Packers: Positives, negatives from preseason win against Steelers

Another preseason game, another victory for the 2018 version of the Green Bay Packers. There were many positives to come out of the game, but also a few negatives.

There isn’t much knowledge you can gain from knowing the final score of a preseason game. It’s more a matter of how certain players played as opposed to who won or lost.

With a score of 51-34 you can assume there were more positives than negatives, but there were a few things that stood out after game number two of preseason.

After a quick review of the game, we can see what positives and negatives came out of the Packers’ victory.

Bad news first.

Negatives

Run D gets gashed

It had to be at least slightly concerning that second-year back James Conner ran straight through the teeth of the defense on the Steelers’ third drive of the game. Most of the preferred starters were still in the game at that point, and Conner ran right through them. Missed tackles and huge holes in the line allowed the Steelers to score on just three plays for 73 yards, capped by a 26-yard touchdown run.

The drive was aided by a 15-yard face mask penalty, but the concerning part is that outside of Mike Daniels and Nick Perry, the starting front seven was on the field for that drive. Defenses are not going to show a whole lot during the preseason, especially when a new coordinator takes over. They don’t want to put too many of their plans on tape, but there was nothing fancy about that drive.

The Steelers and Conner just bullied the defense.