The Green Bay Packers were hanging around in their preseason opener Thursday night, but once the fourth-team group took over, the whole thing tilted hard in Pittsburgh’s favor. The Steelers pulled away late and finished with a 28-9 win, turning a game that was tight through the third quarter into a lopsided finish.
Green Bay actually opened with some structure. Jordan Love led the first-team offense on a 46-yard march that ended in a field goal, and the Packers later squeezed out two more field goal drives with the third-string offense, including a two-minute drill at the end of the first half. That was enough to give Green Bay a 9-7 lead with 4:28 left in the third quarter.
Then came the collapse. The Packers punted three times after that, and Pittsburgh’s backups ripped off three straight touchdowns against Green Bay’s deep reserves before the Steelers knelt out the game.
The numbers told the story as clearly as the scoreboard. Pittsburgh’s three backup quarterbacks combined to go 27 of 33 for 313 yards, with two touchdowns and a 128.8 rating.
Green Bay’s four quarterbacks finished 19 of 30 for 97 yards and a 74.4 rating. Neither team did much on the ground - the Packers averaged 2.6 yards per carry, the Steelers 2.8 - but the air attack gave Pittsburgh the edge.
Penalties piled up too, especially late. Green Bay had been fairly clean until the deepest reserves came in, but the Packers finished with nine penalties for 76 yards.
Pittsburgh was flagged 11 times for 134 yards. Both teams have plenty to tidy up before the regular season.
The Packers were also dealing with a long injury list before kickoff. RB Josh Jacobs (groin), RB Chris Brooks (hamstring), TE Tucker Kraft (knee), TE Luke Musgrave (neck), LG Aaron Banks (knee), RT Zach Bako-Bewele (knee), EDGE Micah Parsons (knee), EDGE Dani Dennis-Sutton (illness), DL Devonte Wyatt (knee), DL Javon Hargrave (knee), DL Jordon Riley (ankle), CB Carrington Valentine (hamstring), CB Domani Jackson (abdominal), S Javon Bullard (foot) and LS Matt Orzech (calf) were all out.
That forced some interesting lineup decisions. Up front, the starting offensive line was Jordan Morgan, Jager Burton, Sean Rhyan, Jacob Monk and Anthony Belton from left to right.
John Williams and Donovan Jennings got into the game before Darian Kinnard and Travis Glover, even though some expected Kinnard and Glover to be the top backup options. The third-string line consisted of Williams, rookie UDFA Dillon Wade, Jennings, Kinnard and Glover, and Kinnard later left with an injury before rookie UDFA Josh Gesky replaced him.
From a production standpoint, quarterback Kyle McCord led the Packers with 102 passing yards. Running back Damien Martinez had 20 rushing yards, and receiver Isaiah Neyor finished with 34 receiving yards. Fourth-string quarterback Kyron Drones had only one pass attempt, which fell incomplete, and he was sacked three times.
Defensively, Green Bay gave Keisean Nixon and Brandon Cisse the starting outside corner jobs over Benjamin St-Juste, with Carrington Valentine out. Kitan Oladapo stepped in as the slot starter for the injured Javon Bullard, but the role did not look comfortable for him. That was a notable change, considering Oladapo has previously shown better work at safety in preseason action and limited regular-season snaps.
Another surprise came along the defensive front. Jonathan Ford opened as the Packers’ starting nose tackle in 3-4 looks while Devonte Wyatt and Javon Hargrave sat.
Ford lined up between Warren Brinson and Karl Brooks, rather than Chris McClellan or Nazir Stackhouse. Anthony Campbell, who had drawn some camp buzz for his pass batdown ability, was also injured late in the game, and the severity of both Kinnard’s and Campbell’s injuries was not known.
One name that stood out on defense was Collin Oliver, whose speed kept showing up.
The Packers came out aggressive on that side of the ball, dialing up plenty of blitzes. On the second play of the game, new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon sent a six-man blitz that produced a sack. But once the roster thinned out late, Green Bay no longer had enough up front or in coverage to hold the Steelers down, and Pittsburgh cashed in with those final three touchdowns.
Even with all the chaos, the most polished performance of the night belonged to kicker Trey Smack. He drilled field goals from 58, 57, 38 and 37 yards, although the 58-yarder was wiped out after Pittsburgh roughed Green Bay’s long snapper. The Packers accepted the 15-yard penalty and the automatic first down.
On returns, Savion Williams and Pierre Strong Jr. handled kickoff duties, not Skyy Moore. Moore did work on punts, returning one for 14 yards.
In the end, it was the kind of preseason game that feels messy, uneven and hard to trust. But the kicker looked sharp, and in a night like this, that counted for something.
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