GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -If future Green Bay Packers opponents try to use the Pittsburgh Steelers’ pass-first game plan as a blueprint to beat their defense, Packers coaches and players insist they’ll be better prepared.
Green Bay’s defense allowed Ben Roethlisberger to throw for a stunning 503 yards in Sunday’s 37-36 loss, giving up the lead on a touchdown pass in the final seconds of the game. The ugly performance stirred up new doubts about a defense that had been playing like one of the league’s best during a recent five-game winning streak.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy said he doesn’t plan to tinker with the team’s personnel – “Tryouts are over,” he said – but says his team will be better prepared if other teams try to copy the Steelers’ strategy of spreading out the secondary with multiple-receiver formations.
sues that we encountered. We didn’t handle it very well yesterday.”
McCarthy also expressed confidence in struggling kicker Mason Crosby, who has missed a kick of 43 yards or less in each of the past four games.
“Mason Crosby is our kicker,” McCarthy said. “He will be our kicker moving forward. Zero interest in bringing in a kicker. I have all the confidence that Mason will fix the issue that he’s had with missing the one kick a game.”
And McCarthy confirmed that defensive lineman Johnny Jolly was traveling to Houston, where he is expected to appear in court Tuesday. Last week, Jolly was indicted for a second time by a Texas grand jury on a felony drug charge that he illegally possessed at least 200 grams of codeine.
Jolly wouldn’t comment directly on the case last week, saying only that he hopes it won’t become a distraction for the team.
But the biggest concern for the Packers right now is their pass defense.
The Steelers used multi-receiver sets for much of the game, sending as many as four receivers and tight end Heath Miller out on routes. And despite taking five sacks, Roethlisberger frequently scrambled out of trouble.
It all added up to plenty of big plays against a thin Packers secondary. And Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers knows other teams might try to do the same thing.
k at it,” Capers said. “Once you’ve put things on film, you just have to count on, you’re going to see them from other people.”
Green Bay is without three cornerbacks because of season-ending knee injuries: Starter Al Harris and a pair of potential nickel cornerbacks, Will Blackmon and Pat Lee. Harris was hurt in Green Bay’s Nov. 22 victory over San Francisco, but the Packers seemed to be holding up just fine without the two-time Pro Bowler – until Sunday, that is.
Roethlisberger took advantage of Jarrett Bush early, hitting Mike Wallace for a 60-yard touchdown on their first offensive play from scrimmage and later beating Bush for a 54-yard pass to Hines Ward to set up a go-ahead field goal midway through the fourth quarter.
But Aaron Rodgers drove the Packers for a touchdown and two-point conversion to retake the lead, putting the defense back on the field with just over two minutes left in the game.
Two big plays were taken off the board because of penalties: Bush’s interception because of an illegal contact penalty on linebacker Brandon Chillar, and Cullen Jenkins’ sack because of a defensive holding call on cornerback Josh Bell.
Then Roethlisberger found Wallace in the end zone with time expiring, getting the best of Bell to tie the game, then take the victory on the extra point.
strong defense.
“Yeah, we still have confidence,” Williams said. “Evidently, we didn’t play to our standards yesterday. But we’ll get it together.”
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