Sunday Night – Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers

Sunday Night Football features a terrific matchup across the conferences as the Pack heads south to Pittsburgh. It’s not too often we get to see future Hall of Fame candidates Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger go head to head on the same field. In fact, it’s only happened 3 times since each took over as the starter for their respective teams and one of those games was a Super Bowl. So, drink this one in.

Keys to the Game

Packers

Going on the road to tackle one of the league’s best offenses is never easy. Green Bay could certainly hang with Pittsburgh if this game turns into a shootout, but I don’t think it’s the easiest way for them to earn a W at Heinz Field. The Pack is going to want to play a little ball control offense in order to keep the Killer B’s off the field. That will also keep their own defense fresh and ready to put up a stiffer fight against the offensive juggernaut. Ty Montgomery is going to need to bring his A game in order to slow the game down and turn the tide in Green Bay’s favor.

Steelers

I don’t think there’s any one thing that Pittsburgh needs to do to ensure a victory. You can’t shut Aaron Rodgers down, so we’re not even going to go there. What the Steelers must do is the little things. They need to make smart plays, they need to protect the football, they need to make their open field tackles and they need to limit big plays. Limiting Rodgers’ opportunities to beat you is the most important thing you can do. If Pittsburgh can do that en route to dropping 30+ points on Green Bay’s soft secondary, this one will go in the favor of the Steel City.