Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday at Acrisure Stadium (which I still call Heinz Field), the Green Bay Packers took on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Entering this game, the Packers haven’t won in Pittsburgh since December 6, 1970. They came so close to winning on Sunday, but they came up short in the end. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
Things didn’t start well for the Packers defense as they allowed the Steelers to march right down the field (with the help of a pass interference penalty called on Carrington Valentine) for a touchdown. Najee Harris ended the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run in which he was mostly untouched. The extra point kick was good by Chris Boswell, giving the Steelers a 7-0 lead with 10:01 left in the first quarter. Thanks to the kickoff return by Keisean Nixon, the Packers started their first drive at their own 31 yard line. During the drive, they were able to convert a third and 3 from the 38 thanks to Jordan Love connecting with Christian Watson down the middle of the field for a 14-yard pass completion. 2 plays later, Love connected with Dontayvion Wicks for a 23-yard pass completion that got the Packers into scoring range. A few plays later, Love connected with Romeo Doubs, who kept his feet inbounds in the back right corner of the end zone for the touchdown. The extra point kick by Anders Carlson was good, tying the game at 7-7 with 4:42 left in the first quarter. That tie didn’t last for long, as the Packers defense once again allowed the Steelers to go down the field for their second touchdown. It didn’t help that the kickoff was out of bounds, giving Pittsburgh the ball at their own 40 yard line. During the drive, it was initially ruled that Keisean Nixon got an interception. After looking at the replay, it was shown that Nixon didn’t get both feet inbounds. As a result, the interception was ruled as an incomplete pass, giving Pittsburgh the ball back. On the next play, which was a third and 1 from the Green Bay 41, Najee Harris ran for 11 yards with no problem. The drive concluded with a 16-yard touchdown run by Jaylen Warren, which (with the extra point) gave the Steelers a 14-7 lead with 14:12 left in the second quarter. The Packers were not able to respond with their own touchdown on their next drive as an incomplete pass on second and third down forced them to punt. On their next drive, the Steelers were able to get another score. Thankfully, the Packers defense was able to keep them to only a field goal, which was made from 42 yards out. However, that field goal was made possible by the Packers defense giving up 12 yards on a third and 14 (yikes). They were lucky that the Steelers settled for the field goal there to increase the lead to 17-7 with 8:08 left in the first half. Even though they started at their own 13 yard line, the Packers offense was able to move the ball down the field for a touchdown. They quickly got to Pittsburgh territory thanks to a 40-yard run by AJ Dillon, who high-stepped near the end of the run before being pushed out of bounds at the Pittsburgh 29. Jordan Love got sacked by TJ Watt on the next play, but he rebounded on third and 16 by throwing a touchdown pass to Jayden Reed. The score would have been 17-14 had Josiah Deguara blocked his guy. Instead, Deguara just let the guy walk by him and block the extra point kick, resulting in the score being 17-13 with 4:14 left in the first half. The rest of the first half resulted in no points for either team. During the first drive for Pittsburgh after the Jayden Reed touchdown, there was a horrible call by the officials. On second and 9 from the Pittsburgh 16 yard line, Kenny Pickett threw a backwards pass to Jaylen Warren, which would usually result in a live ball. Instead, the officials blew the play dead as an incomplete pass. The fumble would have given the Packers an easy touchdown as Rashan Gary took it to the one yard line (he stepped out of bounds there). Matt LaFleur decided to challenge the ruling, but the officials decided to keep it as an incomplete pass. That is the worst call of the year without a doubt. Even with that, the Packers had a chance to get some points with 1:20 left in the first half and 2 timeouts. However, Matt LaFleur decided to just give up after the first play resulted in negative 5 yards and the next play resulted in a 9 yard pick up. The Packers then ran the rest of the clock out and headed into halftime down by 4.
The Packers were able to start their first second half drive in Pittsburgh territory thanks to a Keisean Nixon kick return that made it to the Steelers 44 yard line. They were not able to get a touchdown during this drive, but at least they got a field goal out of it to cut the lead to one point with 9:08 left in the third quarter. The Packers quickly got the ball back thanks to a three and out by Pittsburgh’s offense. From their own 22 yard line, the Packers offense went down the field on a drive that lasted a little over 4 minutes. The biggest play came on third and 7 from the Green Bay 49 yard line. Jordan Love connected with Luke Musgrave down the middle of the field for a 36-yard pass completion that got Green Bay into the red zone. Once again, they were not able to score a touchdown and settled for a field goal. That field goal gave the Packers a 19-17 lead with 3:04 left in the third quarter. That lead was very brief, as the Steelers went down the field to take the lead right back. On the first play after the kick return, Kenny Pickett connected with George Pickens for a 28 yard pass completion that got Pittsburgh to the Green Bay 38. At least the defense forced the Steelers to settle for a field goal a couple of plays later. The kick was good by Chris Boswell from 49 yards out, giving Pittsburgh a 20-19 lead with 1:05 left in the quarter. The Packers’ next drive resulted in a three and out and a near turnover when there was a fumble on third down and 11. Two more failed drives later, the Steelers started a possession at their own 34 with 9:24 left in the fourth quarter. From there, they had no problem going down the field and scoring more points. At least the defense kept them to only a field goal, which gave the Steelers a 4-point lead with 5:14 left in the game. From their own 25, the Packers started a potential game-winning drive. It started great with a 28 yard pass completion to Luke Musgrave that got Green Bay to the Pittsburgh 47. Three plays later, Jordan Love connected with Dontayvion Wicks down the middle to get Green Bay to the Steelers 15 yard line. Two plays after that, Love threw to the end zone intended for Christian Watson. Watson didn’t fight for the ball on that play, letting Patrick Peterson deflect it into the hands of Keanu Neal for an interception. Neal returned the pick to the Steelers 24 yard line with 3:20 left in the game. The Steelers had the game won when, on third and 9 from the Pittsburgh 40, Kenny Pickett connected with George Pickens for a 28 yard gain. However, the play was nullified due to an offensive pass interference penalty on Calvin Austin. On third and 19, the Steelers didn’t get the first down, which forced them to punt back to Green Bay. Now, here is the situation: the Packers had the ball at their own 19 yard line with 59 seconds left and no timeouts left. Since they were down by 4, they had to score a touchdown to win the game. On the first play, Jordan Love connected with Jayden Reed, who took the pass to the Pittsburgh 35 yard line before being pushed out of bounds. The next play resulted in a catch by Aaron Jones, who instead of going out of bounds, tried to make a defender miss and was tackled for no gain. 23 seconds later, Love scrambled for 8 yards before going out of bounds. After an incomplete pass on third down, plus a Pittsburgh timeout, Love connected with AJ Dillon down the middle for an 11 yard pickup. The offense was able to line up and spike the ball with 3 seconds left. After another timeout by Pittsburgh to add to the tension, the Packers had one more shot to win the game on second and 10 from the Steelers 16. Several Steelers defenders were put in the end zone to prepare for a strike to the end zone. Love threw to Watson hoping for the best, but the pass was picked off by Damontae Kazee, sealing the 23-19 win for the Steelers. With this loss, the Packers are now 3-6 on the season.
Offensively, the Packers had 399 total yards on the day. Once again, those yards resulted in less than 20 points on the scoreboard. There were plenty of missed opportunities to score a touchdown on Sunday, including the drives that ended in interceptions at the end of the game. There were also dropped passes in this game, including one by Christian Watson, who let the ball bounce a couple of times and hit the ground. Speaking of Watson, the Packers need to give him a break in terms of the 50/50 balls. Clearly, they haven’t worked. Watson needs to be set up with crossing routes over the middle that he can take for some yards after the catch. A fantastic example of that is the touchdown last year against Philadelphia where Watson caught the pass from Love and took it all the way for a touchdown. I want to see more of that in the future with Love and Watson. The trio of Dontayvion Wicks, Luke Musgrave, and Jayden Reed are getting better and better. Those three led the receiving corps on Sunday, with Reed catching a touchdown. Those three should have more chances at those game-ending plays than Watson at the moment. All of the receivers need to get better at yards after the catch in the future. There are too many instances of receivers tripping over themselves after a catch, especially with Luke Musgrave. In terms of the running game, AJ Dillon played great with 70 yards on 9 carries, while Aaron Jones ran for 35 yards on 13 attempts. Despite starting Rasheed Walker at left tackle, the offensive line did its job mostly well against the Steelers defense (with help from additional blockers). They only allowed TJ Watt to get just one sack on Sunday, which I am relieved for. Even with the missed opportunities, I wish that the Packers executed the end of half drives better. They just gave up after the first play in the end of first half drive went for minus 5 yards. In the fourth quarter, Aaron Jones should have went out of bounds on the second play of the drive, giving the Packers more time to work with. Granted, on the last play, 7 defenders were at the end zone, which meant that Love would have had a hard time finding an open man. The Packers would’ve settled for overtime had it not been for a blocked extra point earlier (I’ll get more into that later). At the end of the day, there was improvement on offense in terms of yards, but they couldn’t capitalize on every opportunity. There should be more chances to put up points in the future.
On defense, the Packers played well in certain aspects, including not giving up over 30 points. Unfortunately, they allowed one of the worst offenses in football to run for over 200 yards on Sunday with relative ease. Several third downs were easily converted thanks to the defense being blocked to allow big holes for Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris. The touchdown runs by Warren and Harris were too easy for them as they were mostly untouched during the runs. Kenny Pickett made a couple of good passes, but he didn’t make too many mistakes thanks to the running game being very effective. He threw an interception, but the pick didn’t count because Keisean Nixon couldn’t keep his feet inbounds. He also threw a backwards pass that should’ve resulted in a fumble, but the officials somehow ruled it, and eventually kept it, as an incomplete pass despite it clearly being backwards. That call robbed the Packers of a potential touchdown opportunity and, ultimately, the win. Bad call aside, the Packers defense gave the offense chances to win at the end, but they didn’t capitalize. Joe Barry is a guy who needs to be gone after this season. The Packers have the talent on defense, but they need someone new and aggressive.
On Special Teams, the Packers didn’t make too many mistakes. The ones that they did make though were costly. The biggest one was when Josiah Deguara just stood there and let the defender block the extra point that would’ve allowed the Packers to settle for overtime in the end instead of having to score a touchdown. Deguara should have less snaps from this point forward. Another mistake that was thankfully not too costly was when Jayden Reed muffed a punt. Reed recovered the ball, but that stuff can’t happen again. Another mistake was Anders Carlson having one of his kickoffs go out of bounds, which gave the Steelers the ball at their own 40. I’m sure that he won’t do that again. Other than those mistakes, the Packers did their job on Special Teams. They didn’t allow a kickoff return past midfield and they didn’t have too many penalties or turnovers. Other than the block, Carlson made each of his field goal and extra point attempts. Daniel Whelon punted a couple of balls inside the Pittsburgh 20 yard line, though one of his other punts wasn’t great. On one of the punts, a backup defensive back named Robert Rochell got injured while in punt coverage. I’m hoping that he gets to recover fully soon. For Rich Bisaccia, he needs to make some changes, starting with benching Josiah Deguara for that lack of effort on the blocked PAT.
Overall, this game was a missed opportunity for the Packers to get a needed win. They still haven’t won in Pittsburgh in over 50 years and their season doesn’t look like one that will end in a playoff berth. All season long, it is an evaluation year for the young players. Some improvements were made on offense, but there’s still work to be done on all sides of the ball. Next week will be a game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Lambeau Field. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great week. Go Pack Go.
(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page. Click on "Watch on YouTube" if you're curious.)
Comments