The Packers arrive in Pittsburgh this week with a moderately disjointed offense and a defense that seems very susceptible to a hard-charging run game. That’s fitting, because the last time they played
in Pittsburgh, they found themselves struggling from a moderately disjointed offense and a defense that was very susceptible to a hard-charging run game.
Is that a stretch of a comparison? You bet it is, but you’re here now, so let’s talk about the last Packers/Steelers tilt.
The year was 2023. We were all so young then, and so were the Packers, boasting the youngest roster in the NFL. And through the early portions of the season, it showed. After a convincing Week 1 win over the Chicago Bears, the Packers went into a tailspin for most of the next two months. They went just 2-5 in their next seven games, and their only wins came in a frantic fourth quarter comeback against the New Orleans Saints and a 20-3 beatdown of the Los Angeles Rams and starting quarterback Brett Rypien.
That put Green Bay at 3-5 heading into their Week 10 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh was 5-3 and had won three of their last four, including a hard-fought 17-10 win over the Ravens just before their Week 6 bye week.
The Steelers weren’t an unbeatable juggernaut that year, though — they’d go on to lose three of their next four after their matchup with the Packers. Though things had not been going well, the Steelers definitely represented an opportunity to get back on track.
But the Packers couldn’t take advantage, although they played Pittsburgh pretty tough through the first quarter and a half. Jordan Love threw touchdowns on the Packers first and third drives, keeping the team within striking distance of the Steelers, who scored on each of their first three drives to take a 17-13 lead into the halftime break.
But the Packers had started to come apart late in the second quarter. The Steelers blocked Anders Carlson’s PAT attempt following Love’s second touchdown pass, making it difficult for the Packers to match the Steelers point for point the rest of the way.
Things got worse from there. Two long Packers drives bogged down in the Pittsburgh red zone. On the first, Love missed tight end Luke Musgrave in the back of the end zone on third down, and on the second, Love threw Musgrave a tough but catchable pass that Musgrave couldn’t reel in after a hard hit, forcing another field goal attempt.
Somehow, things got even worse from there. Down 20-19, Dontayvion Wicks fumbled on the Packers’ next drive, then the Packers had to punt, then Jordan Love finished off the game by throwing two interceptions. Assigning blame is difficult on interceptions, but both interceptions seem to have, at least in part, been the fault of Christian Watson, who failed to make aggressive plays on the ball in both instances, particularly the first play.
Ultimately, the Packers fell to the Steelers 23-19, the cost of missed opportunities and self-inflicted wounds proving too much to bear. It didn’t help that the Steelers piled up a cool 205 yards on the ground, grinding away at an overmatched Packers’ defensive front.
However, the Packers had shown that they could move the ball, and their loss to the Steelers actually seems to have tipped off a long run of success. The offense managed to avoid getting in its own way for most of the rest of the season, and the Packers finished the season at 9-8 after falling to 3-6 at the hands of the Steelers.
If there’s any storyline we can hope repeats itself after whatever happens in Pittsburgh this weekend, it’s that: if the Packers can start to consistently get on track on offense this week, who knows how far they could go this year?
