Acme Packing Company
It’s game preview time, folks. Thanks to Behind the Steel Curtain, our sister site covering the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Ryland Bickley for answering a couple of questions going into this week’s Sunday Night Football matchup against the Green Bay Packers. If you want to read our answers to their questions, the corresponding article to this one, you can find that HERE.
Everyone and their mother is going to be talking about the Aaron Rodgers angle, so let’s start there.
So, how is the whole Aaron Rodgers experience going? Going into the year, I thought there would be a bit more of a revenge game feel to this game. So far, both sides seem to be more appreciative of their time with each other more than anything else.
“The Rodgers experience has been better than most expected in Pittsburgh. He’s had his struggles dealing with pressure at times, but against Cincinnati last week he had time to throw and looked incredibly sharp outside of one pass. Surprisingly, he even had the longest toss in Next Gen Stats history on the end-of-game Hail Mary.
He’s not as otherworldly as he was during his prime in Green Bay, but this looks like the version of late-career Rodgers the Jets thought they’d be getting. Still, against better defenses like the Packers, I’d expect the Steeler offense to be more of its usual quick-game self.
As for the revenge game narrative, both sides have been saying all the right things headed into the game and it legitimately feels like there isn’t much bad blood. But I have a hard time believing this will be treated like any other game. When Rodgers and Justin Fields faced their former teams in Steelers-Jets Week 1, the leadup to the game was diplomatic but there was a bit of fire during the game and in the press conferences afterwards.
Honestly, Rodgers has been nothing but likable during his short tenure in Pittsburgh so far. I had my doubts with his fit with the Steelers, but it’s looked like a good move so far.”
What’s the feeling on T.J. Watt’s injury? He popped up on the injury report on Thursday with a hip issue after not having a status on Wednesday.
“There was never much of a worry that Watt wouldn’t play, and reports on Friday indicate he’ll be good to go Sunday night. If the hip injury is nagging at all though I think it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Now over 30 years old, Watt is still a high-level defender who commands a lot of attention up front, but he hasn’t been quite as much of a game wrecker as he was during his prime. Dealing with an ankle injury late last year, it certainly impacted his production, especially as a pass rusher who primarily wins with speed.
The good news for Pittsburgh is the team has one of the best pass rusher rotations in the...
