Aaron Rodgers Makes Harsh Assessment About Steelers Offense Despite Solid Win Over Colts

The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Indianapolis Colts 27-20 at the Acrisure Stadium in Week 9 and rose to 5-3 and remain atop the AFC North.


Aaron Rodgers Makes Harsh Assessment About Steelers Offense Despite Solid Win Over Colts

Aaron Rodgers (Image via People)

The Pittsburgh Steelers are atop the AFC North with five wins, including Sunday’s triumph over the conference leaders, Indianapolis Colts. The Steelers, led by a resurgent Aaron Rodgers, are one of the safest teams in the league currently, with the rest of the three teams in the division at least three wins from a winning record.

However, the Baltimore Ravens are on the up and rise. The win over the Colts wasn’t their best, and the 41-year-old veteran highlighted it. Rodgers is in the swansong of his career, and with an experience spanning almost two decades, he knows what it takes to win and how easily everything falls apart.

It reflected in his post-game assessment of their offense against the Colts on Sunday (November 2). It has been a pattern this year, holding the players accountable, though it has often leaned towards being rude sometimes.

We started out pretty slow. It was pretty ugly on offense for the decent part of the day. We had a lot of chances, but our defense played incredible after getting blasted for the last week. Really proud of them.

The veteran quarterback made it a point to acknowledge that the fault belonged to the execution and that it hadn’t nothing to do with the offensive staff.

I loved the play-calling, but I thought the execution was pretty bad. We gotta look in the mirror and play better on offense because that’s not good enough. Any phase. Me, the run game, catching the football. Defense played incredible. Game like that, we need to put 35, 42 on the board and close the game out.

Nonetheless, he admitted that it is better to have a win when there’s a lot to improve and to study from the film tapes.

The numbers from the game reflected what the quarterback said in his initial assessment. The Steelers managed only 3.7 yards per play, with an average of 4.9 yards per pass and a mere 38 yards on the ground. Rodgers completed 25 of 35 passes with one touchdown and averaged just 5.8 yards per attempt. He also took three sacks in the win.

Aaron Rodgers gave credit where it was due

The Pittsburgh Steelers defense was one of the weakest bottom teams in the league heading into the Week 9 encounter against the Indianapolis Colts. And they were facing the team with most yards and points in the season.

TJ Watt
TJ Watt (#90) against the Indianapolis Colts (Image via Steelers.com)

However, the unit on Sunday looked stellar. They forced six turnovers and recorded five sacks. And Rodgers rightfully raved about it in the post-game interviews. He highlighted a specific play by TJ Watt in the second quarter as the ‘turning point of the game‘. On the very next drive after the Steelers offense missed a first down, Watt had a sack-fumble and shifted the momentum entirely.

Rodgers reflected that the Colts were leading 7-0, and the Steelers were able to match the score and take off from there. The Steelers capitalized on a second-quarter interception, converting it into a touchdown to seize the lead. The team added 24 points off turnovers, which was a huge reason why the Steelers won despite limited offensive yardage.

The quarterback praised the defense against the pass rush and named the individual players in the defensive unit.

Gotta give Kyle [Dugger] a lot of credit for coming in and playing the way he did. It felt like Alex [Highsmith] and T.J. [Watt] and Nick [Herbig] were super active. Our inside guys were good. It seemed like PQ had a good game. Payton [Wilson] had a big pick. Everybody on defense played great.

Aaron Rodgers said

The Steelers are now 5-3 and leading the AFC North, and they go up against AFC West stalwarts, the Los Angeles Chargers.

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