Steelers Now
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers gave a blunt assessment on his performance in the team’s 21-14 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday.
“[The defense] came out and played incredible… I didn’t have a good game,” Rodgers said in his postgame interview with Evan Washburn of CBS.
“I mean, the defense won the game. This was a classic Blitzburgh performance. Hats off to those guys. Offense, we got to get into the film room and get better because we can’t have our defense save if for us like that every week.”
"[The defense] came out and played incredible… I didn't have a good game." – Aaron Rodgers sums up the Steelers performance to @EvanWashburn pic.twitter.com/QYGN6VgJWf
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 21, 2025
Rodgers completed 16 of 23 passes (69.5%) for 139 yards with two touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 96.1.
The offense lacked rhythm for most of the game. The Patriots out-gained the Steelers 349 yards to 101 over the final three quarters.
“We just couldn’t get into a rhythm at all,” Rodgers told reporters after the game. “Then we came out the second half and I made a terrible throw. Defense just kind of stood on their head all day. I thought the first two drives were good rhythm-wise, and we couldn’t find that rhythm in the second half.
“I just didn’t play great. We kind of lost our rhythm, too many penalties and negative yardage plays, and didn’t make them pay when we had opportunities,” Rodgers said.
The Steelers forced five turnovers in Sunday’s win over the Patriots, four of those turnovers came on fumbles.
Steelers All-Pro defensive tackle Cam Heyward revealed to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that the Steelers were aware of the Patriots’ poor ball security.
“We knew there were a lot of career fumbles on the other side,” Heyward said, via Florio.
Florio asked Heyward specifically about running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who fumbled twice. Heyward laughed and said, ‘Oh, we were aware every time he was in the game.”
Heyward was not picking on just Stevenson, however.
“Generally, this is a group that turns over the ball,” he said.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said it’s a part of their defensive culture to ball search.
“No question. We spend a lot of time on our ball search culture,” Tomlin said when asked if the Steelers worked on punching the ball out during practice this week. “But it’s just words. It’s an agenda. The efforts of the guys make it real. Not only on Sunday but during the course of the week. It just felt like we were heading toward a good game in that area just by the way we worked this week in that area.”
Alan Saunders and Brendan Howe provided reporting from Foxborough, Mass.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Aaron Rodgers Vows to Play Better: ‘I Didn’t Have a Good Game’
