Whereas he did not wish to talk about what was mentioned postgame between himself and Jordan Love, Aaron Rodgers was keen to share his feelings following Sunday night time’s loss to his former crew.
Rodgers and the Steelers loved a strong begin that led to a 16-7 halftime lead. However the Packers flipped the script within the second half, as Love led the Packers on 5 scoring drives whereas finishing 20 straight passes.
“Upset,” Rodgers mentioned afterward. “Upset I did not play higher, that we did not play higher, particularly within the second half.”
Self-discipline points, Rodgers mentioned, and third-down woes had been two of the largest points the Steelers’ offense had on Sunday night time.
Pittsburgh’s offense, which entered the weekend because the NFL’s eighth-ranked unit on third down, was simply 1 of 10 on changing in these conditions Sunday night time.
The Steelers’ early incapability to transform on third down prevented them from taking a good greater halftime lead as they needed to accept three Chris Boswell subject objectives. Rodgers attributed a few of the third down points to getting behind the sticks early with both destructive performs or penalties. He additionally mentioned he may have been extra correct on possession downs.
The Steelers compounded the difficulty with a number of mindless penalties, particularly DK Metcalf’s eye poke of Packers linebacker Quay Walker that price the Steelers 15 yards.
“It isn’t our type of enterprise, and we will not dwell like that,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin mentioned of his crew’s pointless penalties.
Rodgers, who completed the night time with 219 yards and two touchdowns on 24 of 36 passing, pointed to the beginning of the second half as a key turning level within the sport.
Pittsburgh obtained the ball to start out the second half however was compelled to punt after it appeared that the Packers’ protection obtained away with an offsides that if penalized would have given the Steelers a third-and-3 scenario. As an alternative, the Packers obtained the ball and shortly stole the sport’s momentum when Love hit Tucker Kraft on a 59-yard completion that arrange the primary of Inexperienced Bay’s 4 second-half touchdowns.
Talking of Love, Rodgers was clearly impressed with what he was on Sunday night time. Love, who grew to become the primary Packers quarterback since Brett Favre again in 2007 to finish 20 straight passes in a sport, completed the night time with 360 yards and three touchdowns on 29 of 37 passing.
“He performed implausible,” Rodgers mentioned. “He is had a very nice season. He is been actually environment friendly with the soccer. He is opportunistic, although I felt like he was very affected person tonight. They took the run options. He took the examine downs, moved within the pocket effectively. Thought he performed very well.”
With regard to his feelings going up towards his former crew, Rodgers mentioned that it will have been significantly totally different had Sunday night time’s sport been performed at Lambeau Area. Satirically, there have been moments the place it seemed like the sport was being performed in Inexperienced Bay, as “Go Pack, Go!” chants could possibly be heard all through the sport and particularly within the second half.
“I’ve heard that chant for 18 years,” Rodgers mentioned. “Packer followers journey very well. First time shortly I’ve used silent rely for a house sport. That is a credit score to these Packers followers.”
Rodgers took time this previous week to mirror on his embellished profession with the Packers. However after Sunday’s sport, although, the 41-year-old, four-time league MVP was centered on his present crew and what they should do amid a two-game shedding streak and the 7-1 Colts coming to city subsequent Sunday.
“Nicely, simply an trustworthy evaluation,” he mentioned. “I feel, setting emotions apart and being OK with criticism, any place, any participant, and being trustworthy about what we have to do to enhance. After which, we will not beat ourselves.
“I feel within the three losses, there’s been occasions the place we have had alternatives and we have damage ourselves with both turnovers or simply destructive performs. So we have got to chop these out. We have gotta get on the identical web page on each offense and protection, and preserve the religion.”
