Jordan Love, Packers Win Historic Matchup Against Aaron Rodgers, Steelers

In 1970, with Bart Starr at quarterback, the Green Bay Packers went on the road and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. Over more than 50 years, Brett Favre failed to win at Pittsburgh. Aaron Rodgers failed to win at Pittsburgh.

Jordan Love won at Pittsburgh – by beating Rodgers.

The Packers rode Love, Tucker Kraft and a dominant second half to a huge 35-25 victory over the Steelers on Sunday night. Green Bay improved to 5-1-1 by winning its third consecutive game and snapping a six-game losing streak at Pittsburgh.

After the game, Love and Rodgers embraced.

The Packers trailed 16-7 at halftime. “We’ve got to be aggressive and score touchdowns,” coach Matt LaFleur told NBC’s Melissa Stark said at halftime.

Love led them to three consecutive touchdown drives and a field goal to turn a two-score deficit into a two-score lead.

“That was a tale of two halves right there,” LaFleur said after the game. “A lot of credit to Pittsburgh for the first half and I thought our guys, the greatest thing I saw from our guys was I didn’t see any panic. They stayed together and we cleaned up some things that we didn’t do in the first half and just made plays. So, I’m really excited for our guys now we got to take it, learn from it, and move on.”

Love was incredible in joining Rodgers and Drew Brees as the only quarterbacks with a passer rating of at least 100 with at least two passing touchdowns in five consecutive Sunday night games. Buoyed by a streak of 20 consecutive completions, Love was 29-of-37 passing for 360 yards and three touchdowns, good for a 134.2 rating.

Kraft caught seven passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns, with almost all of it coming after the catch in showing his dominance to a national television audience. In his return from a torn ACL, Christian Watson caught four passes for 85 yards.

Rodgers, facing the team for whom he started for 15 seasons, had a chance to become the fifth quarterback in NFL history to have beaten every team. He was excellent in the first half but finished 24-of-36 for 219 yards and two touchdowns as Pittsburgh fell to 4-3 with a second consecutive loss.

Before Pittsburgh’s final drive, Kraft had almost as many receiving yards as Rodgers had passing yards (147).

Love and Kraft combined for the biggest play of the game.

Trailing 16-7 at halftime, the Packers needed a break. They got two. On third-and-8, Rodgers got Devonte Wyatt to jump offside. Everyone saw it – other than the officials. So, the Steelers punted.

Moments later, the Packers faced third-and-5. With blitzing linebacker Patrick Queen in his face, Love was hit while passing and the ball floated in the direction of Kraft. Kraft shoved safety DeShon Elliott out of the way, caught the pass, broke a tackle and rumbled for 59 yards that included 42 after the catch.

“I had no idea where the ball even went,” Love said.

After Kraft converted with a fourth-and-1 catch, Savion Williams caught a pass in the flat and picked up blocks from Chris Brooks and Matthew Golden for the touchdown, which cut the margin to 16-14.

After Chris Boswell drilled a 56-yard field goal, Love and the Packers were on the move again. On third-and-7 from Pittsburgh’s 40, Love extended the play to his right and floated a pass to Watson for 33. It was an incredible pass that floated over safety Juan Thornhill.

Moments later, the Packers had taken the lead. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Watson had the key block and Jacobs ran through Thornhill’s diving tackle attempt for the go-ahead touchdown. The Packers went for two, with Love hitting Romeo Doubs to give Green Bay a 22-19 lead.

Green Bay led 454-295 in total yards. After starting 0-for-4 on third down, it went 5-of-8. The Steelers did not sack Love but the Packers got to Rodgers three times, including two by Rashan Gary.

“When we came into the locker room at halftime, the message was we just weren’t finishing,” Love said. “We weren’t executing our plays. We weren’t locked in on doing everybody’s one-eleventh. There’s plays to be made, and I think we just weren’t executing those and we weren’t able to stay on the field.

“So, I think the first half went by really fast for us as an offense. We had one scoring drive. So, I think the message was just do your job, lock in, execute plays and stay on the field. We did that.”

The Packers played a terrible first half, outclassed in every which way imaginable in trailing 16-7 at halftime.

The Packers couldn’t move the chains, going 0-for-4 on third down.

They couldn’t stop the run and they couldn’t run the ball, with Pittsburgh holding an 81-19 edge.

They couldn’t stop Rodgers, who was 11-of-15 for 102 yards and one touchdown in the first half.

“Bottom line is we’re making too many penalties and offensively we’re not throwing and catching well enough,” LaFleur told Stark at halftime.

Pittsburgh struck first on Chris Boswell’s 56-yard field goal. The Packers answered, with Love’s 16-yard touchdown pass to Kraft, who turned a pass that was caught 1 yard behind the line of scrimmage into six points because he broke two tackles on the way to the end zone.

That was that, though. Boswell answered with a 50-yard field goal, and the Packers went three-and-out. Boswell added a 48-yard field goal and the Packers went three-and-out again, this time on Kraft’s third-and-3 drop.

Pittsburgh extended its lead to 16-7. Jaylen Warren took two tosses to the left for a combined gain of 26. One play later, Kenneth Gainwell bounced a run to the right around Micah Parsons for 14. The Packers should have gotten off the field on Edgerrin Cooper’s third-and-9 blitz, which leveled Rodgers, but Keisean Nixon didn’t turn around on Rodgers’ downfield pass and was flagged for interference, a 21-yard penalty. Moments later, Rodgers hit D.K. Metcalf for a 2-yard touchdown.

With the Steelers poised to get the ball to start the second half, the Packers needed something. Love drove them into position to make it a one-score game, highlighted by a 19-yard catch by Watson, but McManus’ 44-yard field goal was wide left.

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