Two of the National Football League’s proudest franchises meet Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field as the Green Bay Packers (2-1) welcome the Pittsburgh Steelers (1-2). It kicks off at 3:25 PM CDT.
The Packers of course, are the league’s most decorated organization with 13 championships, the only team win three consecutive titles (twice) with four Super Bowl trophies named after their legendary coach Vince Lombardi. With five championships in a seven year span, they were the “Team of the 60’s.”
Then there’s the Steelers. After decades of futility, Pittsburgh finally built it’s own dynasty the following decade. Under Head Coach Chuck Noll, the Steelers won four Super Bowl titles in a six year span, earning them the “Team of the 70’s”. Guided by the Rooney family, the Steelers knew how to stick with a good thing. Over the last 53 years, they’ve had only three head coaches, Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin, entering his 14th year at the helm. Pittsburgh has made 31 playoff appearances since 1972 and have captured six Lombardi trophies.
Sunday marks only the 35th meeting between the franchises in regular season play. Green Bay leads the series 18-16. The lone post-season meeting was Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, Texas in February of 2011, of course won by the Packers 31-25 for their 13th and most recent championship.
Before diving into the matchup, there’s plenty of late week medical news to catch up on.
Za’Darius Smith is the headliner. The NFL Network was first to report on Friday the veteran linebacker underwent back surgery earlier this week to correct an issue that plagued him since he arrived in Green Bay at the start of training camp. Smith, moved to injured reserve/designated for return two weeks ago, is now out indefinitely. It’s quite possible the team’s top pass rusher will not be back at all in 2021 and on the final year of a large, restructured contract, may have played his final game with the Packers in the 2020 NFC Championship. Smith was placed on the physically unable to perform list upon his arrival to camp and missed the first three weeks of practice. He came off the list and practiced one day before the back issue forced him back to the sidelines. The team’s medical staff must have believed Smith was going to recover on his own or you would think the surgical procedure would have been ordered in July.
Wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling is also going on the shelf for a while. He pulled a hamstring late Sunday night in the victory over the San Francisco 49ers. He didn’t practice all week and on Friday was ruled out for the Pittsburgh game. Late Friday afternoon, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported MVS is going to be placed on the injured reserve/designated to return list to allow enough time for the hamstring to fully heal. More often than not, long striding speed receivers can be plagued by recurring hamstring pulls when not sufficiently recovered. Valdes-Scantling will now miss a minimum of three weeks.
Left tackle Elgton Jenkins was listed as doubtful for Sunday with an ankle injury that kept him out of the 49ers game. Kevin King is also doubtful because of his mysterious concussion that was diagnosed Monday upon the team’s return to Green Bay. He told the medical staff he was feeling ill when they arrived in Santa Clara and was a late scratch for the game.
Three players are questionable including defensive tackle Jack Heflin who suffered an ankle injury at practice Thursday. Vernon Scott has yet to play this year with a hamstring injury but did practice on a limited basis this week and linebacker Krys Barnes made it out of the concussion protocol to practice on a limited basis.
Now to the ballgame.
When the Packers have the ball.
A young offensive line has been asked to grow up very quickly. Yosh Nijman is in line for his second straight start at left tackle, Jon Runyan will make his second career start at left guard, center Josh Myers and right guard Royce Newman, both rookies, are four games into their careers. Thank heavens for Billy Turner at right tackle. Head Coach Matt LaFleur called Turner, “our rock” on Thursday. With a game plan that offered the green line help with backs and tight ends chipping a dangerous San Francisco front four a week ago, look for more of the same against the likes of T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward. Defensive coordinator Keith Butler, cut from the Dick LeBeau fire zone blitz cloth, will complicate matters even more with blitzes from linebackers Devin Bush Jr., Alex Highsmith and Joe Schobert.
Aaron Rodgers let it go quickly last week with strategic deep shots early. It may be a quick rhythm passing attack again, paying close attention to a gambling Minkah Fitzpatrick at safety. He piled up plenty of takeaways taking chances after being acquired from the Miami Dolphins last year.
A heavy dose of Aaron Jones can also slow down the pressure. When he hits 20 touches with the run and pass, good results are usually the case. A.J. Dillon showed up on the injury report late in the week with a sore back. While not given a designation, meaning he’s good to go, you wonder how long he can go in reserve.
Without MVS stretching the secondary, under routes with the tight ends might be a viable option with winnable matchups.
The Packer offense is in for another fist fight.
When the Steelers have the ball.
It’s been a floundering couple of weeks for Pittsburgh with the ball in their hands. They played a solid second half in a season opening surprise over Buffalo, but poor blocking and penalties bogged down play in back to back losses to the Raiders and Bengals.
Ben Roethlisberger is showing his age at 39, more reluctant to escape trouble and as a result, he’s been sacked eight times and hit 17 more so far. He has above average weapons in JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool although he’s questionable with a hamstring issue of his own. Most of the offense flows through number one draft pick Najee Harris, the 230 pound banger from Alabama. He’s where the Packers must start. A sub-par offensive line hasn’t opened a lot of holes for Harris but he’ll get yards on his own, averaging only 3.1 a carrry. But he leads the team with 20 receptions, topping 100 yards receiving against the Bills. Defensive coordinator Joe Barry said Thursday, “we better have a tackling plan”, for Harris, meaning square up, hang on and wait for help.
Just like the Packers, the Steelers will be without their starting left tackle. Chukwuma Okorafor is out because of a concussion. 4th round draft choice Dan Moore Jr. could make his first start. Preston Smith will be coming at him.
Keep Harris in check and force Big Ben to make plays outside the pocket should result in the Steelers continuing their struggle to score points. They average just over 16 a game and that probably won’t cut it at Lambeau.
I like the Packers. 26-17.
