A sixth consecutive win and a spot in the postseason were there for the taking for the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
The Packers claimed neither, though, dropping a gut-wrenching 37-36 road decision to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Green Bay now sits at 9-5 on the season and while the Packers still hold the top wild card spot, things are definitely tighter than they were heading into the weekend.
Unacceptably bad kicking from Mason Crosby and shoddy, ineffective defense wasted a great, gutsy performance from the offense.
We have to begin with Crosby. In short, it’s time for the Packers to suck it up and get rid of the third-year kicker.
His miss on a 34-yard field goal in the second quarter marks the fourth game in a row where he’s missed a kick of less than 45 yards. Those points ultimately made the difference in the final score. You can say it should have never come to that – and, in part, you’d be right. But in close games, you have to get points when points are there. And on a 34-yard field goal, they’re there.
I just wrote on Friday that the Packers had been able to cover up for Crosby’s mistakes as of late. Well, they weren’t able to Sunday. It’s unfair to ask a team to cover for the mistakes of a kicker, which is why a new kicker needs to be in the fold. Do not stand up there and tell us you still have confidence in him, Mike, when he doesn’t have any in himself.
Despite Crosby’s miscues, the team still had multiple shots to win this game.
The offense did its part.
Aaron Rodgers, after a sluggish start, finished with 383 yards passing, three touchdowns and no interceptions (he also had one rushing score). He was dead-on with most of his throws in the second half. The receivers rebounded in similar fashion and were great in finding open spots, hanging on to the ball and making defenders miss. Jermichael Finley (nine catches, 74 yards and a great, leaping touchdown) continues to look like a future Pro Bowler and the offensive line held up against a tough, hard-charging front seven. You can argue that the team should have run the ball more – eight carries for Ryan Grant? – but when you put up 36 points, 22 of which came in the fourth quarter, that should always, always be enough.
But the defense, so good over the past five weeks, ultimately let Green Bay down.
There were, of course, multiple reasons Big Ben (I’m refusing to type his last name) threw for 503 yards and made Packers fans have awful flashbacks to Bob Sanders’ defenses of last season.
One was the overall effort. It wasn’t there. Outside of Clay Matthews, Nick Barnett and Cullen Jenkins, the defense simply did not play with the same passion it had played with recently. The Steelers outhustled Green Bay for much of the game. The Packers looked gassed at the end, but really, they didn’t look that sharp at the beginning of the game, either.
Secondly, Dom Capers did not call as good of a game as he had been doing as of late. Coverage was emphasized over pressure far too often. Against a bad offensive line, such as Pittsburgh’s, Capers needed to focus on bringing the heat. Big Ben is hard to bring down, yes, but you cannot let him sit back there and pick you apart, either. If you’re thin in the secondary – as Green Bay is minus Al Harris but with Jarrett Bush – you have to make up for that by bringing pressure. Eight defensive backs against five wide receivers should play into your favor – but not if more than one of those defensive backs stinks.
That was the case through and through on the Steelers’ game-winning drive, especially on the game-ending touchdown pass to Mike Wallace, and it brought back too many images of the coverage-heavy defenses Capers ran earlier in the season, when the pass defense struggled.
Finally, Pittsburgh’s ability (or maybe it was Green Bay’s inability) to find the right matchups for its playmakers played a huge part in the defensive woes. B.J. Raji on Heath Miller? Bush on Hines Ward? Barnett on Santonio Holmes? How did these things continually happen? I’m not sure, but I do know that Capers’ unit was continually outsmarted until the defending champs finally walked out victorious.
In the end, as much as this loss hurts right now (and believe me, it really hurts…I mean, Adam texted me that he was so sick over it he wasn’t even able to drink whiskey, which, believe me, says something), it might not hurt the Packers’ chances that much.
They are still the top wild card team and have games against a decrepit Seattle team (at home) and an Arizona team (on the road) that might not have much of anything to play for left on the docket.
Win even one of those games and the postseason should be a lock.
Still, the troubles seen Sunday must be corrected – and now – to avoid them coming back to hurt Green Bay in the more meaningful games that, hopefully, lie ahead.
-Chris Lempesis
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