GREEN BAY, Wis. — Everything was coming up Steelers in their first trip to Lambeau Field since 2013 … until it wasn’t. An early lead thanks to an opening-drive touchdown — yes, those are legal — turned into an afternoon chasing Aaron Rodgers on an overcast Sunday at the historic home of the Packers.
Rodgers was his usual stellar self, vivisecting the Steelers defense for 248 yards and two touchdowns on 20-of-36 passing to lead the Packers to a 27-17 win and sending the Steelers to a third straight loss that drops their record to 1-3. Ben Roethlisberger was his usual erratic self, hitting on some throws but missing on far more. He threw for 232 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the end, but once again, an opposing defense was all too happy to play softer coverage and let him rack up numbers in mop-up time.
Another week, another postgame press conference in which coach Mike Tomlin and his quarterback will have to explain some head-scratching 4th-down failures, but this game was out of reach once Rodgers got into a groove and Roethlisberger couldn’t find one.
It was over when: A.J. Dillon took a delayed handoff and barrelled through the Steelers defense for a 25-yard run, all the way down to the 1. It didn’t take much for Rodgers to flip a touchdown pass to Randall Cobb on the next play, staking the Packers to a 27-10 lead with less than 20 minutes left in the game. Naturally, the Steelers offense did nothing to respond. Things happened the rest of the way — bad things for the Steelers — but it was all window dressing after that deflating Dillon chunk play.
Player of the game: An Aaron Rodgers spiral is a beautiful sight, and for everyone other than Steelers fans, it was a treat to watch him fire the ball downfield like he’s closer to 28 than 38. Roethlisberger can still put zip on the ball, too, but Rodgers’ accuracy is on another level at this point. He even used his legs to buy time in the pocket occasionally, not to mention run for a 4-yard touchdown on which he had to outrace T.J. Watt to the end zone.
Trending up: Diontae Johnson had a couple awareness-lacking moments on back-to-back snaps, first running himself out of a third-down conversion, followed by a false start that led to a 4th-and-9 punt to start the fourth quarter. But without Chase Claypool, Johnson was the only source of playmaking downfield, finishing with nine grabs for 92 yards — including a 45-yard touchdown catch when he got behind Jaire Alexander, one of the league’s best cornerbacks. It was a nice bounce-back showing for Johnson after missing Week 3 with a knee injury.
Trending down: Everything. The offense’s struggles continue and now the defense is joining them. Talk about playing complementary football. The Steelers started a new sack streak after having their record-breaking one snapped last week, but the pass-rush was far from consistent and did little to rattle Rodgers. The run defense was even worse, letting both Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon rip off big gains on the ground. Even rookie punter Pressley Harvin had another bad day, highlighted by one boot of just 20 yards when the Steelers could’ve used valuable field position. And suffice it to say, the coaching has been a problem lately, as well.
Next up: Headed back home where the boo birds await, for a 1 p.m. matchup with the 3-1 Denver Broncos, who might be quarterbacked by Drew Lock because of Teddy Bridgewater sustaining a concussion Sunday against the Ravens.
