Report Card: Grades From Packers’ 23-19 Loss to Steelers

The Green Bay Packers lost another tough game on the road to a quality opponent. Here are the grades from Sunday’s loss at the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Football truly is a game of inches.

After the Green Bay Packers lost 23-19 to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, they have to be wondering what their day might have looked like if one play here or there went differently.

If they didn’t have an extra point blocked in the first half, Anders Carlson would have had a chance to kick the team to overtime.

If De'Vondre Campbell caught a pass that was thrown directly to him, maybe he would have scored and changed the entire game.

Yes, if the officials ruled Kenny Pickett's pass to Jaylen Warren late in the first half a lateral, maybe the Packers would have led at halftime.

Those plays, however, did not go that way, and the Packers learned another hard lesson about just how hard it is to win in the NFL.

Sunday's outcome, however, looks to be one that could be a springboard for the potential better days ahead.

Here are our grades from a tough loss.

Pass Offense

The Packers were close to finally breaking their 300-yard passing game drought.

Jordan Love finished the day with 288 passing yards to go with two touchdown passes.

With 12 more yards, he would have had the team's first 300-yard passing performance since Aaron Rodgers got there against Baltimore in December 2021.

Despite two late interceptions, this was far and away the Packers' best performance through the air in 2023 and Love’s most productive day as a pro.

The stat line will show that he threw two interceptions. One of those was a desperation pass on the final play of the game.

Dontayvion Wicks, Jayden Reed, Luke Musgrave and Romeo Doubs all made big plays for the offense.

Jayden Reed catches a 36-yard touchdown / Charles LeClaire USA Today

They are still leaving points on the field. They still miss too many simple things. But the 2023 season is supposed to be about whether or not the offense is making progress.

After last week's performance, and this week's improvement, it's hard to argue the passing game is not showing signs of life. 

Grade: B 

Rush Offense

AJ Dillon continues to look like he's turning a corner. He had a 40-yard burst, which is far and away his biggest run of the season. He finished the day with 70 yards.

Aaron Jones had a tough day. He had two drops in the passing game, and a critical error on the final drive of the game when he ran to the middle of the field and wasted precious seconds. He finished with 13 carries for 35 yards.

If you take away Dillon's 40-yard-run, the Packers had 22 carries for 65 yards. That's a far cry from last week's game, when they ran for more than 180 yards.

The consistency with the ground game just hasn't been there. Sunday’s game was another example.

Grade: C

Pass Defense

With Jaire Alexander on the shelf again, the Packers were perilously thin in the secondary.

Innis Gaines was signed from the practice squad on Saturday to give them some more depth. Carrington Valentine went from afterthought to covering the top receivers for the Steelers.

However, the Steelers’ duo of Diontae Johnson and George Pickens was held in check. Valentine, Corey Ballentine and Keisean Nixon were solid enough in coverage. Kenny Pickett threw for just 126 yards.

That's a big accomplishment considering who was in Green Bay's secondary.

Perhaps it's related to the run defense, which...

Grade: B+

Rush Defense

Defensive coordinator Joe Barry joked earlier in the week that he had taken a lot of grief about the Packers’ porous run defense.

The past two games, his defense held up well. Minnesota and Los Angeles did not have much of a ground game to speak of, leading to hopes that the Packers' typically putrid run defense had found its footing.

They had a good opportunity to extend that streak when facing the Steelers.

Through eight games, Najee Harris hadn’t rushed for more than 71 yards in a game. He was averaging 3.8 yards per carry.

Jaylen Warren runs through the Packers' secondary  :: Photo by Charles LeClaire/USA Today Sports Images

The duo of Harris and Jaylen Warren gashed the Packers on the first two drives. Each scored a touchdown.

Warren rushed for 101 yards. He was over 7 yards per carry until the final drive of the game, when the Steelers were trying to run out the clock. Harris rushed for 82 yards with a 5.1-yard average.

They combined for 183 yards o. For the third time this season, the Packers allowed more than 200 rushing yards.

The Packers had struggled against teams like Atlanta and Detroit earlier in the season, but it was at least sensible in the fact that those two teams run the ball well.

The Steelers don't.

That didn't seem to matter.

It's back to the drawing board for this group.

Grade: F 

Special Teams

The special teams were a perfect definition of a mixed bag on Sunday. Anders Carlson nearly had the opening kickoff roll out of bounds. His next kickoff did roll out of bounds.

Carlson had an extra point blocked that would loom large later in the game, as well.

Calvin Austin had an explosive return against the Green Bay coverage units, and Jayden Reed muffed a punt that he was able to recover.

The good part was that Keisean Nixon rediscovered his All-Pro form from 2022. Nixon returned five kicks for 139 yards, including one past midfield.

That was a bright spot and saves the team from a much lower grade that the rest of the crew would have earned.

Grade: C-

Coaching

Coach Matt LaFleur did a good job of rolling with the punches in a tough road environment.

His team has appeared overwhelmed at times in tough road environments, but Sunday was not that day.

He should have won a game-changing challenge with Kenny Pickett's backward pass in question.

Joe Barry and his defense played far too many light boxes against a Steelers offense that set the tone early that they wanted to run the ball early and often.

If their goal was to make Kenny Pickett beat them, they did a poor job of that. If that wasn't their goal, it should have been.

Special teams gets a mark here, as well, for Josiah Deguara missing a block on a PAT. That feels like an issue that's plagued the Packers for the entirety of LaFleur's tenure. It's an inexcusable mistake that should not happen under someone as decorated and respected as Rich Bisaccia.

To sum things up, LaFleur did well. His assistants? Not so much.

Grade: C-

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