Packers, Steelers Among Most Disciplined Teams

The Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers rank highly in The 33rd Team’s Discipline Index.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers will feature two teams that likely won’t beat each other.

The 33rd Team’s Discipline Index combines penalties, penalty yardage and turnovers on a per-game basis in order to show which teams are able to play the most mistake-free football.

The Steelers are eighth and the Packers are ninth.

With 17 penalties, Green Bay enters Week 4 tied for seventh for fewest penalties. However, the Packers are in the middle of the pack with 170 penalty yards. That number more than doubled last week against San Francisco, with seven infractions resulting in 87 penalty yards. Cornerback Eric Stokes was guilty of a 35-yard interference call, left tackle Yosh Nijman was guilty of a 15-yard facemask and cornerback Jaire Alexander was tagged with a 15-yard penalty for roughing the passer.

While former coach Mike McCarthy didn’t necessarily frown on penalties, separating mental errors from what he called “combative penalties,” current coach Matt LaFleur doesn’t like penalties at all.

“We coach to not put yourself in a position to get a penalty,” LaFleur said last week. “From an offensive perspective, it’s hard when you get behind the sticks and you’re in those get-back-on-track situations. So, that is certainly something that we’re always stressing. Mo’s stressing it on special teams and then defensively, the same thing with Joe Barry and his staff. It takes a lot of discipline to play the right way and, thankfully, knock on wood, our guys have done a pretty good job of that.”

The third leg to the Discipline Index is turnovers. Green Bay had three giveaways in the opener against New Orleans but none since. It enters this game tied for 11th with those three turnovers.

Turnovers will be key for the Steelers, coach Mike Tomlin said this week.

“We've lost the turnover battle the last couple of weeks and that's one of the reasons why we haven't played the way we would like, at least in terms of the desired outcome,” he said. “We didn't turn the ball over in [the Week 1 victory at] Buffalo, for instance. You can’t go to Green Bay anticipating turning the ball over and being in it. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers don't turn the ball over. They’ve turned the ball over three times this year in one game, and you saw the outcome of that game. They haven't turned it over since. They only had nine turnovers in 2020 and that's why they were one of those groups that was there to the very end.”

Two undefeated teams, the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina Panthers, are first and fourth, respectively. The winless Indianapolis Colts are second. Another winless team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, is last.