Snap Counts, Stud, Dud and Defining Play From Packers’ Victory at Steelers

The Green Bay Packers rallied past the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night. Here is our breakdown of the snap counts, plus one stud, one dud and the defining play of the game.

Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft (85) fights past Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Chuck Clark for a touchdown. | Michael Longo / For USA Today Network-PA / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 35-25 on Sunday night. Here’s the stud, dud and defining play along with an analysis of the snap counts.

Packers Snaps on Offense

The Packers played 64 snaps on offense.

Quarterback: Jordan Love has played all 445 snaps this season. He threw for 214 yards in the second half alone; counterpart Aaron Rodgers threw for 219 total.

Running backs: The Packers rode the hot hand in the backfield. For the season, Josh Jacobs has played 68.5 percent of the offensive snaps and gotten about three snaps for every one for Emanuel Wilson. With Wilson the more effective back on Sunday, the margin was 34 for Jacobs and 27 for Wilson (and three for Chris Brooks).

Wilson was excellent with 11 carries for 61 yards and three catches for 26 yards.

Receivers: Christian Watson made his season debut following last year’s torn ACL. Apparently the easing-into-the-action process happened at practice, with Watson playing 36 snaps. He led the receivers in catches (four) and yards (85).

“I feel good. I’m excited to just have some regular game soreness,” he said. “My No. 1 goal before I went out there and played was just feel like I normally do. Have no worries about any past injuries and stuff like that. I think that’s what I did and that’s how I feel. I’m sore because I played the game but I’m not thinking about the knee or anything. I was feeling really good.”

Romeo Doubs, as usual, led the way with 51 snaps. He caught 3-of-6 passes for 44 yards, with two incompletions that could be judged as drops by a tough grader. Matthew Golden played 42 mostly irrelevant snaps with three catches for 4 yards.

With Dontayvion Wicks (calf) inactive, Malik Heath played 21 snaps, Savion Williams played 12 and Bo Melton was given one. Heath (three catches for 29 yards and his usual physicality as a blocker) and Williams (his first career touchdown) made their snaps count.

Tight ends: Tucker Kraft played 59 snaps. Of the five snaps he missed, one was to be evaluated for a concussion. He had one of the best games by any tight end this season and one of the best games by any tight end in Packers history. The rest of the nation got to see what’s been apparent in Green Bay for the last year.

Two years ago, Luke Musgrave was the leading man at tight end when the Packers visited Pittsburgh. Not anymore. John FitzPatrick played 22 snaps to Musgrave’s 12.

Offensive line: Center Elgton Jenkins and left guard Aaron Banks played all 64 snaps, right tackle Zach Tom played 63 and left tackle Rasheed Walker played 62. The rotation at right guard worked out in Sean Rhyan’s favor; he out-snapped Jordan Morgan 35 to 29. Anthony Belton replaced Walker and Darian Kinnard replaced Tom.

Packers Snaps on Defense

Green Bay Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine (24) breaks up a pass intended for Pittsburgh Steelers receiver DK Metcalf. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The Packers played 63 snaps on defense.

Defensive ends: Micah Parsons is a marvel. He is full speed ahead at all times but leads the unit every week in snaps. On Sunday, it was 55, or 87 percent. Rashan Gary played 43. With Lukas Van Ness inactive again, Kingsley Enagbare played 29 snaps and rookie Barryn Sorrell played 13.

Gary had two sacks and four pressures, Parsons had one sack and four pressures and Enagbare had his weekly punishing tackle for loss.

Defensive tackles: Devonte Wyatt returned from a two-game absence. He got eased into the action, a bit. Colby Wooden led the unit with 38 snaps, Karl Brooks played 37 and Wyatt played 34. That’s a lot of balance. They carried the load. Nazir Stackhouse played five snaps and Warren Brinson was inactive for the fifth time.

Wooden had his fourth tackle for loss of the season while Wyatt had two tackles.

Linebackers: Quay Walker played every snap and Edgerrin Cooper played all but one. Their speed is evident every game. After 1.5 sacks last week, Walker broke up two passes. Cooper’s forced fumble essentially sealed the game. Isaiah McDuffie played 25 snaps. Ty’Ron Hopper played one snap on defense and broke up a two-point pass in the final moments.

Cornerbacks: This week, the coaches gave Nate Hobbs a vote of confidence. On Sunday, they gave him a seat on the bench. Carrington Valentine replaced Hobbs and played a unit-high 62 snaps. That was one more than Keisean Nixon. Hobbs, meanwhile, played only four.

Nixon broke up one pass; he’s second in the NFL with 11. Valentine broke up one pass, too; he’s a bit of a high-wire act but he knows how to find the ball.

Safeties: Xavier McKinney and Walker were the only players on defense who went the distance. After going with Evan Williams as the other safety and Javon Bullard as the slot for most of the season, they both wound up playing 49 snaps.

McKinney had a team-high seven tackles, including an open field stop on D.K. Metcalf, who might have gone the distance after breaking a tackle attempt by Williams.

Packers Stud vs. Steelers

By our count, 251 of Jordan Love’s 360 passing yards came after the catch. That means tight end Tucker Kraft had more yards after the catch (127) than Love had air yards (109).

Tucker Kraft YAC, 3.0 pic.twitter.com/Q5SwaJTFXE

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 27, 2025

Kraft was the dominant force. According to Next Gen Stats, Kraft had 131 YAC. That was the third-most YAC by any tight end since 2016. He simply refuses to be tackled by the first defender. On the 59-yard catch that changed the game to start the third quarter, watching safety Juan Thornhill trying to tackle Kraft in the open field was like watching a moth continually bouncing off a bright light.

Also according to Next Gen, all 143 yards came vs. man coverage, the most by a tight end since the 49ers’ George Kittle in 2018.

Kraft is up to 30 catches for 469 yards and six touchdowns. That puts him on pace for 73 receptions for 1,139 yards for 15 touchdowns.

Packers Dud vs. Steelers

The Packers are never buyers at the trade deadline, but they need to do better at cornerback. While Keisean Nixon added an 11th pass breakup this season – he had 15 in 51 games his first three seasons in Green Bay – he was victimized for 6-of-7 passing for 78 yards and one touchdown, according to Next Gen Stats. Plus, he was flagged twice for 26 yards and muffed a punt.

Nixon is having a good season overall and certainly isn’t the team’s biggest issue. Sunday night’s performance, however, was not a good one.

Defining Play of Packers-Steelers

Sometimes, it’s hard to pick the defining play. Other times, it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Trailing 16-7 early in the third quarter, the Packers faced a third-and-5. They were 0-for-4 on third down in the first half and looked to be on their way to 0-for-5 when Patrick Queen beat Josh Jacobs in blitz protection and hit quarterback Jordan Love as he threw the ball. Instead of a laser to Kraft for the first down, the ball fluttered in the air.

Kraft muscled away from safety DeShon Elliott to make the catch, then ran through the Steelers’ secondary like a grizzly bear being chased by a couple of squirrels.

“As I was throwing it, I got hit,” Love said. “Obviously, I had no idea where the ball even went. I was hoping that nothing bad happened, and Tuck made a great play, obviously, to come back for the ball and then to get that YAC. It’s a big-time play.”

The 59-yard gain included 42 yards after the catch and set up the Packers for a critical touchdown.

“I thought their tight end was significant,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “His run after (catch), we talked about it during the week. We didn't do a good enough job minimizing that. That probably was the catalyst of it. That field-flipping play on third down, we laid the ball up to him (and) he made a catch and run. I thought it was a significant component of the texture of the second half.”