PITTSBURGH — The Atlanta Falcons dropped their season opener 20-13 in a game that was largely a one-score contest throughout the afternoon.

The broad game stats bear that out. Pittsburgh outgained Atlanta by a mere 26 yards. The Falcons had one more first down than their opponent, and they beat the Steelers in time of possession. However, untimely penalties and a minus-one turnover margin worked against the visiting team on Sunday, which Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski noted after the game.

"Our guys fought to the end there, but really if you look at the penalties, the turnovers, including a defensive score for them, it's just hard to win on the road when you do those things," he said. Hard to win, period, but it's real hard to win on the road when you do those things. So those are things that we feel like we can learn from; we can clean them up as coaches, as players certainly."

Atlanta had nine penalties in the game, seven of which came in the first half. Offensively, the infractions stalled out promising drives. Defensively, they gifted Pittsburgh field position on a day when that was otherwise difficult to come by. The Falcons' penalties amounted to 96 yards, while the Steelers had seven of their own for 52 yards.

Stefanski noted that most of the penalties came after the snap for Atlanta, which indicated to him that there are some technical adjustments to make.

"We've got to look at our technique and look at if there's ways to be better," Stefanski said. "Obviously, the huge one on the kickoff return for a touchdown—I'd have to look at that to give you a good assessment of it.

"There's some of this that happens on every play that you want your guys to have great technique, have your hands inside. And then there's other ones where we got beat quickly and then we resorted to holding. And we'll look at ways to be better."

The return Stefanski mentioned in his answer above came early in the second quarter. After Chris Boswell made a 28-yard field goal to cut the score to 7-6 in favor of the Falcons, he booted the ball away to Zachariah Branch on the ensuing kickoff.

Atlanta's rookie then showed why he was such a feared returner in college.

Branch fielded the ball to his left before racing towards the Falcons' sideline on the right. He received a good lead block from teammate Olamide Zaccheaus and hit the crease for a big 66-yard return. It was a momentum-changing play that was ultimately negated by a holding penalty.

"It was pretty much easy," Branch said of the play. "The guys set up the blocks for me. I just trusted the job that the coaches did for us, and just trusted my speed."

In the lead-up to Sunday's game, Stefanski emphasized the importance of winning the turnover margin, calling it "the number one stat that there is in the NFL."

Atlanta managed to strike first in the turnover department. Steelers running back Jaylen Warren caught a short pass in the right flat late in the first quarter, and he was swarmed by a squadron of Falcons defenders.

Leading the charge was safety Sydney Brown, cornerback Mike Hughes and defensive end Cameron Thomas. Thomas is officially credited with punching the ball out, and it was recovered at the Steelers' 25-yard line by linebacker Divine Deablo.

The Falcons displayed good complementary football and capitalized on the turnover three plays later on a well-blocked screen pass to Bijan Robinson that he took 23 yards for a touchdown. It was the only score of the afternoon for Robinson, who looked as dangerous as ever while picking up 173 total yards for Atlanta.

"I saw it right away," Robinson said of the lane set up by blockers. "I knew Chris [Blair] was out in front of me. And I saw Charlie [Woerner], held up his guy easily. And then, I just know how to break one. The defender took a bad angle, and the rest was history."

That touchdown was a textbook example of complementary football, with the defense setting up the offense to put points on the board. The Steelers had some good complementary plays of their own.

Pittsburgh safety Jaquan Brisker picked off a pass from Rush that was high over the middle early in the second quarter, which set up the Steelers' first touchdown of the game and allowed them to take a 13-7 lead.

Atlanta's second turnover resulted in points for the home team as well. On the second play of the fourth quarter, the Falcons lined up at their own 44-yard line. Rush took the snap and dropped back, allowing a screen for Robinson to develop. As he released the ball, however, Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt leapt up to intercept the pass. Watt managed to keep his feet and took the interception back 35 yards for the decisive score.

Rush finished his afternoon completing 12 of his 22 pass attempts for 143 yards, one touchdown and the two interceptions. He began taking first-team reps only three days before the Falcons kicked off against the Steelers after Tua Tagovailoa sustained an oblique injury in practice on Thursday.

"He battled like I knew he would," Stefanski said of Rush on Sunday. "Proud of him for how he fought through the end. Obviously, we don't want to turn the ball over and those kinds of things, but we've got to look at ways that we can help."

Led by an impressive defensive effort and a great day from Robinson, the Falcons found ways to keep Sunday's game close on the road against an opponent that won the AFC North last season. In Week 1, finding the areas to build upon can be just as important as pointing out what needs to be corrected.

With all four NFC South teams losing in Week 1, the Falcons remain on pace with the rest of their division. Now, Atlanta must take the lessons from this game before its home opener and rivalry rematch against the Carolina Panthers next Sunday.

"The story is: You lose a game, you give them credit, and you're right back at home this week versus a division opponent," Stefanski said. "So, we'll move on quickly from this one tomorrow after we learn from it."