Denver Broncos: 5 inexcusable mistakes in loss against Steelers

Denver Broncos: 5 inexcusable mistakes in loss against Steelers

4. Another major special teams gaffe

Ultimately, someone is going to have to figure out a way to hold the special teams accountable for their weekly bout with incompetence.

The Pittsburgh Steelers were attempting to increase their lead, at the time, to 20-6 with a field goal. The field goal went through the uprights, but there was a flag thrown on the play.

Dre’Mont Jones committed a “leverage” penalty, which means he used a Steelers player as leverage to try and block the field goal.

This is a 15-yard, personal foul infraction, and is one of the most easily avoided penalties in all of football.

I was surprised to even hear the penalty come out of the official’s mouth. It was almost as though I was hearing of an infraction for the very first time.

The result?

The Steelers accepted the 15-yard penalty, took the points off the board, and wound up scoring a touchdown to go up 24-6 instead of just 20-6.

How different might this game have been had the Broncos only been down 20-6 at that point instead of giving up another touchdown?

We’ll never know.