Steelers quarterback Drew Allar throws a touchdown pass to Kaden Wetjen against the Packers in the fourth quarter Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, at Acrisure Stadium. (Chaz Palla | TribLive)
It’s not often that people can walk away from an NFL preseason game and say that they actually got their money’s worth.
Even if they got the tickets for free.
But in the case of Thursday’s 28-9 win over the Green Bay Packers, most Pittsburgh Steelers fans went to Acrisure Stadium hoping to see three things:
1. Good play from the two young backup quarterbacks
2. Some semblance of improved offense under new coach Mike McCarthy
3. A glimmer of potential from the rookies
Check, check, and check.
We don’t always do “Feats of Strength” and “Airing of Grievances” for the preseason games. But, in this case, it feels appropriate because there were plenty of both.
Feats of strength
School is out: We’re only through the first trimester of Mike McCarthy’s preseason QB school, but all three quarterbacks showed a lot more good than bad.
Mason Rudolph, Will Howard and Penn State rookie Drew Allar put up a collective stat line of 27 for 33 for 332 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions for an overall passer rating of 128.8. All three of the quarterbacks had an individual passer rating over 100.
“It’s very reflective of coach McCarthy, his play-calling, his system and how it’s tailored to be friendly to the quarterback,” Howard said. “It shows how QB-friendly this system can be. And when we execute the way that we want to, like the way we did tonight, we can be a really fun offense.”
Rudolph had a drive die at the one-inch line on a stretch from Pat Freiermuth after narrowly missing a touchdown connection with Germie Bernard in the back of the end zone. But he was still 10 for 11 for 93 yards. Rudolph took two sacks, trying to hold the ball longer than he would in a regular-season game to let a few plays develop instead of checking down, scrambling or throwing the ball away.
Howard was 7 for 9 for 86 yards and a touchdown throw to Robert Tonyan that got reversed and called down on the 1-yard line. Lew Nichols polished it off with a short scoring run.
Allar came in during the third quarter and immediately hooked up with Iowa rookie Kaden Wetjen for a long catch-and-run of 74 yards.
Watch Kaden Wetjen break loose for 75 yards! @Steelers
GBvsPIT on @nflnetwork
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/2a7wATVuib
— NFL (@NFL) August 14, 2026
Allar finished that possession by running into the end zone himself to make the score 14-9, Steelers. His next drive also went for a touchdown when he found Wetjen again from five yards away.
Steelers QB Drew Allar adds a passing TD to his statline:
8/10
143 yards
Passing TD
Rushing TD
GBvsPIT on @nflnetwork
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/M3iOqdIzr4
— NFL (@NFL) August 14, 2026
Allar’s final stat line was 10 for 13 for 153 yards and three combined touchdowns, good for a 154.8 passer rating.
YACkity YAC: Wetjen wasn’t the only rookie wide receiver who chipped in with a long catch and run. Bernard chipped in with a beauty in the first quarter as well.
He broke multiple tackles up the right sideline for a 25-yard pass from Rudolph on a second-down throw.
Big gains from the rook ???? @oti_germie
????: #GBvsPIT on KDKA pic.twitter.com/9ucGqlzIqr
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 13, 2026
“I feel like one of my best character traits as a player is my run after catch. When I get the ball in my hands, I do what I do best,” Bernard said.
Bernard had four catches on five targets for 51 yards, all in the first quarter.
Tight ends too: Wetjen seemed to be the go-to guy for Allar. Bernard served that role for Rudolph.
Veteran tight end Robert Tonyan was Howard’s main target. He caught four passes for 61 yards and momentarily had that touchdown before instant replay got involved.
“I thought I was down, so I was trying to get everyone on the ball,” Tonyan said. “But they (signaled) a touchdown. We slowed up to get the linemen down there, but I didn’t think I was in to start. It was a good drive by Will and the whole night the offense was rolling.”
Indiana rookie Riley Nowakowski is more of a fullback than a tight end, but he caught a 4-yard TD as well from Allar for the Steelers’ final score of the game.
Coulda been better, coulda been worse: In general, the defense did a lot of “bend but don’t break.” Pretty typical for a preseason effort.
Green Bay’s three scoring drives lasted 10 plays, six plays and 14 plays. Yet they all ended in field goals. Asante Samuel Jr., who has been outstanding in training camp, made a particularly good play to break up a third-down pass near the goal line in the first quarter.
The two-minute defense wasn’t great in the first half. Following the Howard TD drive, former Syracuse QB Kyle McCord sliced his way 58 yards in 38 seconds to get three points back as Trey Smack nailed another 58-yard field goal. McCord completed four straight passes in the process.
For the game, though, Green Bay was just 6 of 15 on third downs, converting only two after halftime.
The defense may not have created any turnovers, but it did generate five sacks — two from linebacker Jamin Davis.
Airing of grievances
Those aren’t Terrible Towels: There aren’t as many yellow seats at Acrisure Stadium anymore, but there were plenty of yellow flags on the field.
The Steelers were undisciplined — and at times just flat out dumb — when it came to committing penalties.
They committed seven for 84 yards over the first 20 minutes of the game. McCarthy’s club ended up with 11 penalties for 134 yards on the day.
“The penalties are way too high. Personal fouls — we will go through each and every one of them. It’s important for us to be extremely accountable,” McCarthy said.
Two of the penalties were post-whistle. One came against Ben Skowronek following a Steelers punt. Another personal foul came from Doneiko Slaughter, negating a 4-yard loss on a tackle in the backfield by Robert Spears-Jennings.
Sloppy special teams: Special teams haven’t been getting quite as much attention at training camp as they did under Mike Tomlin and Danny Smith, and it showed. The special teams were certainly an adventure under Danny Crossman.
The game began with a touchback into the end zone from Chris Boswell. The defense got the Packers off the field following a 58-yard field goal from Smack. But Dean Lowry was flagged for roughing long snapper Cal Adomitis (Central Catholic/Pitt).
On the next kickoff from Green Bay following a game-opening field goal drive, Carson Bruener and Cole Holcomb both got a flag on the same play.
Skowronek had the post-punt personal foul. Jaheim Bell had a hold on the second-half kickoff, and Israel Mukuamu picked up a blindside block on a fourth-quarter punt return.
To be fair, the Packers had a few special teams flags as well. You’ll get that in August. But the Steelers certainly need to clean up that unit in a hurry.
Long way to go: The offensive line didn’t exactly bathe itself in glory.
Rudolph was sacked twice. Howard went down once.
The first sack of Rudolph wasn’t entirely on the line. Green Bay’s Zaire Franklin pushed running back Travis Homer all the way back into Rudolph deep in the pocket. Lukas Van Ness ended up dropping Rudolph. The second one occurred when Dylan Cook was beaten on the right edge by Brenton Cox Jr.
Rudolph sacked AGAIN #Steelers pic.twitter.com/OnTTsRKrwH
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) August 13, 2026
Broderick Jones appeared to have a misplay in the second quarter when he blocked down on one of the Packers’ interior players and was beaten off the left edge by Kitan Oladapo.
Howard scrambled to his right but could not escape. He was dropped for a 2-yard loss on third-and-11.
In the run game, there wasn’t much push. The team only averaged 2.6 yards per carry through the first three quarters. Troy Fautanu picked up two penalties on the second drive of the game. One was a hold. The other was a false start.
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