The Pittsburgh Steelers walked into Baltimore looking like a team in trouble and walked out like themselves again. After losing five of seven and coughing up their AFC North cushion, they went on the road as underdogs and punched the Ravens in the mouth, jumping out to a two-score lead and grinding out a 27-22 win to reclaim first place at 7-6.
Mike Tomlin said the difference was mindset, insisting his team woke up in “an aggressive posture” and finally played with the edge and finish that had been missing in recent weeks.
Then he got real about why you trade for a 42-year-old quarterback in the first place. “You go into business with Aaron Rodgers for days like Sunday,” Tomlin said, per NBC Sports.
He admitted the week was full of noise about his job security and Rodgers’ fractured left wrist, but said that is exactly the kind of “thick” moment where you want a been-there, done-that guy under center.
Rodgers rewarded that faith, breaking his long drought without a true deep completion by dropping a 52-yard bomb to DK Metcalf on the first offensive snap, then adding chunk gains to Calvin Austin and a catch-and-run score from Jaylen Warren on his way to a season-high 284 yards on 23-of-34 passing.
Tomlin called that the benefit of having “a guy like AR” when everything is on the line. The win pushed Pittsburgh back in front of Baltimore in the division race and, at least for a week, quieted the talk about whether Rodgers could still carry an offense through December.
Rodgers, for his part, spread the credit around. He said this was their “most crisp” week of preparation all year and pointed to the impact of veterans Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Adam Thielen in practice, noting their professionalism raised the standard for everyone.
With four games left and the division still in flux, Tomlin’s truth bomb about Rodgers is really a challenge: if you go into business with him for days like this, you had better keep giving him chances to close the deal.
