PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – YAC, it’s the stat that will make you throw up if you are a defense. It’s the stat that jumps out as the Packers beat the Steelers Sunday night 35-25 Sunday night. Those numbers and some other notes from a now 4-3 team.
YAC is an acronym for Yards After Catch and according to NFL stats, the Steelers gave up 245 yards of it on Sunday night. It’s an astonishing number, more so when it’s a tight end that had over half of it. Green Bay’s Tucker Kraft finished with seven receptions for 143 yards, 128 of which were yards after catch.
“I just think we got to be better,” said linebacker Patrick Queen. “Honestly, I don’t think it’s any certain thing. I think it’s just being better. I think understanding who he is and knowing what he can do. I think we have to hone in on that. It’s nothing more than knowing situations, knowing personnel, knowing who is in the game, what they do, how they do it. You know, it’s that simple.”
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Outcheered at home
Steelers fans pass down stories of going to visiting stadiums and taking over. So often Steelers players and coaches discussed how black and gold fans going to away games are sometimes are louder than the home fans. Sunday night, something almost unthinkable happened at Acrisure Stadium, it was the green and gold fans making a lot of noise.
Cheers of ‘Go Pack Go’ roared through the Steelers home and impacted the Steelers offense.
“Packers fans travel really well,” said quarterback Aaron Rodgers. “For the first time in a while I’ve used silent count for a home game. That’s a credit to those Packers fans.”
Costly
During the game the Steelers lost a couple of key veteran starters. One is the glue player of their secondary, safety DeShon Elliott. The 28-year-old returned from injury to help spark the win against the Vikings and then had 12 tackles against Cleveland, nine against the Bengals and five in just over a half against the Packers. He left with a knee injury early in the second half.
“It was huge,” said Steelers safety Juan Thornhill, “because he did a lot for us. Once he went down, we had a lot of guys that were trying to play positions where they haven’t had a lot of reps in practice because DeShon is always out there, he’s working. Then he goes down, it’s like ‘oh, what are we going to do now’?”
Starting guard Isaac Seumalo left in the second half with a pec injury. He will turn 32 on Wednesday and has started all seven games this year, missing four due to injury in 2024 and played all 17 in 2023 in his first year with the Steelers after seven seasons in Philadelphia. He was having a good year according to Pro Football Focus who ranked him as the 16th best guard in football.
Depth defensive lineman Daniel Ekuale suffered a knee injury in the first half and did not return. Head coach Mike Tomlin called it significant.
Offensive issues
While the offense scored 25 points, Mike Tomlin said an impact in the game was settling for four field goals on drives and not finishing in the first half. In the second half, it just fell apart.
“I just feel like we had some discipline issues and some penalties that were unnecessary, and then we aren’t going to win a lot of games when we’re so bad on third down (1-10 on third down Sunday),” Rodgers said. “Boswell bailed us out on four incredible kicks, but when you’re playing good teams, you need to score touchdowns, and we stalled out in the red zone.”
Up Next
The best team in the AFC comes to Acrisure Stadium on Sunday at 1p, the 6-1 Indianapolis Colts led by NFL leading rusher Jonathan Taylor.