Windy City Gridiron
The time has come. The Bears have one last shot. The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming to town, and so is Aaron Rodgers. Will he play? He was limited in Thursday’s practice, and there’s certainly a chance that he could play this Sunday against the Bears. Will Aaron Rodgers play, and can the Bears beat him in what is almost certainly the last time he will face the Bears?
To get you set for this Sunday’s matchup, we sat down with Ryland Bickley from Behind the Steel Curtain (SB Nation’s Pittsburgh Steelers site) to get the Pittsburgh perspective on this game.
1. Let’s start with Aaron Rodgers. I know he’s probably going to be a game-time decision this week. But I’m curious, do Steelers fans understand what this game means for Bears fans? You guys have been brought into a rivalry between one player and an entire city. I’m curious if fans have been outside this noise to understand what the situation is between Rodgers vs Chicago. Also, I know Pittsburgh has had a lot more success than Chicago over the last 15 years or so, but is there a player that Pittsburgh fans dislike like Chicago fans and Rodgers?
While I highly doubt it’s to the level of Bears and Packers fans, I’d say the Steeler fanbase is well aware of Rodgers’ 24-5 career record against Chicago — and, of course, the infamous “I still own you” touchdown celebration. Those points have been brought up numerous times at Behind the Steel Curtain this week as our commenters debate whether Rodgers or backup Mason Rudolph should start on Sunday.
I’ll add a similar statistic that has also been thrown around a lot this week: The Steelers are 1-12 all-time playing in Chicago. So if Rodgers does go on Sunday, it’ll be an unstoppable force vs. immovable object situation when it comes to historical trends.
As for the last part of your question, the Steelers’ rivalry games over the years have yielded plenty of hated figures on other teams. I’m on the younger side as a Steelers writer, but plenty still come to mind from my own memory: Tom Brady seeming to be the lone force preventing the “Killer B’s” era Steelers from making a Super Bowl, Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict delivering a brutal hit on Antonio Brown that was later repaid by JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Myles Garrett and the Mason Rudolph helmet situation (the T.J. Watt/Garrett debate has only made things worse).
And as of this week, I’d say Ja’Marr Chase is starting to work his way onto the list as well. He and the Steeler secondary have gone back and forth over the last few seasons, and Week 11’s spitting incident only raised the stakes.
2. How has Aaron Rodgers done this year? It seems like he’s playing better than he did with the Jets, but at his age, he certainly seems to be far more limited than he was a couple of years ago.
Overall, he’s definitely looked...
