Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — They stopped the run. All week after the Pittsburgh Steelers defense was picked apart by Joe Flacco and the Cincinnati Bengals, the team’s coaches and defenders repeated over and over again that they had to stop the run.
Against the Green Bay Packers in Week 8, they largely quieted the rushing attack. Jordan Love and his receivers seemed relatively unbothered. Love threw two touchdowns, and accounted for 360 yards as the Packers ran up and down Acrisure Stadium on the way to a 35-25 victory.
Love seemingly had free receivers open in the underneath areas whenever he wanted them, all night, with the Packers feasting on check downs. In the second half, he had 20 straight completions.
When he needed a big play, he turned to tight end Tucker Kraft, who annihilated his previous career high with seven catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns. The Steelers tried a number of different defenders on Kraft, but none were even able to slow him down — or tackle him. Kraft had 128 yards after the catch on the night.
Many of the throws from Love weren’t picture perfect, but the Steelers’ secondary couldn’t make a play on the ball as the Steelers went a third straight game without creating a turnover.
On the other side of Love-Kraft onslaught, Chris Boswell attempted to singlehandedly keep the Steelers in the game. The Pittsburgh kicker made four field goals, all from 48 yards or longer as the Steelers offense repeatedly got bogged down inside Green Bay territory thanks to a serious of negative plays.
Coming off two straight games where the Steelers were criticized by head coach Mike Tomlin for being highly penalized, they had two offensive penalties that helped limit drives to field goals. In the second half, Nick Herbig and DK Metcalf were each called for crippling post-play personal fouls.
The Steelers rushing attack was effective, with Jaylen Warren gaining 62 yards on 13 carries and Kenneth Gainwell adding 31 yards on five rushes. But as the game got tilted toward Green Bay in the second half, the Steelers were forced to abandon the run.
Aaron Rodgers and the passing offense couldn’t succeed as a one-dimensional unit. Rodgers completed 24 of 36 for just 219 yards and he was sacked three times. The lone Pittsburgh touchdown came on a Rodgers to Metcalf slant in the second quarter. He finished with five catches for 51 yards.
Rodgers found Roman Wilson for a touchdown with just over two minutes to play to bring the score to 35-25, but the two-point try failed, as did an onside kick attempt. Wilson was the team’s leader with four catches for 74 yards and the score.
In addition to being decimated by the Packers, the Steelers also dealt with three significant injuries, losing defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale, guard Isaac Seumalo and strong safety DeShon Elliott in-game.
The Steelers’ schedule gong forward won’t get any easier, as they’ll host the AFC-leading Indianapolis Colts next Sunday at 1...
