Aaron Rodgers could only do so much to propel a Steelers team that came apart in the second half of Sunday’s loss to the Packers.
Jordan Love outpaced his predecessor and counterpart, igniting Green Bay with 360 passing yards and three TDs.
Rodgers said he was ‘disappointed’ by the outcome on a night when cheers of ‘Go, Pack, Go!’ rained down from the crowd late in the game.
PITTSBURGH – “Come get me.”
Aaron Rodgers was undoubtedly game for the challenge of trying to hang one on his former team when he teased a particular Green Bay Packers edge rusher while in the midst of the drama on Sunday night at Acrisure Stadium.
Then again, Rodgers should be careful of what he wishes for.
“I told him, ‘I’m getting close,’ ” Packers defensive end Rashan Gary recalled of the in-game banter with Rodgers from the 35-25 smashing of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“He was saying, ‘I’m still moving good. I’m 41. You’ve got to come and get me, RG.’
“We got back to work, and I think they ran it the next play.”
Gary ultimately got to Rodgers, collecting two sacks, two quarterback hits and two tackles for a loss as the Packers defense forced the iconic quarterback to get off his rhythm in a contest that decisively flipped in the second half.
And that was just one layer of the trouble that left Rodgers and his team battered and frustrated after a second consecutive loss.
It wasn’t so much a prime-time showcase for a revitalized Rodgers to extract a measure of payback against the franchise he spent the first 18 years of his NFL career with.
Instead, it turned out to be the perfect opportunity for Rodgers’ former understudy, Jordan Love, to upstage his NFL mentor.
Love, 26, was simply fabulous – especially in a second half that saw the Packers score on all five of the their possessions, excluding the clock-killing drive at the end. In passing for 360 yards and three TDs with zero interceptions, Love provided another statement about the Packers’ future against the symbolic backdrop of the past.
It helped Green Bay (5-1-1) improve on its NFC-best record mark while the Steelers (4-3) stumbled yet again.
At one point, Love tied a franchise record by completing 20 consecutive passes. He weaved laser strikes into tight windows. He improvised to buy time for big plays. He stood tall in the face of blitzes and other forms of punishment. He was cool and confident.
Love looked, well, a lot like Rodgers in his prime.
“He was on fire,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “That’s why I wanted him to keep throwing the football.”
Rodgers couldn’t help but notice what the raucous crowd witnessed in Love, complimenting his patience, efficiency and ability to improvise.
“I thought J-Love played great,” Rodgers said. “He was super-efficient. He didn’t get sacked and moved around really well, made some plays outside the pocket. Thought he played outstanding.”
Someone asked Love if his time serving as Rodgers’ backup had an effect that played out on Sunday. Maybe. Maybe not.
“I’m just trying to play my game,” Love said. “Obviously, being behind Aaron for three years and being able to see him and the high-level play he was capable of going out there and doing, and just being able to put the money on the money at all times was very cool for me to see. But for me, it comes down to just being the best quarterback I can be.”
Which also says something about lessons learned well.
That’s not to suggest that Rodgers played poorly. He completed 24 of 36 passes for 219 yards with two touchdowns and posted a 101.5 passer rating. He didn’t commit a turnover. It’s just that on a night when the Steelers defense collapsed in the second half, when his team settled for too many field goals because it couldn’t finish touchdown drives, when self-inflicted mistakes were damning, Pittsburgh needed Rodgers to be even better.
Then again, that was a tough ask when he was under constant duress. He was sacked three times, including a takedown from Micah Parsons to go with Gary’s two cases, but it could have been much worse. He was nimble enough to avoid sacks for much of the night, which also meant that he was so uncomfortable running for his life.
Which is exactly what Green Bay envisioned.
“Going into the game, that was one of our goals, just trying to make it hard for him to see his reads, make him move around a lot in the pocket because…he’s a Hall of Famer,” Gary said. “You give him time in the pocket to pat the ball, he’s going to give his playmakers opportunities to make plays. You’ve got to find a way, when he does hold onto the ball, to get there. To get him off his spot.”
In the days leading up to Sunday night, Rodgers downplayed the revenge factor and maintained that the matchup would have been more significant had it occurred at Lambeau Field.
Maybe so. Maybe not. It was still weird enough for Rodgers, especially as a significant portion of the crowd supported the Packers – evidenced by the familiar, “Go, Pack, Go!” chant that got louder as the game progressed.
“I heard that chant for 18 years,” Rodgers said. “Packers fans really travel well. First time in a while I’ve used a silent count for a home game. That’s a credit to those Packers fans.”
It must have felt too weird. Like an out-of-body experience that went beyond the edge rushers seeking sacks.
“Disappointed,” Rodgers described of his emotions. “Disappointed that I didn’t play better, that we didn’t play better, especially in the second half.”
In other words, as game as he was, they didn’t have enough game.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell
