The storyline was an obvious one, and it had been scrutinized and analyzed all week. Then the Sunday night kickoff allowed it to build to a crescendo for the packed house at Acrisure Stadium and a national television audience.
After 18 seasons in Green Bay that included 4 MVP Awards and a Lombardi Trophy, Aaron Rodgers was about to play against the team that made him a first-round draft pick in 2005, that made him the starting quarterback and face of the franchise in 2008. Rodgers had made a lot of history wearing the Packers colors, and his first game against his former team was going to give him a chance to make a little more.
With a win on Sunday night, Rodgers would have joined Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees as the fifth quarterback in NFL history to win against 32 different teams as a starting quarterback. But that didn’t happen, and it didn’t happen in rather decisive fashion with the Packers ending the week of build-up with a 35-25 victory over the Steelers.
“Disappointed,” said Rodgers when he met the media following the game. “Disappointed that I didn’t play better. That we didn’t play better, especially in the second half.”
That assessment is inarguable, and what makes it even worse for the Steelers is they wake up today with a 4-3 record after their second straight loss because they seem to be trending downward in every aspect of play with the exception of the consistently excellent work by placekicker Chris Boswell.
The losing streak had begun on a Thursday in Cincinnati, largely because the Steelers had defensive lapses all night, lowlighted by an inability to stop a Bengals running attack that was last in the NFL in rushing and yet exploded for 142 yards with a 6.2 average per attempt. Individually, Chase Brown with his 2.7-yard average led the way with 108 yards on 11 carries (9.8 average). Also contributing to the defeat were 7 penalties for 59 yards, with one of those for holding that took a touchdown off the board in what ended up being a 33-31 final.
Offensively, though, they were starting to look like a group capable of winning shootouts, because against the Bengals the Steelers built a quick 10-0 lead and then roared back from a 27-17 deficit in the fourth quarter to take a 31-30 lead with 2:21 remaining in the game. Yes, the defense promptly allowed 3 pass plays for 61 yards to set up the 36-yard game-losing field goal, but maybe the Steelers were developing an offense capable of doing the heavy lifting.
But adding to the disappointment voiced by Rodgers about the outcome vs. Green Bay was that some of their issues from the loss to the Bengals made the trip home with them from Cincinnati.
Again they were highly penalized, this time to the tune of 6 for 65 yards, and too many of those were fell in the chippy, unnecessary, retaliatory category, which just cannot happen against a quality opponent capable of taking advantage of every gift of yardage. And while they did a good job stopping a better running back, on too many of the 37 times Jordan Love dropped back to throw, the coverage seemed either confused and/or overmatched once the ball was in the air.
During his Tuesday news conference, Coach Mike Tomlin offered these unsolicited comments about Packers tight end Tucker Craft: “Tucker (Kraft) at tight end is really significant. He gets down the field. They throw him tight end screens. He’s big in the misdirection passing game. He’s just a force within their offensive system.”
Kraft showed himself to be all of that. He was targeted a team-high 9 times, and he finished with 7 catches for 143 yards (20.4 average) and 2 touchdowns. The first of those TDs was a 16-yard reception that provided the only Packers points in the first half that ended with the Steelers leading, 16-7; and the second TD was a 24-yard catch that extended Green Bay’s lead to 29-19 early in the fourth quarter. In between, Kraft made a combat catch with DeShon Elliott and Juan Thornhill defending for a 59-yard gain on a third-and-5 from the Green Bay 15-yard line to extend a drive that was capped by an 8-yard TD reception by Savion Williams that cut the Steelers lead to 16-14.
As Tomlin had told the media on Tuesday and undoubtedly made the same point to his players in meetings and during on-field sessions, Kraft turned out to be the “force within their offensive system.”
And while Green Bay’s offense was as advertised, the Steelers’ was a shell of what it had been through their first 6 games of 2025. After converting 43.3 percent on third down through the first 6 games, the Steelers were an abysmal 1-for-10 vs. Green Bay. Which meant Corliss Waitman punted 4 times and Chris Boswell kicked 4 long field goals. Which meant that 8 of their 11 offensive possessions ended in unsatisfactory fashion (and a ninth was even worse because it ended with a turnover, lost fumble by Kenneth Gainwell).
The other area where the offense came up short was in its inability to produce any chunk plays – passes of 20-plus yards and runs of 10-plus yards. Not doing that forces the unit to string together a bunch of mistake-free plays to get the ball down the field and into the end zone.
The Steelers came into this game with 17 passing chunks and 17 running chunks, but of the 5 they created against the Packers the 2 runs came in the first half, and 1 of the 3 passes came in garbage time.
“I just feel like we had some discipline issues and some penalties that were unnecessary,” said Rodgers, “and then we aren’t going to win a lot of games when we’re so bad on third down. Boz bailed us out on four incredible kicks, but when you’re playing good teams, you need to score touchdowns, and we stalled out in the high red zone.”
This second straight loss dropped the Steelers to 4-3, and sliced their lead in the AFC North Division to 1.5 games. Additionally, their next two games are against the 7-1 Indianapolis Colts followed by another Sunday night game – on the West Coast vs. the 5-3 Chargers. Farther off on the horizon are games vs. Buffalo and at Detroit, and the annual home-and-home street fight with the Ravens.
In other words, it ain’t gonna get easier at an advanced portion of the season where losing streaks cannot be allowed to take root. And counting on the Nov. 4 trading deadline to produce a superhero to save the season is like believing the lottery is a sound retirement strategy. Absolutely there must be improvement, and since time is of the essence the most likely place to find that improvement is within their own locker room.
When asked what is needed to get this team back on track, Rodgers said, “Well, just an honest assessment. I think setting feelings aside and being OK with criticism, any position, any player, and being honest about what we need to do to improve. Then we can’t beat ourselves. I think in the three losses there have been times where we’ve had opportunities, and we’ve hurt ourselves with turnovers or just negative plays. So we’ve got to cut those out. We’ve got to get on the same page on offense and defense and keep the faith.”
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