Steelers can't stop Aaron Rodgers, slump continues in loss at Green Bay

GREEN BAY, Wis. — For the first time in his 17-year career, Aaron Rodgers finally got a chance to face the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at Lambeau Field.

The three-time league MVP might want to lobby to see if he can get the NFL to put the Steelers on the Green Bay Packers schedule again before he retires.

Rodgers, who hadn’t faced the Steelers at any venue since Super Bowl XLV, was not the quarterback the reeling Steelers wanted to face. He threw two touchdown passes to Randall Cobb and ran for another score to lift the Packers to a 27-17 victory that represented the Steelers’ third consecutive defeat.

At 1-3, the Steelers are two games behind all three AFC North rivals and, for the second time in three seasons, they have just one victory through four weeks.

“What a challenge for us,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “I think this is going to test us all. We need to look in the mirror and figure out what path we want to take.”

This path began with the Steelers getting off to an uncharacteristically strong start on offense, taking a 7-0 lead on the first possession. But Rodgers erased that early deficit by leading scoring drives on five consecutive possessions to give the Packers a 27-10 lead in the third quarter

Rodgers wasn’t at the top of his game, but he did complete 20 of 36 passes for 248 yards and was not intercepted. He ran for a 4-yard score and threw touchdown passes of 23 and 1 yards to Cobb. The Packers complemented him with a running game that put up 131 yards. They converted 9 of 15 third-down attempts and had a nine-minute edge in time of possession.

“Stop trying to make too much happen,” said outside linebacker T.J. Watt, who got two of the Steelers’ three sacks. “It starts with me. We have to continue to lean on each other and trust each other and watch the film and get better.”

While the defense couldn’t get off the field against Rodgers, the offense was held until 10 points until getting a late touchdown. The Steelers have scored six touchdowns in four games and haven’t surpassed 17 points in a game since the season opener.

Roethlisberger threw his 400^th career touchdown pass, but it was one of the few bright spots on a day when he completed 26 of 40 attempts for 232 yards and one interception. He overthrew his receivers several times and threw high on a potential touchdown pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster that fell incomplete in the second quarter.

Roethlisberger was sacked twice, with one causing a fumble that the Packers turned into the go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter.

“Anytime you turn the ball over, it’s going to be a potential game-changer,” Roethlisberger said.

Najee Harris rushed for 62 yards on 15 carries and scored on a 1-yard run with 4 minutes, 4 seconds remaining to establish the final score.

After a Devin Bush sack on third down stopped the Packers’ first drive, Rodgers led the Packers to points the next five times they had the ball. They scored two touchdowns with in a 2-minute, 27-second span in the second quarter to take the lead for good.

A turning point came with 20 seconds left and the Packers ahead 14-10. Minkah Fitzpatrick and Joe Haden blocked Crosby’s 31-yard field goal attempt, with Fitzpatrick scooping up the loose ball and returning it 75 yards for an apparent touchdown. Haden, though, was flagged for offsides for coming off the left edge before the snap.

I wasn’t offsides.

— Joe Haden (@joehaden23) October 4, 2021

Given another chance, Crosby converted from 26 yards to give the Packers a 17-10 advantage going into the locker room.

The Packers came out in the third quarter and pieced together a 12-play field goal drive.

Rodgers threw a 25-yard completion to Cobb on third-and-7, A.J. Dillon converted a third-and-1 and Rodgers hit Aaron Jones for a 26-yard completion that was aided by Watt’s roughing-the-passer penalty. The Steelers finally got a third-down stop on a pass into the end zone, and Mason Crosby’s 29-yard field goal made it 20-10.

Pressley Harvin didn’t help the cause with a 20-yard punt that set up the Packers at the Steelers 40. Dillon got 25 yards on an inside handoff that put the ball at the 1, and Rodgers rolled out and found Cobb in the end zone on the next play to make it 27-10.

“We had opportunities to get off sooner on defense,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “We didn’t win enough third downs. We had a splash play on special teams to no avail. We’ll keep working and working in all three phases.”

The Steelers had more misadventures on fourth down.

On the next possession, the Steelers tried a swing pass to Harris on fourth-and-4 from the Packers 32. In a repeat of last week when Harris was stopped for a 1-yard loss on a fourth-and-10 toss, he again was tackled a yard behind the line of scrimmage.

Chris Wormley forced a Jones fumble that Watt recovered at the Steelers 35. This led to another fourth-and-4 that became a fourth-and-9 when Diontae Johnson was called for a false start. This time, Tomlin elected to punt.

It wasn’t long before the Steelers had another fourth down that they found a way to mangle. On fourth-and-5 from the Packers 47, Roethlisberger threw short to Smith-Schuster, the play coming up three yards short of a first down.

“We have to stick together, believe in one another,” Smith-Schuster said. “You don’t want to go around pointing fingers or blaming anyone.”

The Steelers have two games in a row at Heinz Field before they head into the bye week. Then again, they lost back-to-back games at home before visiting Green Bay.

“We have to continue to grow and grow fast,” Watt said, “because this thing is coming up quickly next week.”