The Broncos didn’t throw in the towel on Sunday when quarterback Drew Lock left the game with a right shoulder injury and came back from being down by 14 points to cut Pittsburgh’s lead to five points in the fourth quarter.
It wouldn’t get any closer. The Broncos forced a punt and drove inside the Pittsburgh 20-yard-line, but Jeff Driskel was sacked on a fourth down and James Conner broke free for a 59-yard run that iced the game for the Steelers.
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio said the team had “great fight” after the game, but defensive lineman Shelby Harris rejected that there was a silver lining to be found in a loss that dropped them to 0-2 for the second straight season.
“Same losing ways,” Harris said, via Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post. “Going through the same stuff. We’ve got to change the culture. . . . There’s nothing we can take out of it, because we lost the football game. We’ve got to find a way to come out with a ‘W.’”
The Broncos went 0-4 to open the 2019 season and finished up with a 7-5 mark in their final 12 games to raise hopes that things would go better for them this year. If they can’t find a way to change their losing ways in Tampa next weekend, such hope will be in limited supply.