Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers took on the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lambeau Field. This game was an opportunity for the Packers to go to 3-1 on the season. For Aaron Rodgers, this was his first game against the Steelers since Super Bowl XLV (he missed the 2013 and 2017 games due to injury). In the end, the Packers took care of business with a 27-17 win. Without further delay, let’s get into the details on what exactly happened on Sunday.
The Packers defense did not get to a good start in this game. On Pittsburgh’s first possession, Ben Roethlisberger was able to hit Diontae Johnson for a 45-yard touchdown on a free play (Rashan Gary was offsides on the play). For Roethlisberger, that TD pass was his 400th of his career. The touchdown (plus the extra point by Chris Boswell) gave the Steelers a 7-0 lead with 10:04 left in the first quarter. On offense, the Packers started well on their first possession. They were marching down the field with a balance of run and pass plays, including a beautiful back shoulder throw by Aaron Rodgers to Davante Adams. Unfortunately, the drive ended with no points as Rodgers was sacked out of field goal range by Devin Bush. The sack forced Corey Bojorquez to punt the ball back to Pittsburgh. At least the punt was downed inside the Steelers’ 5 yard line. The defense was able to force the Steelers offense to three and out on their next drive after “Big Ben” threw incomplete on second and third and 5. Amari Rodgers had a nice punt return, but it was called back due to a holding penalty on Equanimeous St. Brown (who was activated due to Marquez Valdes-Scantling being on IR). From their own 36, the Packers went on their second drive of the day near the end of the first quarter. It was a methodical drive that saw the Packers convert three crucial third downs (twice on Aaron Rodgers to Randall Cobb pass connections). The drive ended with Aaron Rodgers scrambling for a 4-yard TD run. The touchdown (plus the extra point kick by Mason Crosby) tied the game at 7-7 with 13:22 remaining in the second quarter. The defense got a turnover on their next possession after Kingsley Keke strip-sacked Ben Roethlisberger. The fumble was recovered by Kenny Clark at Pittsburgh’s 23 yard line. The offense took advantage of the short field position by scoring a touchdown. During this drive, Aaron Rodgers almost caught the defense with 12 men. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin called a timeout to avoid the penalty. I liked the facial exchange with Rodgers and Tomlin after the timeout. On third and 10, Aaron Rodgers found Randall Cobb on a pass connection. After Cobb caught the pass, he ran for the 23-yard touchdown (which was his first touchdown in a Packers uniform since 2018). After Crosby made the extra point, the Packers had a 14-7 lead with 10:55 left in the first half. The Steelers offense went down the field with the intention of answering back with their own touchdown. Unfortunately, they were not able to do so. Roethlisberger missed a big opportunity for a TD by overthrowing JuJu Smith-Schuster by a few yards on first and 10 from the Green Bay 32. The drive ended with a 52-yard field goal, which bounced off the upright and in (a very lucky doink). The Packers offense got the ball back with 5:41 left in the second quarter. At this point, the goal for Green Bay was to “double up”. What this means is that a team could score a touchdown right before halftime and then score another one right at the start of the second half. With the Packers up 14-10, this could potentially blow the game wide open. On their next drive, the Packers offense went down the field, nearly taking every second off the clock. They got all the way to the Pittsburgh 13 yard line before the drive stalled. Even though the Packers had two timeouts left, the offense decided not to run the ball to the end zone. Three straight incomplete passes later, Mason Crosby was called upon for a 31-yard field goal attempt. The kick got blocked by Minkah Fitzpatrick, who returned the block all the way for a touchdown. The problem was that the TD was nullified due to an offside penalty on Joe Haden. The penalty was a sigh of relief as that blocked kick and TD would have given the Steelers momentum and the lead. After the penalty, Mason Crosby made it from 26 yards out, increasing Green Bay’s lead to 17-10 at halftime.
The Packers started their first drive of the second half from their own 25 yard line. From there, the offense went on another long drive. During the possession, Rodgers found Cobb for another third down pass completion that went 25 yards to the Steelers 47. 5 plays later, Rodgers connected with Aaron Jones, who caught the pass and took it to the 11. A roughing the passer penalty on TJ Watt during the play gave the Packers a first and goal from their own 5. Unfortunately, the Packers offense wasn’t able to get a touchdown. On first and goal, Aaron Jones was tackled for a loss of 3 yards. On second down, Aaron Rodgers was tripped by TJ Watt for a sack (should have been a penalty). On third down, Rodgers threw incomplete to Allen Lazard. As a result, Mason Crosby was called upon for a 29-yard field goal attempt. He made the kick, giving the Packers a 20-10 lead and breaking his own record of consecutive field goals made (his old record was 23 straight; he is now at 24). The Steelers’ first second half possession ended after only 5 plays. Ben Roethlisberger once again overthrew a pass to a wide open JuJu Smith-Schuster during this short drive. The punt only went 20 yards to the 40 yard line, giving the Packers great field position. AJ Dillon almost got to the end zone on second and 7 from the 26. He was tackled one yard short by Minkah Fitzpatrick. I thought that Dillon was going to get the carry at the one to finish the drive off. Instead, Rodgers connected with Randall Cobb for his 420th career touchdown pass, tying Dan Marino for 6th all time in passing touchdowns. The touchdown (plus the extra point) improved the lead to 27-10 with 4:46 left in the third quarter. The Packers defense was able to get a stop on Pittsburgh’s next drive. The Steelers offense decided to go for it on fourth and 4 from the Green Bay 32. Roethlisberger threw a screen pass to rookie RB Najee Harris, who was initially hit by Jaire Alexander. After Harris somehow escaped that tackle, he was brought down short of the first down marker by a combination of Oren Burks and Chandon Sullivan. The bad news was that Jaire Alexander hurt his shoulder during the play and was carted to the locker room. The offense wasn’t able to take advantage of the turnover on downs. The reason was because Aaron Jones fumbled the ball, which was recovered by TJ Watt. After an exchange of punts by both teams, including a 57 yard bomb by Corey Bojorquez out of his own end zone, the Steelers offense took over at their own 37. The drive came up short after another fourth down stop by Green Bay’s defense. On fourth and 5 from the Green Bay 47, Roethlisberger connected with JuJu Smith-Schuster on a short pass out of shotgun. JuJu was tackled short of the first down marker by De’Vondre Campbell, giving the Packers offense the ball at their own 45. The drive started well with AJ Dillon running over the Steelers defense for 4 straight plays. For some reason, the offense decided to take a shot downfield after the runs. Aaron Rodgers had Robert Tonyan for a big play, but he did not put enough power on the throw. As a result, Joe Haden was able to deflect the pass away. The drive ended 2 plays later on a fourth and 4 from Pittsburgh’s 35. Aaron Rodgers was throwing to Davante Adams on the play, but Randall Cobb tried to jump for the ball. The ball bounced off of Cobb’s hands and hit the ground. After the incomplete pass, the Steelers took over possession of the ball. They went down the field for a touchdown, but not without a bad call to help them. On third and goal from the Green Bay 6, Eric Stokes was called for defensive pass interference, even though there wasn’t that much contact between him and the receiver. Meanwhile, Rashan Gary was put in a headlock and that wasn’t called. After the penalty, Najee Harris jumped over the pile of players for a 1-yard touchdown that cut the lead to 27-17. The Packers offense took over at their own 25. With just over 4 minutes left, the goal should have been to get a few first downs while making Pittsburgh use their timeouts. While they made the Steelers use their timeouts, the Packers were not able to take the rest of the clock out. The drive stalled at the Pittsburgh 40 after a failed pass play in which Rodgers scrambled and slid for negative yards. After the punt return by Ray-Ray McCloud, the Steelers took over at their own 29. Thankfully, CB Eric Stokes ended any comeback opportunity for Pittsburgh with a game-clinching interception of Ben Roethlisberger. Two kneel-downs by Rodgers later, the game was over with the Packers winning by a score of 27-17. With the win, the Packers are now 3-1 on the season.
On offense, the Packers out-gained the Steelers in total yards (367 to 282). The running game was efficient for Green Bay, with AJ Dillon carrying the ball 15 times for 81 yards and Aaron Jones adding 48 yards on 15 carries (plus 51 yards on 3 catches). As for the passing attack, Aaron Rodgers went 20/36 for 248 yards and 3 total touchdowns (2 passing, and 1 rushing). He became the first QB in franchise history to be responsible for 500 total touchdowns, including both regular season and postseason games. He is now at 501 (420 regular season and 45 playoff TD passes, plus 32 regular season and 4 playoff TD runs). I am sure that the TD total will go up from there. As for his performance on Sunday, it wasn’t the best. He still missed a few throws that should have been made, including a deep ball to Robert Tonyan that was under-thrown and deflected. He did, however, make some great throws on third downs, especially to Randall Cobb (who led the receivers with 5 catches for 69 yards and 2 TDs). Davante Adams added 6 grabs for 64 yards, including a catch on a great back shoulder throw by Rodgers in the first quarter. Once again, I was impressed with the offensive line. They only allowed 10 pressures and 2 sacks, although that second sack was just a trip. There’s still room for improvement on offense, but I am sure that they will make those adjustments as they prepare for next week.
On defense, the Packers played well for most of the game. Other than the first touchdown by the Steelers, the defense made sure that they did not get into the end zone again until the 4th quarter. It stunk that Jaire Alexander went down with a shoulder injury during the game. Hopefully the injury doesn’t keep him out for too long. Eric Stokes had another good game, and he capped it off with his first career interception, which sealed the win for Green Bay. Kingsley Keke made a great play with his strip-sack of “Big Ben” that help set up a TD for the Packers offense. Rashan Gary’s sack of Roethlisberger was pretty much a two-man takedown as Gary brought an O-Lineman down with him. I have to say that the defense got lucky with Ben Roethlisberger overthrowing to a wide open JuJu Smith-Schuster twice. Most of the time, the defense was able to shut down any short passes, including a screen pass on a fourth down. The defense will be a bit bumpy without Jaire Alexander and Za’Darius Smith, but I think that DC Joe Barry will figure things out.
Other than Mason Crosby and Corey Bojorquez, Special Teams was a little rough on Sunday. They got lucky with an offsides penalty being called on the blocked field goal right before halftime. The Packers can’t let that stuff happen in crucial situations, which might include playoff games. I am glad that the Packers found their punter, for now. Corey Bojorquez had a few great punts, including a 57-yarder out of his own end zone and one punt being downed inside Pittsburgh’s 5 yard line. I am still thankful that Mason Crosby is Green Bay’s kicker. He has now made 24 straight field goals, and I am confident that he will continue that streak (*knocks on wood*). For the Special Teams unit as a whole, they have some stuff to work on, especially with protecting the field goal attempts. I have hope that Maurice Drayton will get the unit ready for next week.
Speaking of next week, the Packers’ opponent in Week 5 will be the Cincinnati Bengals (who are surprisingly 3-1 themselves). Nothing is guaranteed in the NFL, and the Packers need to be ready for this road game. I will talk about this game later. Have a great day, everyone. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the game’s highlights, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page.)
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