The Green Bay Packers came into Acrisure Stadium and dealt the Steelers a 35 to 25 loss on Sunday Night Football. But don’t let the 10 point difference fool you:

• Green Bay beat Pittsburgh in every sense of the word.

This is the Steelers second loss in as many outings. The Bengals loss, however worrisome, came with some potentially mitigating caveats as it happened on the road on a Thursday night.

No similar apology exists in the wake of the loss to the Packers:  The 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers are simply playing piss poor football of late.

Rashan Gary sacks Aaron Rodgers. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review

First Half Phantasm

Any Steelers fan tuning into the game with just under 6 minutes remaining in the second quarter had to have been feeling good. Chris Boswell had just kicked his third field goal of the night, a 48-yarder.

The defense forced a Green Bay 3 and out, featuring Jordan Love throwing to Tucker Kraft short on a 3rd and 3. Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell went to work, ripping off double-digit carries. Calvin Austin, in his return to action, caught a pass and drew a pass interference call.

After Warren burned off a bit more clock, Aaron Rodgers hit D.K. Metcalf twice – first for 10 yards. His second pass only went 2 yards but it was for a touchdown that put the Steelers up 16 to 7 going into the locker room.

The Steelers were getting the ball to start the second half. Things looked good. But as Obi Wan Kenobi advised Luke Skywalker in the summer of ’77:

Cosmetically, a 9 point lead looked nice going into halftime, but in reality it covered up several Steelers flaws that defined this game.

On their first drive the Steelers marched right down the 23, where D.K. Metcalf penalty dropped them back 10 yards. An incompletion and a sack later and Boswell was hitting a 56 yarder. On their next drive  Pat Freiermuth penalty turned 2 and 8 into 2 and 13. Freiermuth made up for it with a 5 yard pass, but by then it was 4th down and on came Corliss Waitman.

Next time around, on third down Aaron Rodgers went for all the marbles on 3rd and three – he placed the ball perfectly, but Carrington Valentine came up with a picture-perfect pass defense in the end zone, and it was Boswell from 50 for 3 more.

The next time they got the ball, the Steelers reached the Packers’ 30 with just six plays. But a toss to Jaylen Warren failed, costing them 5 yards, and even though they got 11 more on their next two plays, they actually needed 15, so it was Boswell from 48 for another three.

Things happen in football games. Sometimes things go wrong and you must settle for three. Boswell’s second field goal is a good example – you try for 7, you fail, so you accept 3. Sometimes slipups cost you a chance for 7 so you take 3.

But Arthur Smith’s offense left 12 points on the field on a night when the Steelers needed every point they could put on the scoreboard.

Flag Football Arrives @ Acrisure Stadium

When the history of the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers is written, we probably will forget that the defense authored a strong 30 minutes to open against the Packers.

It wasn’t a shutdown performance. T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig has been quiet. But forcing 3 punts against and two field goal attempts against a legitimate NFC contender – without sniffing a sack or hauling in an interception represents winning football.

• Yet, like all good love stories, the ending is foreshadowed just before intermission.

After the Steelers touchdown, Jordan Love got the ball with only 34 seconds and two time outs. He got the Packers to their own 47 where T.J. Watt gave them some help with a face mask. That extra 15 yards allowed the Packers to attempt an field goal that they’d missed.

The series didn’t put three points on the board for the Packers, but it did allow Jordan Love to complete 3 straight passes – and it wouldn’t be until 5:40 remained in the 4th quarter that another one of Love’s balls would fall to the ground. (And that includes a successful 2-point conversion pass, which isn’t an official stat.)

Clearly, something was clicking for Jordan Love at Acrisure.

Jordan Love with the chuck and duck that Tucker Kraft turns into a 59 yard gain pic.twitter.com/6yNLXQBQoD

— Packerfan Total Access- Clayton (@packers_access) October 27, 2025

Perhaps the one time the Steelers pass rush got to him, Love lobbed a perfectly arched moonball to Tucker Kraft and in the process broke the back of the Steelers defense.

They never recovered.

From there on out, just as Joe Flacco had done a week ago, Jordan Love looked like he was playing against the Loyola Maryland Intramural Flag Football All Stars instead of the NFL’s highest paid defense.

Tucker Kraft torches the Steelers. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review

The Steelers defense couldn’t stop Green Bay’s receivers from catching the ball. After the catch they struggled to tackle Packer receivers. Through it all, they barely laid a glove on Love.

• The Packers put points on the board on all five of their second half possessions.

The Steelers offense could only counter with one non-garbage time field goal – a 56 yarder at that – while squandering away their other possessions with sacks, penalties and turn overs.

The Steelers Are Broken. Can Mike Tomlin Put Together the Pieces?

For the second straight week the Steelers once proud defense was humiliated on national TV.

• The Steelers will feel the sting of this for some time to come – literally.

The Steelers defense struggled early in the season, but improved remarkably when DeShon Elliott returned to the lineup. Elliott was injured and taken from the game on the defense’s third play from scrimmage in the second half.

• The fact that things fell apart after that is no coincidence.

Two weeks can be a lifetime in the National Football league. With victories over the Patriots, Vikings and Browns it seemed like the new talent Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan assembled in the off season was coming together.

• The losses to the Bengals and the Packers reveal things are coming apart in Pittsburgh.

Mike Tomlin needs to find a way to put them back together. Fast. Because the AFC leading Indianapolis Colts arrive next at Acrisure….

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