Offensive burst masks defensive woes
Worse, they gave up four more big plays, three for touchdowns, which has become a troubling trend of late. Green Bay’s four touchdowns were the most allowed by the Steelers defense this season.
Backup quarterback Brett Hundley threw scoring passes of 55, 54 and 39 yards. Those are three of the seven longest touchdown passes against them this season— six of those coming in the past three games.
Add another 25-yard completion by Hundley, and he had four of the 19 longest pass plays against the Steelers this season. Before Sunday, Hundley threw two touchdowns and seven interceptions.
“Some of those things have been issues for us in multiple games,” Tomlin said, “particularly the big plays of late. So, obviously, that has to stop.”
Tackling again was part of the problem, but so too was the pass coverage as two touchdown throws were caught by receivers who were wide open — Randall Cobb (39) and Davante Adams (55).
In addition, the defense had a chance to virtually win the game without the heroics from its offense over the final 17 seconds. The Packers had a fourth-and-6 at the Steelers 12 with 2:50 left. Hundley, though, completed an 8-yard pass to Adams and rookie thirdstring back Jamaal Williams ran up the middle on the next play for a 4-yard touchdown — his second of the game after a 54-yarder on a screen pass —- that tied the score, 28-28.
“As we keep going down this road,’’ cornerback Artie Burns said, “we know how teams are coming to attack us. We can’t come in on Wednesday saying what we should have done and could have done. We just have to stop the plays and prevent them.”
The Steelers also produced no turnovers for only the second time this season, first since their 19-13 victory Oct. 15 at Kansas City.
“You can’t be minus-three in the turnover game and give yourself a chance to win,’’ Tomlin said. “You can’t give up chunks on defense and give yourself chances to win.”
Bell sets team record
Le’Veon Bell set yet another team record with his 12 receptions (for 88 yards), the most by a Steelers back. Franco Harris caught 11 in a 1982 game.
Bell has 61 receptions and is headed toward a team record for backs over a season. He already owns the top two spots with 83 catches in 2014 and 75 last season. He needs 19 catches to become the most prolific receiving back in team history. Franco Harris caught 306, Bell 288.
He also needs 19 yards to hit 1,000 rushing for the third time in three seasons, although his average per carry remains under 4 at 3.9.
Are the Steelers overusing him?
With 20 of their 24 carries (Ben Roethlisberger had three, Martavis Bryant the other) and 12 of their 33 receptions, Bell had 56.1 percent of his team’s combined carries/catches from scrimmage.
Bryant on the return
Martavis Bryant played well again and made his pitch to become their new kickoff-return man.
He caught four passes for 40 yards that included a 17yard touchdown, although he did drop one pass. He returned his first career kickoff to start the game out to the 41 for 38 yards, the longest kickoff return of the season for the Steelers.
They took advantage of it by covering the remaining 59 yards that ended in Ben Roethlisberger’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Grimble.
If Bryant can continue on his upward path, the Steelers offense could become the lethal weapon everyone expectedof it, especially with the return of JuJu Smith-Schuster,who missed the game with ahamstring injury.
Not the Patriots again
The roles of coach and player seemed to be reversed Sunday as Mike Tomlin spoke about the Steelers’ Dec. 17 game against New England as “part one” of their duel and as a prelude to part two presumably as the AFC championship game.
Bell, speaking more like a coach, preferred to take them one at a time.
“I’ll worry about the Patriots when we get there. I know we have an AFC divisional game next week with the [Cincinnati] Bengals. I know that’s going to be a tough one.
“For me, I’m going to worry about those guys first. When we get to the Patriots, I’ll talk about them then.”