Green Bay Packers: In their Week 10 matchup, Jordan Love can pull off a feat that neither Aaron Rodgers nor Brett Favre could.
With a victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, the 3-5 Green Bay Packers hope to re-enter the NFC Playoff picture. That’s a tall order, for sure. In his podcast, “Go Dads Go with Gilbert Brown,” Gilbert Brown said that visiting teams find Pittsburgh to be an extremely difficult place to play.
Even though the Steelers’ offence is, to put it bluntly, not very good and they are expected to be missing three-time First Team All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, their defence has helped them to a 5-3 record thus far, including a 20-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans in Week Nine.
Naturally, TJ Watt, the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and a former Wisconsin Badgers linebacker with 9.5 sacks this season, leads the Steelers defence. The offensive line will undoubtedly face significant challenges.
Though no Green Bay team has done this since Bart Starr’s final season as starting quarterback, if they are able to limit Watt’s pass rush and if the offence performs as it did in the second half against the Los Angeles Rams (after losing two fumbles early), then Jordan Love and his team can accomplish the following:
Defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers.
When Aaron Rodgers played for the Green Bay Packers, he was 0-1 away from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Naturally, all Packers supporters recall that Rodgers and the team defeated the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. But over his career, Rodgers met Pittsburgh just twice in the regular season, going down 1-0 each time. In his lone road game against them, he was defeated.
That December 20, 2009, game took place. Pittsburgh was 6-7 going into the game, while Green Bay was 9-4. Even though Rodgers had a passer rating of 101.3, he did not perform terribly; rather, his completion rate was far lower than 60%. 26 out of 38 throws were completed by him for 383 yards and three touchdowns.
The Steelers offence, led by Aaron Rodgers, had seized a 36-30 lead late in the fourth quarter, but Green Bay’s defence was unable to stop them. On the game’s last play, Mike Wallace caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to give Pittsburgh a 37-36 victory.
When Brett Favre was the quarterback, the Green Bay Packers had a 1-1 record when playing the Pittsburgh Steelers away from home.
The first game Favre ever started for the Packers was a 17-3 victory at home against the Steelers. Regretfully, in his many years as the starting quarterback for the Packers, he only managed one more victory and a 2-2 record versus the Steelers. In addition, he had a 2-3 career record versus the Minnesota Vikings after losing a game on the road in Pittsburgh while starting at quarterback.
On November 9, 1998, Favre began the Packers’ lone away game against the Steelers. With 22 of 39 throw attempts completed (56.4%) for 234 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception, Favre did not perform very well.
Similar to the 2023 squad, Green Bay had trouble in the first half and allowed the Steelers to lead 27-0 at the break. Although the Packers shut out Pittsburgh for the remainder of the game and scored 20 points in the second half, their 27-20 loss was not as close as it appeared on paper.
Raymont Harris’ two-yard rush was the only touchdown the offence managed to score. Their other touchdown came via an 88-yard fumble return by Keith McKenzie.
What Does All of This Mean for the Green Bay Packers in 2023 and Jordan Love?
It means nothing at all, save from creating a small piece of history. The Packers of 2023 are in no way similar to the teams from 1998—who were coming off of consecutive Super Bowl appearances—or 2009. They have significantly less experience and are much younger.
Still, it serves as a helpful reminder of how tough it is to win away from home in a place like Pittsburgh. While wearing a Packers uniform, Rodgers and Favre were only given one chance each, and they were unable to convert it.
And the last victory Green Bay had in Pittsburgh was the last one Bart Starr had as the starting quarterback for the Packers? As Dusty Evely describes in this thread, it was an absolute slugfest:
Investigating the thread would reveal that Starr completed an astounding 43.8% of his passes during that victory.
Since 1935, the Packers’ all-time road record in Pittsburgh is a meagre 7-8. They have not won at the Steel City in five games, a losing skid that extends back to 1980.
