proved too tough for Pittsburgh to contain.
As a result, after halftime the Broncos moved the football with a consistency only seen once last year: when Lock diced up the Houston Texans in Week 13.
It had been 364 days since the Steelers allowed more than 17 points in the second half. Two touchdowns, a Brandon McManus field goal and Fant’s two-point conversion gave the Broncos 18 points after halftime, the most the team has scored since the Case Keenum-led offense accumulated 20 points after halftime in a Week 2 win over the then-Oakland Raiders on Sep. 16, 2018.
“That says a lot about our team, to stay with a great Pittsburgh team,” Fant said, “but obviously [it’s] not good enough, and not what we want in a loss.”
Indeed, it wasn’t enough, and the Broncos lost yet another close game — their 10th defeat in their last 14 games decided by five or fewer points, dating back to 2018.
The ability to stay with the Steelers without Sutton, Lindsay and Lock reveals what kind of treasures they have in their other skill-position players.
But if their absences become lengthy, and Driskel plays like he did in his previous two stops, any success the Broncos have in the coming weeks might have to be measured in its meaning for the future, rather than its value in the present.
