The Pittsburgh Steelers survived a last-minute Green Bay drive to defeat the Packers, 23-19, in a back-and-forth, high-energy battle that ended with a game-sealing interception by Damontae Kazee.
Going into the game, many pundits predicted a low-scoring, defensive brawl, but the contest actually started with the offenses putting up some fireworks, trading three straight touchdowns in a 16-minute span.
The key to the Steelers’ quick start was taking advantage of a poor Packers’ rush defense – Pittsburgh ran for 78 yards and two touchdowns on the first two drives alone. The Packers, meanwhile, took a different approach, relying on QB Jordan Love’s arm to push them up the field on drive number one, ultimately resulting in a Love 8-yard touchdown toss to Romeo Doubs in the back corner of the endzone.
The extra point was blocked, however, after Josiah Deguara missed his block.
The Packers would add another touchdown midway through the second quarter on an impressive Love deep-ball to Jayden Reed for 35 yards on a third and 16. This would be the last touchdown of the game.
The defenses would stabilize to end the half, forcing three straight punts before the Packers would make a curious play call on a screen with only a minute and 20 seconds to go. The play lost the Pack five yards and forced them to run the half out.
The third quarter saw the Packers convert on two field goals and the Steelers respond with one of their own. After three straight punts, Pittsburgh would convert on another Chris Boswell field goal to put the Steelers up by four midway through the fourth.
It would all come down to the arm of Love. After two good passes to Luke Musgrave and Dontavion Wicks to get the Packers down the field quickly, Love targeted Christian Watson in the back corner of the endzone. However, the pass was tipped away by Patrick Peterson into the hands of Keanu Neal.
The Packers would get the ball back after a Steelers’ punt with 59 seconds left. The first play of the drive saw Love find Reed on another deep ball, one that looked as if Reed ran a broken route and tracked the ball very well. That play would set up the Packers at the Steelers 35 with 51 seconds left.
The Packers then ran a puzzling play where Aaron Jones caught a screen pass and had to fight to even get back to the line of scrimmage while staying in bounds. The play took off valuable seconds and by the time the next play stopped with Jordan Love running out of bounds, only 28 seconds remained.
Fast forward a couple of plays and the Packers had a fourth down with 17 seconds remaining. A screen pass gave Green Bay a first down at Pittsburgh’s 16.
With only three seconds remaining, the Packers needed to take a shot to the endzone and they did, with Love attempting to go to Watson, but another Steelers’ interception ended the game.
Even though the loss moved the Packers to 3-6 and hurt their already dim playoff hopes, Love and the offense moved the ball well against one of the best defenses in the NFL. Love went 21 for 40 with 289 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
As for the Steelers, regardless of how ugly Mike Tomlin and company find ways to win, they find ways to win. The Steelers are now 6-3 and a half game out of the top in the AFC North.
