GREEN BAY, Wis. -- When the Packers started slowly a few years ago, quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a simple message for fans, "Relax."
Ben Roethlisberger isn't ready to steal that phrase and make it his own just yet, but he did have a message for his teammates after the team's 1-2 start to this season. "Just don't quit."
It probably didn't need to be said, but Roethlisberger isn't about to give up on the 2021 season with 14 games remaining. Neither are the Steelers.
They'll take the next step in their journey Sunday when they travel to Green Bay to face Rodgers and the Packers (2-1) at Lambeau Field.
The Packers found themselves in a very similar spot to the Steelers in 2014 when Rodgers made his famous statement to fans. They had lost two of their first three games, including one to a team they regularly beat up on, the Lions, 19-7, in Week 3.
GETTY
Mike Tomlin and the Steelers look to avoid a three-game losing streak.
The offense was struggling. But Green Bay righted the ship, won 12 of its final 14 games and reached the NFC Championship before losing to the Seahawks.
Injuries and ineffectiveness on the offensive line have left the Steelers in the same place this season. They've beaten the best team on their schedule -- the Bills -- but lost to the Raiders and division rival Bengals, a team they typically own.
They'll try to avoid a three-game losing streak for the second time in their past eight games.
But at least they're getting more healthy.
The team knew an offensive line with four new starters would be an issue that would need to be worked through, but it was counting on a shutdown defense -- or at least one that is as close to that as can be in today's NFL -- to help carry the load while the offense gained its footing. Injuries after the team's 23-16 win at Buffalo, however, crippled the defense, leaving the Steelers vulnerable against the Raiders and Bengals in subsequent games.
Sunday, however, the Steelers will get T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith back on the field, giving them their bookend pass-rushing outside linebackers. Last week, they got inside linebacker Devin Bush and cornerback Joe Haden back.
Outside of nose tackle Tyson Alualu, who suffered a broken ankle in Week 2, the Steelers will have the defense back on the field that put the clamps on the Bills' outstanding offense in Week 1.
"It's time to bounce back," said defensive lineman Cam Heyward. "I think we've been in both of these games and it's come down to execution errors and mistakes on our end. Let's see what we can learn from it. Let's see if we can get just get a 'W' this week."
The Packers know they're facing a proud and dangerous Steelers team that is a little bit wounded right now. And wounded animals are most dangerous.
"We know we have a great team coming in there. A team that is going to be really hungry," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. "I know they haven't started the way they wanted to. I have so much respect for Mike Tomlin and what he has been able to accomplish through the course of his coaching career. No matter who is in there player-wise, they are as consistent as it gets. We'll have our work cut out for us."
The Packers have already experienced some lows and highs of their own this season. They were trounced in Week 1, 38-3, by the Saints in a game that had plenty of people scratching their heads. But they've rebounded in the two weeks since to beat the Lions and 49ers.
The Steelers, meanwhile, are still trying to gain some footing with an offense that features four rookies, including running back Najee Harris.
The Steelers are still trying to get their running game and Harris untracked, and the Packers allowed 171 yards on the ground to the Saints in Week 1, but only 67 in their win over the run-heavy 49ers last week. So, like the Steelers, they've been a little erratic, as well.
The Steelers know it's still early in the season. But they also know they can't continue to play the way they did in the month of September if they hope to play meaningful games in December and January.
Blocking better up front on offense will be critical. And that has to happen for the Steelers to have a more positive result.
"That's what this this league is about. If you're a competitor, this space is where we live," Tomlin said. "When you're up against it, you're up against it, and so I'm excited about attacking that this week with these guys."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Who: Steelers (1-2) vs. Packers (2-1)
• When: 4:25 p.m.
• Where: Lambeau Field
• Forecast: 65°, 24 percent chance of rain, 11 mph winds
• TV: KDKA, CBS (national)
• Radio: 102.5 WDVE, ESPN Pittsburgh
• Streaming: Steelers Nation Radio
• Satellite: Sirius XM 385, online 826
• Boxscore: NFL Game Center
• Media notes: Steelers | Packers
THE INJURY REPORT
Steelers: DT Carlos Davis (knee, out), OT Chuks Okorafor (concussion, out), OL Rashaad Coward (ankle, out), WR Chase Claypool (hamstring, out)
Packers: WR Marques Valdes-Scantling (hamstring, out), OL Elgton Jenkins (ankle, doubtful), CB Kevin King (concussion, doubtful), LB Krys Barnes (concussion, questionable), S Vernon Scott (hamstring, questionable), DL Jack Heflin (ankle, questionable)
THE KEY VARIABLE
The grey beards will be out in force Sunday when the Steelers play the Packers here at Lambeau Field.
On one side will be Roethlisberger. On the other, Rodgers.
Between the two, they have 35 combined years of NFL experience, 436 games played, 285 wins and over 800 career touchdown passes.
Both are in the top-10 on most of the NFL's all-time lists, and in this game, both can make a move up those lists.
Roethlisberger needs 213 passing yards to move past Dan Marino into sixth place on the league's all-time yardage list and one more touchdown pass to become the eighth player in league history to have 400 in his career.
Rodgers, who is 10th on the league's all-time yardage list with 51,894 -- 9,255 behind Roethlisberger -- needs two touchdown passes to match Marino with 420 for sixth on the all-time list and three to match Philip Rivers at 421 for fifth on the all-time list.
The Steelers would obviously like to keep him from reaching either of those in this game, but they also have a great deal of respect for him.
"I love Ben to death, but I’m just being honest,” Steelers cornerback Joe Haden said. “Ben is definitely up there, but A-Rod, he’s my … I like A-Rod more than Tom (Brady), more than Patrick Mahomes. I just like A-Rod.”
Just not this week.
Despite being in the league so long, Roethlisberger and Rodgers have only faced each other twice in their respective careers. Roethlisberger missed the Steelers' trip to Green Bay in 2005 when Rodgers was a rookie and backing up Brett Favre with a knee injury. In 2009, Roethlisberger won the fist matchup between the two, throwing a last-season touchdown pass to Mike Wallace to earn a 37-36 win at Heinz Field.
Rodgers won the rematch, 31-25, in Super Bowl XLV at the end of the 2010 season, but he has missed the past two meetings with the Steelers because of injuries of his own.
"It’s the old cliché — everyone says it’s the quarterbacks against each other, and then we’ll say, 'No, we play against the defense.' But it’s still an honor to share a stadium with one of the greatest and a guy that I admire, and a lot of people admire that has just done it at such a high level for a long time," Roethlisberger said of Rodgers. "It’s pretty cool to watch his mastery of the game. I just hope that this week our defense can hold up and maybe have something to say about it."
Rodgers appreciates the opportunity to play against Roethlisberger for what will surely be the final time, as well. Because of NFL scheduling, the two won't meet again in the regular season -- at least not as members of their current teams -- because the Steelers and Packers can't play again until 2025, unless cross-scheduling for the 17th game matches them in 2023.
Roethlisberger is likely to be retired by then, while Rodgers, who could be playing his final season in Green Bay, would be elsewhere if he's still active.
Still, Rodgers didn't need much jogging of his memory to recall the last time the two met in the regular season, even though it was over a decade ago.
"I think the only guy on the roster who was there for that (Super Bowl) is Ben," Rodgers said. "It is strange how that happened. In '13 and '17, breaking my collarbone and missing both of those games. I remember the '09 game very well. We were pretty explosive on offense. I hit Greg (Jennings) down the middle for about an 85-yard touchdown (it was actually 83 yards). I hit J.J. (James Jones) on a post late in the game to put us ahead. Big Ben took them down to beat us there right there at the end. It was a pretty good football game."
Football fans can only hope this one is as memorable.
THE HISTORY LESSON
Can an offensively challenged team go to Green Bay and beat a future Hall of Fame quarterback? Well, it's happened before.
In 2005, Roethlisberger was out with a knee injury suffered the previous week in a win at Baltimore when the Steelers rolled into Lambeau Field with Charlie Batch at quarterback.
Batch against Brett Favre would seem to be an extreme mismatch. But on this day, the 5-2 Steelers found a way despite Batch completing 9 of 16 passes for just 65 yards and an interception.
The Steelers caught the Packers off guard on their first play from scrimmage, with Antwaan Randle El taking a handoff and going 43 yards to help set up a 32-yard Jeff Reed field goal and a 3-0 lead.
ReShard Green then fumbled on Green Bay's first possession and Troy Polamalu recovered it to set up a second Reed field goal and a 6-0 lead.
The Packers drove to the Pittsburgh 21 on their next possession, but Aaron Smith stopped Samkon Gado for a loss on third-and-1 and Green Bay settled for a Ryan Longwell field goal that cut the lead to 6-3.
Batch was intercepted by Robert Thomas on the Steelers' next possession and Thomas returned the ball to the Pittsburgh 36. Then, Polamalu was penalized 33 yards for pass interference on Donald Driver, placing the ball at the 3.
A run by Gado gained one yard, but after back-to-back false starts -- including one by current Steelers offensive line coach Adrian Klemm -- the Packers faced third-and-goal from the 12. That's when disaster struck for Green Bay.
Bryant McFadden sacked Favre on a corner blitz and Polamalu scooped up the loose ball and returned it 77 yards for a touchdown and a 13-3 lead for the Steelers.
Favre led the Packers on a touchdown drive to open the second half, with Gado getting into the end zone from the 1 to make it 13-10, but that's where the score would stay until Tyrone Carter intercepted a Favre pass at the Green Bay 23, returning it three yards to set the Steelers up in great scoring position.
Batch completed a 9-yard pass to Dan Kreider, and Duce Staley took the ball the final 11 yards on three carries, including a 3-yard touchdown run that gave the Steelers a 20-10 lead with 6:16 remaining in the game.
The Packers drove to the Pittsburgh 30, but Favre threw incomplete on 4th-and-4 to Bubba Franks to turn the ball over on downs. But the Packers forced the Steelers to punt on their next possession and Antonio Chapman returned the kick 36 yards back to the Pittsburgh 35.
The Steelers again turned the Packers over on downs, and Batch took three knees after a 17-yard run by Staley iced the game to secure the win.
Staley had 76 yards on 15 carries, while Randle El finished with 41 yards rushing for the Steelers, who had just 213 yards of offense.
Larry Foote had 11 tackles, while Polamalu had six and two fumble recoveries for the Steelers as they limited the Packers to 268 yards.
Favre was 20-of-35 passing, but for just 214 yards. Gado gained 62 rushing yards, but it took him 26 carries to get there.
GETTY
Packers wide receiver Davante Adams runs after the catch against the 49ers in their game in Santa Clara, Calif., last week.
THE MAIN MATCHUP
Rodgers zeros in on wide receiver Davante Adams like he's his only eligible receiver at times. Oh, don't misunderstand, Rodgers will go elsewhere, but when the Packers need a play, the ball is going to Adams.
Through three games, he has been targeted 34 times. The next closest receiver after that is Valdes-Scantling with 16. The difference is that Adams has caught 25 of the passes thrown his way, while Valdez-Scantling has caught just six passes and is out with a hamstring injury for this game.
"A guy like him coupled with a quarterback relationship like that, you're working your tail off just to kind of minimize it in those moments," Tomlin said of Adams. "To think that you're going to deny him is probably not realistic. We’ve got to minimize his impact on the game. I often use that term when I'm talking about quarterback-receiver relationships. It's not eliminating, it’s minimizing. And particularly in those weighty moments, it’s important."
Adams has caught at least five passes in his past 15 games, the longest such streak in the NFL. He's on pace for 193 targets, 142 catches and 1,751 yards. Last week in a win over the 49ers, he ran 31 pass routes and was targeted on 17 of them.
The Steelers on occasion had Haden travel with the other team's top receiving threat but haven't done that the past couple of years. And they're not going to do it this time around, either.
"He’s not just a, ‘Hey, Joe, go over there and good luck,’” Haden said. “Coach (Tomlin) said that in a meeting. Everybody has to know where he’s at. Playing with Aaron Rodgers this long, they have great chemistry together.”
The Steelers have had similar tasks already this season. In Week 1, they held 2020 NFL receptions leader Stephon Diggs of the Bills to nine receptions for 69 yards, while Raiders' tight end Darren Waller, who was coming off a game where he was targeted 19 times the week before against the Ravens, had just five catches for 65 yards.
But Rodgers' ability to fit passes into small windows makes stopping Adams nearly impossible. In his past 17 games, he has 141 receptions for 1,624 yards and 19 touchdowns.
The Steelers have used safety Minkah Fitzpatrick as a chess piece when it comes to stopping the opposing team's top target, but they're not tipping their hand.
"Sometimes we use the safeties to double, sometimes we use inside linebackers to double," defensive coordinator Keith Butler said. "There are a lot of different things we do or try to do, but we don’t want to tell them what we’re doing, so I’m not going to be real elaborate about how we try to stop people because I want them to find out on Sunday how we’re trying to stop them."
THE TEN DATA POINTS
• Packers opponents are converting 53 percent of their third downs. The Steelers are converting 44.2 percent of their third downs.
• The Steelers are allowing opponents to score touchdowns on just 44.4 percent of their red zone trips, which is tied for sixth in the NFL.
• The Packers have yet to hold a team out of the end zone this season on trips inside the 20.
• Steelers opponents have blitzed just 12.9 percent of the time. That is the lowest percentage in the league. The Packers have blitzed 32 times this season, which is tied for 11th most in the NFL.
• Harris became just the 14th player in NFL history last week to have 14 rushing attempts and 14 receptions in the same game. He had 142 total yards, a career-high.
• Tight ends have caught 21 passes for 197 yards and three touchdowns against Green Bay this season.
• Harris' 19 targets last week were the second-most in the NFL since 1950. Only Alvin Kamara, who had 20 in a 2018 game, has had more.
• The Steelers have blitzed opposing quarterbacks just 14 times this season, third-fewest in the NFL.
• Bad news for Steelers-Packers fans who want to see a free-flowing game. Referee Scott Novak's crew is working the game. They've called 60 penalties in their three games this season, an average of 20 per game.
• Heyward is tied for the fourth-most pass breakups in the NFL with three. Every player tied or ahead of him is a defensive back.
THE FANTASY CORNER
Another good week last week, as I finished in the money in the contest I entered my lineup in with 157.24 points. Cooper Kupp and D.K. Metcalf were major hits. And even my dart on Pat Freiermuth paid off for the $3,000 price, scoring 11.2 points. As I did last year, I'm going to build a fantasy lineup using Draft Kings and a $50,000 salary cap.
Quarterback: Tom Brady, Bucs ($7,200) -- Do you think Brady would like to throw four or five touchdown passes against his old team? Yeah, me too. Do you think he's capable? Yeah, me too.
Running back: Derrick Henry, Titans ($8,800), D'Andre Swift, Lions ($6,200) -- With their receivers all banged up, the Titans should give the ball to Henry 30 times against the Jets. Swift has been a PPR monster thus far this season.
Wide receiver: Antonio Brown, Bucs ($5,000), Robert Woods, Rams ($5,300), Mike Evans, Bucs ($6,500) -- I'm using a pair of Tampa Bay receivers hoping to have the right two. I would have bet on Rob Gronkowski catching three touchdown passes this week, but he's doubtful to play with a rib injury. So we'll go with Evans, instead. Robert Woods has been a fantasy disappointment, but I want a piece of what should be a shootout in Arizona.
Tight end: Pat Freiermuth, Steelers ($3,100) -- I'm going back to the well for the second week in a row with Freiermuth. The Packers have been bad against opposing tight ends this season and Freiermuth is still undervalued. And with Claypool ailing, Freiermuth could help pick up the slack.
Flex: Tony Pollard, Cowboys ($5,700) -- The Dallas backfield is turning into a nice duo where both Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott are solid fantasy options.
Defense: Lions ($2,200) -- The Lions defense? Yep. Did you see what the Bears did last week against the Browns? They averaged less than a yard per play.