DOWN — The Bron­cos have been injury-plagued ear­ly this sea­son, and that trend con­tin­ued Sun­day as quar­ter­back Drew Lock exit­ed with a shoul­der injury in the first quar­ter and did not return. As salt in the wound, the Steel­ers cashed in on Lock’s fum­ble dur­ing the sack with their first touch­down drive.

DOWN — Ju-Ju Smith-Schus­ter con­tin­ues to be a prob­lem for the Den­ver sec­ondary, as his 18-yard catch on 3rd-and-10 from the Den­ver 20-yard line set Pitts­burgh up for that open­ing score.

UP — Bran­don McManus final­ly got Den­ver on the board in the sec­ond quar­ter — and record­ed his first field goal of 2020, and first since sign­ing a four-year exten­sion — with a 49-yarder.

UP — The Bron­cos caught a break when Dion­tae John­son ran back Sam Martin’s punt 81 yards for the touch­down, but the score was negat­ed by an ille­gal block in the back by Cam Sutton.

DOWN — But Den­ver gave up a touch­down the very next play any­way as Pitts­burgh took a com­mand­ing 14–3 lead off an 84-yard touch­down pass. Rook­ie Michael Oje­mu­dia, who con­tin­ues to receive a rude intro­duc­tion to the NFL, was burned on the play by fel­low rook­ie Chase Claypool. 

DOWN — The Bron­cos offense looked lost to end the first half: In their final three dri­ves of the sec­ond quar­ter, Den­ver went missed field goal, inter­cep­tion and punt. The Bron­cos ran nine plays for 42 yards dur­ing that stretch.

UP — Justin Sim­mons inject­ed much-need­ed ener­gy into the Bron­cos’ side­line with an inter­cep­tion on the Steel­ers’ open­ing dri­ve of the sec­ond half, Denver’s first take­away of the season.

UP — The Den­ver defense held tall on fourth down, forc­ing a Ben Roeth­lis­berg­er incom­ple­tion on 4th-and‑2 at the Bron­cos’ 35-yard line with 3:54 left in the third. That gave the Bron­cos offense an opening.

UP — Back­up Jeff Driskel start­ed to set­tle in, and engi­neered a six-play, 65-yard dri­ve that cul­mi­nat­ed with a 20-yard touch­down pass to Noah Fant. It marked Driskel’s first touch­down pass for Denver.

DOWN — Pitts­burgh record­ed a safe­ty when punter Sam Mar­tin dropped a snap — two points that end­ed up being crit­i­cal, as the Bron­cos were forced to go for a touch­down on their final dri­ve instead of a field goal to tie.

UP — Driskel con­tin­ued to ele­vate his play down the stretch in the face of a heavy Pitts­burgh rush, and he con­nect­ed with run­ning back Melvin Gor­don on a 16-yard touch­down pass with 7:43 left to make it a one-score game.

DOWN — When it comes to squeak­ing out a close win, this year’s Bron­cos still look like the 2019 Bron­cos, who start­ed 0–4. This time, Denver’s chances fiz­zled out when the Bron­cos couldn’t get two yards for a first down at the Steel­ers 15-yard line, and Driskel was sacked on fourth down.

DOWN — Up to and through the final sack of Driskel, the Bron­cos’ offen­sive line was dom­i­nat­ed by the Pitts­burgh front in pass block­ing, as the Steel­ers fin­ished with sev­en sacks and 19 quar­ter­back hits.