The Packers went into Pittsburgh on Sunday playing a Steelers team that was not the dominant one it had been during the Ben Roethlisberger era. Their new quarterback, Kenny Pickett, was a first round pick out of Pitt last year, and to date in 20 starts he is 12-8 despite throwing only 13 TDs to 13 INTs, thanks mainly to one of the better rushing attacks in the league and an “opportunistic” defense. As it turned out, the game came down to a nail-biting, heart-pounding finale, only to end in the same agonizing, hair-pulling, beat-head-against-wall way as the Packers’ previous possession.
So how did it come to this? The Packers actually showed some life in the first half; this time they took a couple of shots down the field that actually connected for once. The Steelers scored on the first drive of the game, but the Packers answered on an 8-yard pass from Jordan Love to Romeo Doubs in their first possession, although Doubs had to make a great play on the ball to get both feet in bounds. But things started to go south after 10 unanswered points gave the Steelers a 17-7 lead and the Packers going nowhere fast as Love missed on five straight passes. But AJ Dillon’s 40-yard run helped set-up the Packers inside the Steelers’ 30-yard line with five minutes to play in the first half, but another incompletion and sack left a third-and-sixteen at the 35. Miraculously, Love found Jayden Reed on a 35-yard throw to make it a 17-13 game after Anders Carlson missed the extra point.
13 points was the most the Packers have scored in the first half all season, and that had to mean something at least. In the first drive of the second half, the Packers needed to convert on fourth down to take advantage of a 49-yard kickoff return, although only with a field goal after failing to move the ball after a first down on the Steelers 14. But the Packers managed to take the lead on their next possession on field goal, 19-17, but again in frustrating fashion when after a 35-yard pass to Luke Musgrave got the ball to the Steeler 15, Love again failed to move the ball much further.
The Steelers retook the lead heading into the fourth quarter, answering with their own field goal. A couple of Packer punts and another Steelers field goal made it 23-19, with the missed extra-point suddenly looming large. But all this meant was that the pressure was on Love to perform. Would he, this time?
With over 5 minutes to play, passes of 28 yards to Musgrave and 32 to Wicks found the Packers facing a second-and-9 at the Steelers 14 with over 3 minutes to play. The Steelers, who led the NFL in takeaways, had not forced a single turnover in this game; but that would change in a big way. Yet another underthrown ball to Watson was tipped by a defender and somehow ended up in the arms of defensive back Keanu Neal:
But game wasn’t over. The Packers used-up all their timeouts to get the ball back with over a minute to play. A 46-yard pass to Reed got the ball inside Steeler territory, but the Packers still needed a touchdown. Eventually it came down to one final play from the Steelers’ 16 with 3 seconds to play, and it appeared that Love missed a wide-open Doubs, and stepping into a crowded line threw a pass in the general direction of Watson but right into the hands of Damontae Kazee yards in front of the intended receiver to seal a 23-19 defeat:
Yes, I know that people will be handwringing about the missed extra-point, but let’s just pretend that didn’t happen. What we saw was that against a beatable opponent against a second-year quarterback who was at best a “game manager” who relied on a running game that rushed for more than 200 yards in this game, was Love making two bad throws if not completely bad decisions. Love threw for a career-best 289 yards, but despite doing better on deep throws in this game against a team that is near the bottom in yards allowed (and there is no guarantee that will continue), there was otherwise little actual improvement overall in his game; Love barely completed half his 40 pass attempts, and those two late interceptions helped sink a QB rating that was at one point over 147 down to under 72 by the end of the game.
Love this year
is 3-6 as a starter, which is the record Brett Hundley had when he relieved an
injured Aaron Rodgers in 2017. Of course back then Hundley was still just the backup; today, the
Packers can only hope that Love can improve his “game” without a “Plan B.”
While it did appear his “long” game improved, the rest of it didn’t. Overall,
the Packers improved on last week’s offensive statistics insofar as total
yards, just missing 400 yards by one. But again, for no better point production
than last week against the Rams, with only 6 points from four red zone opportunities in the second half.
Next week the Packers are back home against the Chargers, where they appear to be heavy underdogs despite the Chargers not playing that much better (at the moment they trail at home against the Lions). Again, a “beatable” opponent, save this time the Chargers have a “quality” quarterback in Justin Herbert, who threw for over 9700 yards and 63 TDs the past two seasons.
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