The Green Bay Packers lost their preseason opener to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night, and when Jordan Love was asked about the takeaways, his answer said plenty about how the rest of it went. The best thing he saw was the kicker.
Green Bay dropped the game 28-9 at Acrisure Stadium, and in a sloppy night for both sides, the brightest spot wore No. 28 and kicked field goals. Love didn’t have much else to point to.
“That was definitely the highlight of the night,” Love said of Trey Smack, per The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman.
Jordan Love Calls Trey Smack the Highlight of Packers’ Preseason Opener
Smack earned the praise. The rookie was officially 3-for-3 on field goals, connecting from 37, 38 and 57 yards, the last of those coming to close the first half. He also drilled a 58-yarder on Green Bay’s opening drive that was wiped off the board by a Pittsburgh roughing-the-snapper penalty.
His performance carried extra weight given the Packers’ recent history at the position.
Green Bay’s kicking has been a sore spot for years, and it boiled over when Brandon McManus missed key kicks in a playoff game last season, the latest gut-punch in a recurring nightmare that has cost the team in January. The Packers moved on from McManus this offseason rather than run it back.
Enter Smack, whom the Packers selected with the final pick of the sixth round, their first drafted kicker since they took Mason Crosby in 2007. He didn’t arrive as a sure thing, either. Smack struggled through the first few practices of training camp before turning a corner, highlighted by a 6-of-7 showing on Family Night.
Smack even leaned on a familiar face for help, chatting with veteran Steelers kicker Chris Boswell before the game, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Christopher Kuhagen.
Thursday looked like a next step in the right direction for Smack. His teammates and coaches erupted after the 57-yarder to close the half. Having Love’s postgame shoutout underscored how much a reliable leg would mean to a contender that has been burned by the position.
Packers Fall to Steelers 28-9 in Sloppy Preseason Opener
The rest of the night was uneven for Green Bay. Love and the first-team offense played a single series, moving 46 yards before settling for a Smack field goal, then handing the night over to the backups.
Third-string quarterback Kyle McCord was the other bright spot, running a crisp two-minute drill to set up Smack’s long make before halftime and finishing 12-of-16 for 102 yards.
Pittsburgh, which sat quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Mike McCarthy’s head-coaching debut, got strong work from its own backups. Mason Rudolph, Will Howard and Drew Allar combined to go 27-of-33 for 313 yards and two touchdowns, with Allar adding a 3-yard rushing score and a 74-yard catch-and-run to break the game open. The Packers actually led 9-7 into the third quarter before the Steelers pulled away once Green Bay’s deep reserves took the field in the fourth.
None of it counts, of course. But for a Packers team that has watched kicks sail wide at the worst possible times, the most encouraging development of the night was the one Love singled out. Green Bay may have finally found a kicker worth trusting.
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