Justin Fields passed for 117 yards and a score, Darnell Washington caught the game’s lone touchdown and the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Denver Broncos 13-6 on Sunday.
Chris Boswell kicked two more field goals for Pittsburgh (2-0), giving him eight in the first two games of the season.
There was little fanfare for the return of quarterback Russell Wilson to Denver, where he played for two mostly forgettable seasons before signing with the Steelers. Wilson was inactive for the second straight week with a calf injury.
Rookie quarterback Bo Nix was 20-for-35 passing for 246 yards and two interceptions in his first home game for the Broncos (0-2). Wil Lutz kicked two field goals for Denver.
Pittsburgh’s stingy defense bottled up Nix most of the day and harassed him into mistakes. The Broncos went three-and-out on their first two possessions and didn’t cross the 50-yard line until late in the second quarter.
The Steelers did enough offensively to win their second straight road game to begin the season. On their second possession, Fields engineered a 12-play, 78-yard drive that consumed 7:34 and featured two third-down conversions.
Fields, who was 13-for-20 passing, capped that march with a 5-yard scoring strike to Washington to make it 7-0 with 1:56 left in the first quarter. It was Pittsburgh’s first touchdown of the season.
Boswell added a 22-yard field goal on the last play of the second quarter to give the Steelers a 10-0 halftime lead. His 53-yarder in the third quarter gave Pittsburgh a 13-0 advantage.
Denver finally had a sustained drive on its second possession of the third quarter, moving from its own 15 to the Steelers 6, but Nix’s pass intended for Courtland Sutton was intercepted in the end zone by Cory Trice Jr.
The Broncos broke through in the fourth quarter to avoid being shut out at home. Nix hit Josh Reynolds on a fourth-and-6 from the Pittsburgh 42 and, four plays later, Lutz hit a 35-yard field goal.
Lutz made a 29-yard field goal with 1:54 left in the game and, down 13-6, Denver had one last chance to score with one second to go, but Nix’s desperation pass was intercepted by Damontae Kazee.
–Field Level Media
