Green Bay Packers-Pittsburgh Steelers: Where's the Defense?

In my preview of this game, I foresaw the Packers favourable matchup in the passing game and on run defense. I had the Steelers with the advantage on special teams and run defense —the intangibles simply put them over the top.

Five for five.

Green Bay had 376 yards on 49 pass plays (7.7 average) and held the Steelers to 65 yards on 19 carries (3.4 average). I even picked correctly that the game would be determined on a Mason Crosby miss. He pushed another wide right on a 34-yard attempt—can we stop saying it is footing or the holder now?

The Steelers held the Packers to 60 yards rushing on 12 carries, which seems unimpressive. However, 14 yards came on an Aaron Rodgers touchdown scramble—i.e. on a pass play—and 24 more on one Ryan Grant carry. In other words, they gave up just 22 yards on ten of the plays.

But when I was wrong, boy was I wrong! I gave the advantage when the Steelers passed to the Packers, who came in with the third-ranked pass defense against the 12th -ranked passing attack. Pittsburgh generated 472 yards through the air on 51 plays (9.3 average) without a turnover, dropping Green Bay’s defense all the way to 11th against the pass.

I also predicted there would be a lot of sacks in this game. Pittsburgh was sacked five times, but Rodgers just once—the first time the Packers allowed fewer than six sacks and lost.

Pittsburgh has probably moved back into position of a playoff spot, given that they win their last two games. There is nothing embarrassing about losing to the defending Super Bowl champions by one point on their homefield on a last-second play. But Green Bay missed an opportunity to all-but-seal a playoff spot, and they may need to win out to make it.

Here is how the units grade out:

Quarterback: A-

Rodgers was 26 of 48, a mediocre-at-best .542 completion percentage thanks to a couple early passes that were off-target. But he picked up his game in the second quarter and continued throughout despite intense pressure, eventually leading the team to a six-point lead with about two minutes left.

Rodgers finished with 383 yards (8.0 per attempt), three touchdowns, and no picks. He ran three times for 22 yards and was sacked just once for seven yards, meaning that placing the ball in his hands 52 times resulted in a whopping 398 yards—7.7 per play against a very good defense that knew the Packers were going to attempt to pass 80 percent of the time is good enough for an A-.

Running backs: D+

Ryan Grant had just eight carries for 37 yards (4.6 average) and a TD, and Brandon Jackson had one more for a yard. Because of the lack of holes to run through, it is acceptable that almost two-thirds of the yardage came on the one play in which he had a hole makes. But Jackson had the unit’s only catch—for just four yards—so despite a nice 4.2 yards per touch, they cannot get a solid grade.

Receivers: B

Sure, the receivers got a lot of yards after the catch, but many of them were set up by good passes. They also had four of the team’s five dropped passes, including three in the first half. Still, they did account for 379 yards on 25 catches (15.2 average) with three scores.

Jermichael Finley led the team in catches with nine (74 yards and a TD) and Greg Jennings led in yards with 118 on five catches, including an 83-yard TD.  Donald Driver had a 49-yard catch among his three for 76 yards, and James Jones had two catches, including the 24-yard go-ahead score in the fourth quarter. Even fourth wide receiver Jordy Nelson had four catches for 71 yards.


Offensive Line: C+

Considering the fact that the Packers were facing the league’s second-best pass rush, it should seem excellent that they only gave up one sack. However, during most of the first half Rodgers was under duress and took a few hits. He was also flushed out and hurried a lot. Still, if they had opened any holes in the running game, they could have gotten a much better grade.

Defensive Line: C+

Statistically, they accumulated just one tackle and five assists, but they are chiefly responsible for holding the Steelers running game in check to the degree mentioned above. They also applied pretty good pressure during the game and opened up lanes for the linebackers to get five sacks.

Linebackers: D

Both rookies, Clay Matthews and Brad Jones, had two sacks and reserve backer Brady Poppinga added another. They combined for 15 tackles and five assists in a game that featured few runs—seemingly good statistics, even considering the 51 chances to get sacks.

However, they also gave up an astounding 103 yards and a score on 10 catches to running backs. They also deserve the bulk of the responsibility for the seven catches for 118 yards to the tight end, albeit a very solid one in Heath Miller. Nevertheless, this is way too much production.

Defensive Backs: F

The defensive backs gave up the remaining 282 yards and two scores to the wide receivers, and the safeties deserve some blame for the 118 to Miller.

Almost half of those yards were given up by Jarrett Bush on two plays, which is no surprise to me—I have been calling for him to be out of a job for nearly two years. Mike Wallace victimized him on the first play of the game for a score and then got Josh Bell for the winning touchdown when the clock expired.

Not that it matters since the unit is graded based on who plays and not who is injured, but neither of those players were supposed to be needed this season. The Packers are without second starting cornerback in Al Harris, our original dimeback in Will Blackmon , and new reserve Brandon Underwood.

Nevertheless, Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes caught 10 passes for 203 yards, so it is not like anyone else in the unit was playing well. In all, they generated 20 tackles and eight assists, led by Charles Woodson’s five and four, respectively—not that impressive considering how many plays went into the backfield.

There were no sacks, no forced fumbles, no interceptions, and plenty of penalties. More importantly, they could not make one play on the final drive to win a game the offense had overachieved to get.

Special Teams: C-

Aside from Crosby missing his only field goal attempt (and one I routinely have made in my life, albeit in practices), Jeremy Kapinos once again punted one touchback and had none downed inside the 20, resulting in a 34.4-yard net average. So our kicking stunk as usual—what about the rest of the special teams?

Well, the dumbest onside kick ever called was recovered by the Packers, leading to an easier go-ahead score; ironically, this just left more time for Ben Roethlisberger to counter.

Nelson was consistent on returns, with 12- and 13-yard punt returns and averaging about 21 with a long of 25 on kicks. Even Desmond Bishop got six yards the one time they tried a short kick, giving his team good starting field position (the Packers’ 39) and keeping the Steelers from trying that again.

The Steelers had one good punt return of 12 yards, but still managed to average just 6.3 on the three they had. They also had a 36-yard kick return, but the Packers successfully employed a strategy of kicking down the middle of the coverage and keeping the other five returns to about a 10-yard average; this explains and excuses Crosby for getting only one kick into the endzone .

Thus, the bulk of the special teams did good work. However, when your punting struggles and you miss a 34-yard field goal in a game decided by one point, you cannot get a good grade.

I originally wrote this article for Sports Scribes .