Too many penalties: The Steelers defeated the Denver Broncos, 13-6, to start the season off 2-0.
While getting off to a fast start on the season is a key, Coach Mike Tomlin made it clear that penalties were something that hurt the team. The Steelers were penalized 10 times for 78 yards, some of them killing key drives.
"Really appreciative of the efforts," said Tomlin. "I just told the guys in there, to start the season with two road games, to be 2-0 is a pretty good feeling. Obviously, we've got a lot to work on, but it's good to work on it with the required W of the week.
"The first thing that kind of captured my attention was the penalties. You can't produce or sustain drives being penalized the way that we were. So, we've got some work ahead of us there. Among other things, just from a knee jerk reaction standpoint, that was the most troublesome component of the game.
"I'm appreciative of the efforts in a lot of areas, though. I thought guys played really hard. I thought they did a nice job of making the environment irrelevant. And make no mistake, it was a hostile environment. Possession down ball and things of that nature. It's a tough place to play. I'm thankful for the victory, though."
Steelers No. 1 pick Troy Fautanu made his first career start at right tackle, with Broderick Jones rotating in during the third series. After Jones was called for three penalties, including a false start and two holding calls, he was taken out.
Tomlin was asked if the penalties were the reason Jones was taken out of the game.
"You got it," replied Tomlin.
The penalties were something Tomlin went back to multiple times during his postgame presser, as they are often difficult to overcome early in the season when a team is still trying to get in the groove.
"If you get holding penalties, you are going to shut a drive down in the National Football League, particularly at this stage of team development," said Tomlin. "We just don't have enough cohesion to overcome those long yardage circumstances. Really not a lot of people do in September.
"At this stage of the game, you get a holding penalty, it will shut a drive down. So, we've got to play cleaner."
Off to a good start: Quarterback Justin Fields made his second straight start of the young season with Russell Wilson still out with a calf injury, and once again helped to engineer a win and get the Steelers off to a 2-0 start.
"I think we all know it's hard to win in this league, so being able to start off 2-0 with two away games has been great and great momentum going into next week," said Fields. "On the offensive side of the ball, we have to be better. We have to stop the penalties. We all have to be better, including me. If we get that, and the way our defense is playing, if we get rolling on offense we'll be in good shape.
"It's hard to win in this league, especially on the road in these hostile environments. I think starting off 2-0, and going home next week, is a great start."
Fields finished the game completing 13 of 20 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown. In the first half, he was 10 for 12 for 110 yards and the game's lone touchdown, a five-yard pass to tight end Darnell Washington.
The numbers would have been greater had it not been for penalties. A 51-yard pass to receiver George Pickens was negated by a holding call on Broderick Jones, and a six-yard touchdown pass was also negated by an offensive pass interference call on Van Jefferson.
"I think the biggest thing with penalties is having those explosive plays and getting them negated by the penalties," said Fields. "We talked about it last week, just cleaning those up. Just got to continue to work on that and clean those up.
"It definitely gets frustrating because I think it's almost a drive killer," said Fields. "You want to have a clean operation, clean plays throughout the drive. Those holding penalties, 10 yards, you don't want to have those. We have to clean those up."
Bringing pressure: The Steelers defense once again dominated, shutting down the Broncos and keeping them out of the end zone.
The defense allowed just 64 yards on the ground, with 25 of them coming on scrambles by quarterback Bo Nix.
The defense rattled Nix, and while he completed 20 of 35 passes for 246 yards, he also threw two interceptions and was on the run from pressure all game.
"We just came out and dominated from the start," said linebacker Alex Highsmith. "I think if we can do that and continue to put together complete games, we can be a great defense. We've just got to continue to do that week in and week out.
"We've got to control what we can control and that's going out there and getting stops. I think we did a good job of getting off the field today, had a few three and outs. We've just got to continue to get better in that way. But we know what type of defense we can be. We've just got to continue to get better."
Highsmith finished the game with four solo tackles, two of them for a loss including a seven-yard sack of Nix. Highsmith and fellow linebacker T.J. Watt were breathing down Nix's neck all game, creating pressure and forcing him out of the pocket.
"We knew that we had to get after him and we knew that if we were able to put pressure on him and get after him, that we would have a good day. And we did that," said Highsmith. "We were able to get back there to put some pressure on him and the back end made a bunch of great plays as well.
"I think overall it was just a good day for us and we've just got to build on this one. We can be way better in many different areas. I had a couple of penalties I have to be better in. I'm just looking forward to continuing with this group and I love balling with these guys."
Highsmith said the key now is just keeping the pressure going and not allowing themselves to feel good about being 2-0.
"It's awesome in the NFL to come on the road and get two road wins to start the season, but we just can't get comfortable," said Highsmith. "We can't be content because there's a lot of ball left in this season, but it's definitely the start that we wanted to the season.
"We just got to work and continue to get better and better each week and get ready for the home opener next week.
"But I'm just proud of these guys and this team."
Bringing you the action: For fans who don't want to miss any of the action, NFL+ is here, which means you can now watch the Steelers live and on the go! Watch live local and primetime regular season games on mobile, plus NFL RedZone, NFL Network, live audio and more - all in one place.
