Leading up to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers Thursday night, there was a lot of concern about Pittsburgh’s ability to tackle cleanly.

After all, the Steelers chose not to do live tackling in Mike McCarthy’s first training camp. That led to plenty of conversations about why the Steelers weren’t tackling in training camp and how it could affect them.

Through one preseason game, choosing not to live tackle hasn’t affected them. The Steelers missed just four tackles Thursday night in the preseason opener against the Packers, and they forced several misses from the Packers, too.

Let’s take a look at this week’s missed tackles report.

TOTAL MISSED TACKLES VS. PACKERS — 4

Sebastian Castro –  2
Rayshawn Jenkins – 1 
Kevin Jobity Jr. – 1 

With a lot of the big names sitting out of game action Thursday night, it was good to see backups and younger pieces getting significant playing time in the preseason opener.

Credit to the Steelers for tackling really well in their first preseason action. It wasn’t perfect, though.

Safety Sebastian Castro, who is trying to make the 53-man roster as a backup, missed two tackles against the Packers in 37 defensive snaps. He missed one tackle against the run as a box defender. The other came in space after a completion.

On the miss against the run, Castro attacked downhill to try and stop Packers running back Damien Martinez behind the line of scrimmage. Castro does a good job of working underneath the initial block, but he falls in the hole and lunges at Martinez, whiffing in the process.

Fortunately, defensive tackle Anthony Goodlow was there to clean things up and hold Martinez to a gain of just one yard.

On this play, Castro does a nice job in coverage, coming downhill from his safety position to close on a short throw in the flat to tight end Messiah Swinson. He reads it the entire time and closes quickly.

But Castro ducks his head as he closes in. He takes a bad angle, not using the sideline as an extra defender to his advantage, which allows the tight end to slip around the tackle attempt and pick up a few extra yards.

He wasn’t the only safety to miss a tackle. Veteran Rayshawn Jenkins, signed early in training camp, missed a tackle, too.

Jenkins’ miss came in the box against the run.

Jenkins works through traffic to get to Packers running back MarShawn Lloyd, but he doesn’t finish the play.

He goes to the ground and tries to roll up Lloyd’s legs, but the running back is too strong and spins out of the tackle attempt. He doesn’t end up going anywhere, but Jenkins missed the tackle nonetheless.

While the defense missed just four tackles on the night, the offense and special teams had a strong night, forcing 10 missed tackles. That means they won the all-important missed tackles battle by a margin of +6.

TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES VS. PACKERS — 10

Kaden Wetjen – 5 (four on special teams)
Germie Bernard – 3
Max Hurleman – 1 
Mason Rudolph – 1 

It was a nice night for rookies Kaden Wetjen and Germie Bernard, who combined for eight of the 10 forced missed tackles against the Packers.

Wetjen did a lot of damage on special teams, forcing four misses. He also forced a missed tackle on his 74-yard catch-and-run.

It’s a good throw from Drew Allar, allowing Wetjen to catch it in stride. That allows him to turn his eyes upfield and set the safety up to miss in space.

You’d like to see him finish this play in the end zone, but it’s hard to find any real negatives here. He’s dynamic with the football in his hands and he showed it here.

Bernard had a nice night after the catch, too, showing off his abilities with the football in his hands. He was good at forcing defenders to miss in college, and that immediately translated to the NFL.

Bernard makes the play against two starters in the Packers’ secondary.  Although he’s behind Roman Wilson in the WR3 competition, Bernard will see the field a lot this season.

When he does, chances are he’s going to be a problem for defenders to try and tackle in the open field.